Nostalgia & History > Not a pretty sight ....

1. & 2. BN /SP&S C425 #4250 @ Spokane, WA July 2, 1972

3. SP U33C #8783 @ Alliance, NE Ma. 19, 1982 Al Burns original

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Looks like some of my model work.

Uncle Joe

SP 8783 was the trailing unit on the local running between Guernsey and Alliance which stalled out on Angora Hill. The crew tied the train down and ran light power to Angora to pick up coal locos which were headed to Northport to repower a PRB destined hopper train. The new consist then ran into the stalled local and was buried several cars into the train. There were two fatalities if I remember, one on the local and one on the 'pinger' consist. Many things were not done right, a plethora of errors lead to the collision and fatalities according to the FRA though the BN faulted the crews.

sdp35 Wrote:
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> Looks like some of my model work.
>
> Uncle Joe


'kit-bashed', no doubt

fbe Wrote:
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> SP 8783 was the trailing unit on the local running
> between Guernsey and Alliance which stalled out on
> Angora Hill. The crew tied the train down and ran
> light power to Angora to pick up coal locos which
> were headed to Northport to repower a PRB destined
> hopper train. The new consist then ran into the
> stalled local and was buried several cars into the
> train. There were two fatalities if I remember,
> one on the local and one on the 'pinger' consist.
> Many things were not done right, a plethora of
> errors lead to the collision and fatalities
> according to the FRA though the BN faulted the
> crews.

Did the crew that ran the light power from the local return with the other power off the coal repower consist or was it a different crew running the light power? If it was the same local crew running the light engine consist back with the extra power did they simply forget where they tied down the local? I've heard crews forget where they left their train when they are returning light engine but that always surprises me to hear that can happen. Thanks for sharing the details.

From the NTSB accident report:

"The crewmembers were apparently confused by the instructions and the train order since they coupled the nine locomotive units without connecting the air brakes or power cables between the six locomotive units and the three original units of train No. 178. Because of the manner in which the nine locomotive units were coupled, the engineer on the third locomotive unit only had control of the air brakes, power, and dynamic braking on the two original units of train No. 178, and he had control of only the air brakes on the added locomotive unit, now the lead unit. He had no control of this unit’s power because of the lack of a multiple unit control jumper cable, and he had no control over the six units of Extra 7814 West.

"After the nine locomotive units were coupled at Angora, the engineer of train No, 178 decided to control the locomotive units from the operating compartment of the third unit from the west end. After starting the locomotive units westward toward the stalled train, the added weight of the six uncontrolled locomotive units quickly caused the speed to increase. Because the visibility was restricted, the engineer was probably not able to relate the distance traveled with the increased speed and was not able to prevent the collision after receiving a warning from the front brakeman that the standing train was 10 car lengths away. If all units had been properly coupled for multiple unit control and operated from the leading cab for the direction of travel, sufficient braking probably would have been available to the engineer to have controlled the speed and to have stopped the locomotive short of the train."

is the 4250 at Hillyard or Yardley???

4250 at Hillyard

Milwaukee Wrote:
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>
> Did the crew that ran the light power from the
> local return with the other power off the coal
> repower consist or was it a different crew running
> the light power? If it was the same local crew
> running the light engine consist back with the
> extra power did they simply forget where they tied
> down the local? I've heard crews forget where
> they left their train when they are returning
> light engine but that always surprises me to hear
> that can happen. Thanks for sharing the details.

The local crew was in "control" of the movement. The road power crew was in the 4th locomotive and had control of the airbrakes and dynamic brakes in those locomotives. I believe the intent was the fireman who was at those controls was going to use that consist dynamics to slow the units as they got close to the train. However, he only got a 10 car warning and by then it was way too late. I am not sure about the FRA report mentioning another loco as part of the #178 consist at the time of the collision. The brakeman riding the steps of the SP unit on the fireman's side only had a few months experience. Neither of the survivors in the two consists ever returned to work.

Has the accident report been digitized and posted on the FRA site yet?

I spent most of that night on double track east of Alliance sitting on a hopper train we had dogcaught hours before. That train was dogcaught again where we stopped hours earlier west of Birdsell, NE. We could hear some of the intial reports of what happened before the conversations moved to MRASS radio frequencies.

About the only thing not touched on the SP unit is the number boards! Something about SP GE's that seem to get into the worst wrecks. The El Monte one comes to mind.

I no longer wonder where the "bloody nose" paint scheme description came from.

This was during the era that the BN hired a lot of new crews with little training. Also rules supervision was lax.

WAF Wrote:
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> This was during the era that the BN hired a lot of
> new crews with little training. Also rules
> supervision was lax.

Yes, and lead by some of the most innept managers imaginable in rules troll mode . They got hot on the rear end crew getting out to walk their train whenever it was stopped. I was working as a head end brakeman at the time and there were still hand throw siding switches west of Alliance. So when I got off to line the entering switch I just stayed there to roll my train into the siding and then walk it to the head end. One day, at Berea I heard some severe flat spots on a car. When I lined the switch back and walked up, sure enough they were Federal Defects. We called the DS and out came a car foreman, a train master and WTR the asst Supt. WTR had a screaming fit about the head end crew doing the walking of the train, inspecting the cars while doing the walking and selecting cars to set out. Sure the car foreman came to the same conclusion as I did and mandated a set out. WTR remained livid that I would not inspect any cars when walking the train but backed down when I suggested he file a formal complaint and schedule an investigation. What a pinhead. Too many managers could never understand why there was a rule only that it was there.

Well everyone is talking about the S P 8783 but here is the story on the B N 4250.
The B N train was southbound from Wishram Wash. to Bend Oregon. They had a meet at Paxton,
but the engineer and Head brakeman were both sound a sleep. The conductor in the caboose
tried calling the head end with no answer. So he pulled the air, His part of the train stopped,
but the head 18 cars broke in to from the train and went pass Paxton siding and hit the
North bound train. The engineer had a plug in the straight Air. The conductor was off 15
days, not to sure how long the engineer and head brakeman was off but both got back.
Why the engines when to Spokane and not Vancouver I do not know.
SP&S 300 built 6/65 to BN 4250 wrecked at Paxton 5/14/72 Scrapped by BN 9/14/72.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/10 07:48 by 1959oe.