Railroaders' Nostalgia > Mad Dog Chronicle #110 Wreck at Walnut Creek

110 Wreck at Walnut Creek

We had any number of derailments while I was assigned to the San Antonio Division. Perhaps the worst of them was the wreck at the Walnut Creek trestle. I have no notes or other documents on this particular incident, I don’t need them to tell this story. The FRA investigated this accident and you can probably find their report if you look at their web site.

The Walnut Creek bottom is located between mp 131 and mp 132. Between Calvert and Bremond. At the time of this incident it was a long, timber pile trestle that spanned a flood plain and Walnut Creek, which was about 15 feet wide.

First there was a violent thunderstorm with a lot of lightning strikes in the area. We later determined that lightning struck the trestle and set the first or second bent from the north end on fire. There had been no trains in the area for several hours and the trestle burned for several hours. The first train to approach the trestle departed from Hearne two hours or more after the thunderstorm had moved off to the east, however it was still raining and visibility was extremely poor. As the train approached from the south the head end crew could first see a glow and as they got closer, a fire but they did not realize that the fire was on the north end of the trestle until the engines were already out on the structure. The engineer quickly decided that if he tried to stop short of the fire the chances were that they might well stop in the middle of the blaze and decided to make a run for it. He conveyed this decision to the rest of the head end crew, a fireman and the head brakeman.

They almost made it. The head end of the lead engine made it across the portion of the structure that was on fire. However, either the rear end of the first locomotive, an SD 45 T2 or the second locomotive, a SD 45, fell through the burning structure. When I arrived on the scene, the lead truck of the lead locomotive, all by itself, was in line with the rails but derailed, on the fill, just to the north of the trestle structure. The lead locomotive was to the east of the fill, rolled on to the engineer’s side, with the engineer still in the cab. He had not survived. Both of the other two members of the head end crew, although severely injured, were out of the cab when the first help arrived on the scene.

And we got there fast…. All of the supervisors in North Texas had company phones in their houses. With in a minute of the train going in to emergency, the conductor, who could not raise the head end on the radio, had called the dispatcher in Houston. I got the very next call so that I probably knew of this incident with in five to ten minutes of its occurrence. I kept everything that I might need for incidents such as these in the trunk of my company car and was probably out of the house in less than five minutes. I could make all of the follow up calls that needed to be made from the radio/telephone, or PBX, in the car while I made an 80 plus mph hour trip to the scene. Only the trainmaster from Hearne was there ahead of me. A hundred miles in less than an hour and a half and only about 25 miles on the Interstate. Not much traffic at two AM.

As I pulled up to the closest road crossing to the north of Walnut Creek, I could see the paramedics loading someone into the ambulance, not a good sign. The Trainmaster was there by the side of the road. Numa Bulot, the Trainmaster gave me a brief overview. We cannot find the engineer; he may still be in the cab of the lead locomotive. Both of the other members of the head end crew survived. One is already on the way to the hospital; we just put the other one in the ambulance.

As this second ambulance departed, Numa and I walked south on the right of way toward the trestle, about a third of a mile to the south. The fire was burning intensely. Numa told me that he had brought some light engines up to the rear of the train. They were preparing to move the rear end of the train back to the south of the portion of the trestle which was on fire. We could save at least ten loaded cars, not yet affected by the fire if we hurried. In short order, the conductor radioed us that he had pulled the pin and closed the angle cock that would make this move possible. At this point, a new voice inserted itself into the radio conversations. This was John Ramsey, the General Manager. He instructed me to make no moves until he arrived. That, of course doomed those cars still out on the trestle and, by the way, added nothing to the investigation of the cause of the accident. This was typical of JDR. He had zero confidence that any supervisor, other than himself could access any situation. Oh, well, I was used to it by this time.

The trestle burned for about twenty four hours. Everything on it fell into the creek bottom and was a total loss. The engineer was, indeed still in the cab. We extracated him about mid morning.

It took about sixty hours for us to restore the main track. This was accomplished by first dragging the debris off to the side, up stream, then building a cement stabilized fill in the place of the trestle. The creek was bridged by three or four 72 inch culverts.

This was one of those massive derailments on the San Antonio Division where the relief kitchen, a forty foot truck trailer was brought to the scene. Corbett, the Superintendent and Mahon, the Division Engineer were there, of course. We took turns going in to Hearne far a few hours rest at a motel. I think that I got about four hours sleep in that sixty hours. I do remember that after we had the main line open as I was driving back to Ennis, that I was so sleepy that I pulled over in a road side rest and took a nap.

There was one other fatality on my end of the San Antonio Division, while I was in North Texas. This was also an engineer who was run down by a light engine consist moving around in the fueling facility at Hearne. These are incidents that you never forget.

mdo
2/27/05

As you know many of us have really missed your writing.

Hope your consulting project went well.

Rick L.

Welcome back, Mike. Good to have ya aboard.

Mike,

I thought you had taken your pension, again. Welcome back. What have you been up to?

Nudge

Nudge,

Up to no good, mostly. Just a little consulting work in and around LA and a couple of photo trips. One to BC and the other to the deserts to photrogaph wild flowers, mostly.

mdo

Thought Nudge gave you 60 days..

Welcome back, MDO... Now then--when can we get back to the WESTERN DIVISION... I think we've learned a lot about chemicals in Galveston already!!

KRK

This article abruptly ends in the middle of the third sentence despite my repeatedly hitting the "refresh" button. Is this occurring on only my computer? TIA for any feedback.

Desmond Pretzel, "4451 Puff"

Nope not just you. Something happened a few months ago durning a update and suppostly something is getting done but it has been awhile.

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