Re: Cumbres Pass Wreck of 1953

Somewhere I have pics of the wreck it was mess. 499 had a short reefer behind the tender as an "LCL car", followed by some empty dump gons. Behind that was 50-some-odd cars of pipe and idlers. I asked Eldon about the wreck. He remembered it but just shook his head when I asked what happened. He mentioned something about poor train handling. The track levels out around Coxo Curve and stays pretty flat past the siding. With the empties on the head end and the loads behind, You'd need to pull the train around the curve to keep it stretched, and keep pulling it down the straight until you got most of it at least into the curve, then shut off to drift. It look like the hogger tried to drift around the curve, and when the engine got to the east siding switch, the slack came roaring in and kicked him hard in the rear. It knocked the tender over and shoved the engine off the track. 499's plow dug deep into the ballast and stopped the train. The heavy loads kept pushing, and the empties were simply crushed. The only identifying remains of the short reefer were it's trucks. 499's rear frame was broken above the trailing truck. Adding to the fun was it was all done in about 3 feet of snow.