Re: Where-iz-its part 3: easy with a twist edit: 452 wreck site

For those who are not familiar with the area, here is some background on the #453 wreck of October 26, 1903. The Eastbound freight (second section) broke apart while on the descending grade The cars had a mixture of automatic (Westinghouse) and straight air brakes. The engineer on new #453 was using straight air. The new 1903 freight cars had an "H" valve that allowed them to work with straight or automatic airbrakes. After the train broke-apart, the locomotive and one car tried to outrun the rear section, but was rammed by the rear cars. It was said that the first half went through Mears Junction (3 miles East of Mears) at "60 miles per hour" The locomotive was knocked into the Arroyo and ended up turned around facing upgrade. Most of the remaining 13 cars then piled-up in a mass of debris. As sidelight: at the time of the accident, most of the D&RG narrow gauge engineers either refused or resisted using the "new automatic" air brakes. Engineer Samuel Brown, and brakemen Henry Simons and John Mulcahay were killed. Conductor William MacHunter and brakeman Ray Hallock were not badly injured as the last four cars and caboose did not leave the rails. Fireman Henry Fitzsimons, who hired-on at age 18 in 1901, survived and later became the senior engineer on the "Shavano" out of Salida. (he died in 1948 at age 65)