Nostalgia & History > The Wreck of the Lark

At 1:30 a.m. on September 19, 1941, SP train 76 (the Lark) stopped for an unexpected red signal at Wellsona, near Paso Robles, Calif. A vehicle had stalled on the track. The Rear Brakeman of No. 76 walked back to provide protection and heard the approach of No. 374 (Coast Merchandise East), and lit a fusee. However, the Engineer on No. 374 (SP Eng. 4446) claimed he failed to see the lighted fusee and the freight train slammed into the Lark at 22 miles per hour. The passenger train's obversation car was wrecked and derailed and the freight locomotive also plowed into a Pullman car ahead of the Lark's observation car.

There was an ICC investigation. An ICC investigator stated that the distance between signals was insufficient for a freight train running at maximum authorized speed to stop in time. Also, the ICC found that SP had not equipped many freight cars with newer brakes of the era.

You may find more info here if the link works: http://www.sbhrs.org/organization/block/03fall.pdf. I Googled around to locate it.

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Bad day on the Coast Route.

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And one more view.

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How common was it for GS4's in Daylight colors to run on freights?

There was another one, a side swipe at the helper crossover, towards the west end of Serrano in the diesel years. John Weaver was the fireman, forgot who the hoghead was.

Nudge

How easy is it to disconnect a GS-4 from its tender? My impression is that most steam engines have a heavy drawbar that is not easily disconnected, but I also recall seeing a magazine news photo of the backside of 4449's vestibule cab following an unexpected separation from its tender a decade or two ago.

Also, any idea how 4446 sans tender would have been removed from the wreck site? Tow it with cables to some place where they can repair the front coupler enough to tow it to the shop, or was there a way to affix a standard coupler to the rear?

I believe it was commonplace in this era, when the 4400's were young, for them to work both the varnish and expedited freights.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> How easy is it to disconnect a GS-4 from its
> tender? My impression is that most steam engines
> have a heavy drawbar that is not easily
> disconnected, but I also recall seeing a magazine
> news photo of the backside of 4449's vestibule cab
> following an unexpected separation from its tender
> a decade or two ago.
>
> Also, any idea how 4446 sans tender would have
> been removed from the wreck site? Tow it with
> cables to some place where they can repair the
> front coupler enough to tow it to the shop, or was
> there a way to affix a standard coupler to the
> rear?


Easy to disconnect a tender - Maybe half hour's work. Procedure may vary slightly, but basically

Disconnect steam, air, oil, and electrical connections; unbolt safety chains. Unbolt stoker sleeve, if equipped.
Open hatch if cab floor, remove cotter pin and drop out main pin thru drawbar(s), then separate.

Perhaps use a chain, or a makeshift drawbar to connect the aforementioned pin to the coupler on the non-disabled engine.

Coast and later amtrak Engineer Tommy DeLaRosa commented during one of our runs together on the Starlight that the accident occurred at a little place called "Eaglets" near Wellsona.

Tommy would always point out the location of the accident until I could remember it, and thereafter I would always remind Tommy of our approach to the area whenever we worked together.

Company photos show a young fireman working the wreck train which in recent times has tenatively been identified as Tommy.

The Coast Merchandise freight trains were run on first class schedules and high speed GS locomotives would be used on these trains at times.

Can any of you hazard a guess as to how long it would take a Coast Merchandise to traverse this route today?

4merroad4man Wrote:
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> Coast and later amtrak Engineer Tommy DeLaRosa
> commented during one of our runs together on the
> Starlight that the accident occurred at a little
> place called "Eaglets" near Wellsona.
>
> Tommy would always point out the location of the
> accident until I could remember it, and thereafter
> I would always remind Tommy of our approach to the
> area whenever we worked together.
>
> Company photos show a young fireman working the
> wreck train which in recent times has tenatively
> been identified as Tommy.

Would like to see a copy of that photo--------Tommy would like to see it too. We had dinner with him last month and talked to him just a week or so ago. AT age 85, he is going pretty strong, having beat back colon cancer and generally confounded the UCSF research people and his docs----not that any of us who know him are surprised. :-)
C.

In April, 1981, for a break-in run of 4449, Asst Supt. Bob Melbo cut out the Portland block of the LABRF merchandise hotshot at Eugene and had 4449 pull this 30-car hot block unassisted from Eugene back to Brooklyn. They really made time with this classic train, as Chief Dispatcher Sorensen ordered the crew to "Take the leathers to the Old Girl" in order to keep open the usual meeting point for the Starlight and the Hummer. I always thought that was one of the classiest box car merchandise runs I ever photographed.

So I'm pleased to find out there is historical precedent for this run, that Daylight 4-8-4s indeed powered the SP merchandise hotshots back in the glory days, and Bob actually was re-creating a wonderful piece of history for those of us lucky enough to make the chase that day.

Best regards,

Rob L.

CarolVoss Wrote:
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> Would like to see a copy of that
> photo--------Tommy would like to see it too. We
> had dinner with him last month and talked to him
> just a week or so ago. AT age 85, he is going
> pretty strong, having beat back colon cancer and
> generally confounded the UCSF research people and
> his docs----not that any of us who know him are
> surprised. :-)
> C.

Couldn't have been Tom; wreck was in 1941 and Tom didn't make his fireman's date until 1946.

Ken

spnudge Wrote:
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> There was another one, a side swipe at the helper
> crossover, towards the west end of Serrano in the
> diesel years. John Weaver was the fireman, forgot
> who the hoghead was.
>
> Nudge


Hoghead was Henry VanZandt.

Also, the poor old Lark also got rear ended at Casmalia. The operator didn't clear the board and #75 stopped to get a clearance. 373 was on his block and didn't get stopped.

Ken

spnudge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was another one, a side swipe at the helper
> crossover, towards the west end of Serrano in the
> diesel years. John Weaver was the fireman, forgot
> who the hoghead was.
>
> Nudge

That one involved the same unit that lead the Kruschev Special. The two events were months from each other in 1959.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/14 19:31 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

It's a small and unimportant detail, but all those many rear enders were technically of "the Oakland Lark", the rear two, or three, cars on the train, designated as #77/78. It would have come as no surprise if the SP had adopted the use of buffer cars on the rear of their passenger trains...just kidding about buffers, but I can imagine the alarm at 1 Market St over these occurances...."butts are going to burn over this". AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA