Steam & Excursion > UP 4014 Speer, WY to Evans, CO today and somber monument

Today's UP 4014 run from Cheyenne to Denver, here in 3 views, at Speer, WY, Dover, CO, and going over the S. Platte River at Evans, CO.
One more...

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You photo compositions are super awesome.  Thanks for posting your wonderful photos.
ALLEN

While waiting for 4014 to depart Greeley after its 45-minute maintenance stop, I made the short pilgrimage to the site of the worst grade crossing accident in Colorado history. Here is the somber monument appropriately in a light rain dedicated to the 20 young children who perished and 16 who were injured on December 14, 1961 when the Denver bound City of Denver ripped a Greeley school bus in half at full track speed after the bus failed to stop at the tracks. This is on county Road 52, 1 1/2 miles east of Highway 285 east of Evans and Lasalle. The crossing, then at a severe angle, was redesigned, and now the previous Julesburg Main Line in the background is a stub spur and little used. === === = === JLH

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Well-thought-out scenes.
Bob

Excellent.

Out 

Thank you JLH ...
for remembering the incident and posting the
image of the tribute ... certainly a sad day.

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO

 

Very nice photos indeed! And thanks for posting the photo of the memorial.

More information on that accident can be found here:

http://thecrossingstory.com/chapters/1.html

Great  catches. Nice  to see  water in that  river!!

ut-1 Wrote:
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> Very nice photos indeed! And thanks for posting
> the photo of the memorial.
>
> More information on that accident can be found
> here:
>
> http://thecrossingstory.com/chapters/1.html

Thank you for that link. The memorial was the result of the outpouring of support following publication of the thrty-three chapter series on the accident and its after effects on all involved. In addition to remembrance of those who died, those who survived and their families, the type of journalism embodied by the Crossing series is also best remembered as afternoon newspapers are mainly a creature of the past and newspapers in general are just a skeleton of their prior self. It mostly appears that such writing has been surpassed by short bursts of prose on the internet or even shorter bursts on Twitter or Facebook.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/22 15:00 by Cumbresfan.

It is ironic that the engineer on the City of Denver that day died at the controls of the same train several years later when it hit a gasoline tanker at a crossing just outside Denver.

I counted 3 sets of siblings or cousins on the memorial. Tragic. Glad I never came close to that.


Sam

Story ran in the Denver post in 2011

Superb photos SD45X. Thanks

WAF Wrote:
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> Story ran in the Denver post in 2011

Rocky Mountain News, actually.

Your work is always top notch. Thank you for sharing. The photo of the memorial is sobering.
John
 

 after the bus failed
> to stop at the tracks.

Thanks for the remembrance story and image. Nothing more worrisome than a yellow school bus, approaching a Grade X-ing, if you are the Engr of a RR train.

My vision is not what it used to be but looking at the ages of the children I see no age reference for the driver! Does that mean that the driver survived and if so did he or she go to jail?

TomPlatten Wrote:
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> My vision is not what it used to be but looking at
> the ages of the children I see no age reference
> for the driver! Does that mean that the driver
> survived and if so did he or she go to jail?

He was 23 and survived. He was found not guilty and moved to California. He passed away at 69 in Nov 2007. I encourage you to read The Crossing story linked earlier. It’s long but well worth it.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/22 09:27 by Spoony81.

Unfortunately Maryland has two of these school bus/train accident sites;
Rockville, MD.  4/11/1935     14 student fatalities
MT. Lake Park,MD.  9/10/1959  7 student fatalities.
Both buses were hit by B&O passenger trains running at track speed.
There is an excellent book about the 1935 accident entitled "The Rockville Tragedy" available on AMAZON.