Nostalgia & History > CB&Q derailment 1947 Talmage Iowa

Last week my dad brought over some older family photos for me to look at and scan. In them were these 4 pictures labeled Talmage Wreck Oct. 1949 Talmage is east of Creston on the CB&Q where tracks went over the Grand River and the CGW tracks to St Joseph MO. A little google searching found the following text from the Adams County news paper in 1949.

"Train Wreck Is Delay To Mail 42 Cars Are Derailed in Talmage Mishap [ Local mail delivery and dispatch | schedules have Been upset this week due to the train wreck on the Burlington, near Talmage east of Creston. last Saturday. Forty-two cars of a 56-car freight train were spilled and splintered as they were piled up or rolled down an embankment. Fortunately the engine and about 25 of the cars were not derailed and no lives were lost or crew members injured. The wreck occurred on a bridge over Grand River. Sunday fires broke out in the wreckage, causing further damage. Engineers state that it will require a month of labor to repair the steel supports of the bridge, which were buckled by the Intense heat of the fire which followed the derailment. Crews have been repairing the quarter mile of track which was torn up by the derailment. In material loss, it is one of the worst wrecks suffered by the Burlington lines in many years, on this division. Train schedules here have been badly disrupted by the wreck. Four trains making regular stops here are being routed by way of Des Moines. Eastbound trains Nos. 15 and 7 leave the Burlington line at Albia, go to Des Moines, then back to the Burlington at Talmage or ."Alton Junction". Westbound trains Nos. 6 and 14 follow the same routing, only in reverse. Some of the fast, through trains which do not stop here on regular schedule, are being routed in different routes, some by way of Savannah. Mo. "

Not the best pictures ever seen on Trainorders, but I thought some might find this interesting.

Stephen

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Last photo from up top.

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OUCH!!!

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

I guess the "guard" rails did not work.

Wow, what a mess. I'll be the cars down below didn't get clear out for awhile.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

Damn, I go over that bridge several times a week. I always wondered what would happen if I derailed on that bridge. Now I know.

Lucky the CGW didn't have a train running beneath the bridge when the derailment occurred!

Must have been hauling #%! for that many cars to derail, not a good place either. Wow.
JB