Nostalgia & History > PARTS 4 and 5 SP Derailment, Moorpark, CA 9-19-1978 Scanner Audio

It's Wednesday...sounds like a good day for a double-feature!

In Part 4, discussion continues on the SP Oat Mountain PBX between SP LA 185, SP LA 6 and SP LA 5 about ordering track panels, cranes and a caterpillar (CAT) tractor to begin picking up the derailed locomotive and cars. Also in on the conversation is the Chief Dispatcher and SP LA 3. The Chief had requests from the LA Division Superintendent (Mike Mohan, not to be confused with Santa Barbara Roadmaster Sonny Mahon) regarding an estimate of opening so a decision can be made regarding the next day's #13 (Amtrak). Discussion includes talk of pulling remainder of derailed train back to Santa Susana by a following train (LAOAK).

In Part 5, SP LA 43 joins back in the discussion, still on the Oat Mountain PBX, paging SP LA 100 (you can also hear SP LA 40 trying to make a call at the beginning of Part 5). At 1:20 into Part 5, the recording switches to the SP Santa Ynez PBX, with SP LA 40 (Trainmaster Bill Giles), trying to join in the conversation by asking the telephone operator to "patch" him in to Oat Mountain, which eventually happens. More talk of pulling the train back to Santa Sue. Cause of the derailment is disclosed, at least the opinion of SP PO 57 is made known.

In case you missed them, here are the previous parts to this story:
Part 1 https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4500289
Part 2 https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4503721
Part 3 https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4505688

Happy listening!

espee51
Nick

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Hi Nick,

Thank you so much for sharing and posting these. I really enjoy listening to this stuff, it brings back good old memories of listening to the PBX channels when I was a teenager. I really liked hearing the recording that would play at the end of the transmission...it would be something like "SP Traver kmj### out". Do you have any recordings that include that recorded message on the end of the transmission?

I'm pretty sure that the automated sign-off, with the radio call sign came a few year later than any of my recordings. I don't think I have any recordings of these, sorry.

espee51
Nick

I love these recordings...shows you what really happens in a 'crisis' situation!

Note the internal conflict between departments - MOW, mech and operating. All have the goal to get this fixed, but each also has responsibilities that conflict with the other. I loved the guy (Giles?) that came in on the PBX and started telling people at the scene to start pulling back the cars behind the wreck, without knowing, but assuming, it was ok. When I was with the Santa Fe in Winslow back in the 80's, we had that same thing happen; a trainmaster told me that they were bringing in power to pull back the rear of a train that had derailed at the west end of Winslow (I was the roadmaster on duty that night). Only problem was the derailment was clearly caused by a broken wheel, and we didn't know where the wheel had broken and how much damage had been done to the track before the cars piled up. I convinced him that it was best if before we did that, we'd send a track inspector back to the first crossover west of Winslow and make sure the railroad was intact. Good thing we did - found 7 (IIRC) broken rails between where the wheel had broken and the derailment. But I understood his point - with the train being where it was, the west end was blocked and they needed to unblock it asap. But in the heat of trying to get that done, a small detail sometimes got overlooked and suddenly a small incident could become much bigger.

I was sorry to hear such a clear cause of derailment - sometimes, when it wasn't so obvious, the negotiation of who took the "hit" (MOW, mech or ops) was great theater!

espee51 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm pretty sure that the automated sign-off, with
> the radio call sign came a few year later than any
> of my recordings. I don't think I have any
> recordings of these, sorry.
>
> espee51
> Nick

Late 80s

Great recordings of Sweet old Bill Giles. Bill was a hell ofa trainmaster. One thing about Bill if you did your job he wouldn't bother you.. if you screwed up he would come after you with both feet. When there was a major rules violations Bill would hold the investigation as the hearing officer.

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