Nostalgia & History > One of SP's Darkest days

Head on collision in El Monte, CA 4-73
Units on one train were SP 9063(SD45) and 5002(GP30)
Other consist had SP 6739 (U25B)leading, 8628(U33C),and 6539(GP35)

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Prime mover and main generator of the 6739 ripped loose from frame by collision.
The unit over-road the 9063 and did a backflip

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At the time, I worked at Hoffman Electronics (about 3 miles west) on the night shift. Since my car at the time had no working radio, and I didn't normally tune in at home, I didn't know until I came to work and other employees (who knew of my interest in railroading) asked "Did you hear about the train wreck?" At first I thought it might be a joke, but after work I went by the scene and saw the terrible truth. I was going through some slides from that year and found photos I took of the aftermath. I believe the collision was blamed on signal maintainers who turned relays upside down and/or bypassed them with jumper wires for a test, and didn't restore them to normal before leaving the site. Not much later, I saw an SP poster showing these two conditions, with a caption reading "This" and a photo of the El Monte wreck, with the caption "Causes THIS". There were at least two deaths reported.

The signal was 'green over green', with very little time to react.

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

P.S.: The relays were turned 'up-side, down' for a test, and not properly restored afterward.

sploopconductor Wrote:
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> The signal was 'green over green', with very
> little time to react.
>
> Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!
>
> Larry
>
> P.S.: The relays were turned 'up-side, down' for a
> test, and not properly restored afterward.


Larry, you are correct, remember Rule M721, I still have one of the poster cards from a signal case. After all these cards were put into the cases, someone in the upper echelon had a brainfart and said hey wait a minute, we're showing vandals how do wreck trains!DUH!!!! It didn't take long to remove them.

I believe that there was a wreck on the Santa Fe near Pico Rivera, CA, also caused by faulty signal wiring. This would have been in the '80s.