Steam & Excursion > Steam Railroading In The Snow Could Be Quite Dangerous!

After a bad snow storm on January 20, 1936, a 3-engine train left Leadville, Colorado bound for Como on the Colorado & Southern.  Acting as Helper engines on the train were C&S #73 and #75.  Coupled to the train was engine #537.   #73 was manned by Charles Thomas as engineer and Doug Schnurbusch as fireman.  #75 had Charles Williamson as her engineer and Clinton Eshe as fireman.  Tom Gibbony was engineer for #537.

At just past 1:30 in the morning on the 21st, the train left the snowshed on Boreas Pass.  It was then that tragedy struck.

Engines  #73 and #75 uncoupled from #537 and her train in the snowshed so they could proceed ahead to buck snow for the the #537 and her train.   Engineer Thomas on #73 whistled for full power as they left the cover of the snowshed and headed into the deep snow drifts ahead.  Hearing the signal, #75 "poured on the coal" which caused #73 to derail just past Windy Point and roll some 300 feet down the hillside.  #75 also derailed but she only traveled about 50 feet before turning over.  While, miraculously, no one was hurt in engine #73 trip down the hillside, engineer Williamson on #75 was killed when his engine rolled over.

Immediately after the wreck, Fireman Schnurbusch on #73 crawled back up the hill through the deep snow and climbed into the cab of  #537 to tell her crew to stop their train before it arrived at the derailment site.  This likely save #537 and her train from wrecking as well.

With #75 close to the tracks at the derailment site, she was retrieved by the C&S shortly after the wreck.  Given the distance that #73 had rolled down the hill during the derailment, she was not salvaged until the following summer as we see in this set of photos.

If anyone had any doubts about how difficult and dangerous steam railroading was in the winter months, all they needed to do was to talk to the crew of these 3 engines.


Martin



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/19 03:05 by LoggerHogger.

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Thanks for sharing these Colorado & Southern Railway images.  Colorado & Southern Railway closed the Boreas Pass line shortly after this tragedy.

Charging into heavy snow drifts always has predictable results ...

Especially predictable with N/G equipment...... like charging into a solid concrete block on the tracks...
You know what’s gonna be the result ...

That’s why they invented rotaries...
It’s a shame that so much damage and needless loss of life occurred...

Oh, well..thanks for the history lesson..

Wes

Posted from iPhone

Before I left Colorado in 1987, I met a guy in Boulder who modeled the C&S narrow gauge in On3.  I was admiring his model of the 73 on his layout in his basement that was just under contraction.  In looking at the model, I admired “the coal” in the tender.  I expected it to be some synthetic coal, but was told that not only was it real crushed coal, but it was actually coal from the real 73”s tender!  He had gone up to the site of this derailment, found where it happened, and brought some real C&S coal back to his home and put it in his model of the 73.  Talk about modeling accuracy!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

Lee,

Now that is some impressive modeling!

Martin