Re: 319 & 345

As I understand it, both engines were due to be scrapped anyway, so the head-on for the movie was just a beginning of the end. John Norwood wrote in "Rio Grande Memories", p. 101, that the Rio Grande got the derailment of 473 on July 11, 1951 cleaned up in time for the collision on the 15th or 16th. Apparently, they staged it without the ICC's blessing, and that agency raised Cain and his puppy dog with the D&RGW. Norwood wrote, "The motion picture is a classic, and whoever worried about the ICC?" Norwood also commented that the two locomotives were "quasi-operational". -- Ed



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2007 06:41AM by Ed Stabler.