I have been processing some early employee records and accident reports into our archives. It is hard not to read most of it as I go. In the accident I am about to describe each of the 4 crew members wrote a report and there are also some additional notes written by the train master. It seems on July 12th 1911 train 23 with engine 9 and 6 cars were headed up to Dixie. The ruling grade was 4%. The train stalled 4 miles short of the summit so they cut off 2 cars which were refers 2 and 3 loaded with kegs of beer and bottles of beer. They do not appear to have had a caboose, which suggests but is not stated that they were planning to double the hill leaving part of the train back at Austin. The brakeman was left in charge of the 2 cars and per stated procedure put 2 blocks behind the wheels after the cars were cut off. (kind of an after thought in my opinion as I would have put the blocks under the wheels before cutting off). The 4 car trains goes to Dixie, where the engine is cut off, evidently ran around the cars and backs down to pick up the 2 cars left behind. The conductor was WJ. "Bill" Larson who was the conductor on the last regular train with eng. 251 in 1947. He stayed behind and blocked the wheels on 2 cars left at the summit as they were still on grade. The engineer could not see the 2 cars as he approached them due to being on the wrong side of a curve. (how fast was he going?) The fireman was not paying attention to the back up move as he was bent over tending his fire. At one car length at which point the engineer said he was going 4-5mph he got a signal but it was too late to stop. He hit the cars hard enough that it busted the draw bar on the engine. The brakeman had already removed the blocking under the wheels when he knew the engine was approaching. (Bad idea) The cars started rolling down grade with the brakeman riding the cars and trying to tie them down to no effect. After 1 1/2 miles the cars derailed (apparently the brakeman was uninjured as there is no mention in his written report). Refer 2 was so badly damaged it could not be rerailed. Refer #3 (the body of which still exists today at our SVRR McEwen yard) was able to be put back on it's trucks and taken back down to Austin. The kegs of beer survived but many of the bottles were broken. The track was also knocked out of alignment due to the wreck. The delay to train 23 was 2-5 hours, but the mainline was out for 10-12 hours depending on which employees write up you believe. The brakeman claimed that the brakes on the cars were not good. The train master wrote the conductor asking to respond to this. The conductor says that the brakes were good enough to hold the two loaded car on the steep grade without blocks when they were cut off. I haven't found anything further on this as to what management concluded, but it is interesting to speculate on where the errors in judgement were. First I'd take exception to not blocking the wheels before cutting off, though this did vindicate the conductor who was responsible to ensure the brakes were functioning. 2nd.: the brakeman should have been up the track far enough to protect the two cars, so that the engineer had plenty of time to stop the engine. 3rd.: the brakeman should not have removed the blocks before coupling to the cars. The engineer's speed backing up might have played a part, but in reality it appears to me to be on the shoulders of the brakeman who failed to properly protect his cars by flagging down the engine with enough track left to get stopped. Late timetable for the railroad have a safety note saying that fireman shall maintain their fire and water such that they are available to receive signals, or words to this effect. I have no idea if this rule was on the books in 1911, but had the fireman been observing the progress of the back up move on the blind curve, the accident might have been averted regardless of the carelessness of the brakeman.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2017 02:33PM by J.B.Bane.
