Re: Runaways on Cumbres as Well as Other Places

This ended up
> on how steep Cumbres was and she asked if there
> was every any run aways down Cumbres...
>
There were a number of runaways, but not as many as you would think. D&RGW was safety conscious.

I am writing an article on a runaway on Poncha Pass in 1935 that killed 7 people. A train ran away on the Monarch branch in 1952.

Following are two examples of runaway trains on the D&RG narrow gauge.

December 10, 1909, Friday
A Wreck On The Floresta Branch
A wreck occurred on the Floresta branch Saturday last. The flanger engine in charge of Rube Barrett and Robert Hards got stuck in the snow between Crested Butte and Floresta. The regular train with engineer Rearden was coming behind when the air gave out causing the train to run away. It struck the engine and flanger throwing Hards out through the cab window and about twenty feet away in the snow.

December 24, 1909, Friday
Bring Death To Trainmen

Engineer Frank Parlin was killed and fireman Colley seriously, perhaps fatally, injured last Friday morning on Marshall Pass when their eastbound extra freight got beyond their control on account of defective air. A brakeman named Leslie Kerndt was also badly hurt when the en¬gine jumped the track and hurled itself down the mountain side with a dozen freight cars piled on top of it. Both freight and passenger traffic was delayed all that day while the wreck was being cleared away.

Jerry Day
Longmont, CO