The San Bernardino train disaster (sometimes known as the Duffy Street incident), was a combination of two separate but related incidents that occurred in San Bernardino, California, United States: a runaway train derailment on May 12, 1989; and the subsequent failure on May 25, 1989, of the Calnev Pipeline, a petroleum pipeline adjacent to the tracks which was damaged by earth-moving equipment during the crash cleanup. was not heavily populated. At dawn, red flames could be seen roiling up from the We learned about it on our own, Foster said. He outmaneuvered Southern Pacific's Collis P. Huntington for access into the Golden State and eventually established service to all of its major cities. Engineer Blames Crash on Brakes - Los Angeles Times Investigators said there was a possibility that the brake system . The train catapulted from the 35mph curve next to Duffy Street, scattering locomotives and cars, as well as lading. ", Board Vice Chairman Robert Francis said, "We'll be talking about this more and more.". for treatment of injuries. The crew was then instructed to take unit SP 8278 (an EMD SD40T-2 "Tunnel Motor") from another consist and add it to theirs, ahead of the dead 7551. If this had happened sometime on Friday, it would have had quite an impact., The Stardust Hotel has had few cancellations, and the hotel was 97% booked for Thursday night, said Jim Seagrave, vice president of marketing and advertising. . William Mills photo. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. He Author's collection. 1996 Cajon Pass Train Wreck - 27 Years Later TheFatSheep 133 subscribers Subscribe Like Share No views 59 seconds ago CAJON PASS On February 2, 1996, a brakeman and a conductor were. Author's collection. Jim Poe, another safety official for the railroad, said the train should have been traveling at no more than 15 mph as it descended through the pass, created by the San Andreas Fault, that separates the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. 1996 Cajon Pass Train Wreck - 27 Years Later - YouTube Other short excavations discovered other debris, including bogies from the hoppers. Over time, these gashes caused the integrity of the pipeline to weaken and eventually rupture. American railroads have merged into large, far-flung companies while downsizing middle management and giving on-the-scene workers more decision-making authority. . Today, BNSF continues to utilize the pass, as does Union Pacific. He said it was a huge fire with On May 12, 1989, at 7:36a.m. a 6-locomotive/69-car Southern Pacific freight train (SP 7551 East, computer symbol 1 MJLBP-11) that was transporting trona, lost control while descending Cajon Pass, derailed on an elevated curve and plowed into a residential area on Duffy Street. Mr. Williams, a brakeman on the train, was killed, along with the conductor Gilbert L. Ortiz, 25, of According to the article, "Cajon Pass: Where Trains Descend From Cactus To The Groves Of The Orange Empire" by Howard Eichstadt from the October, 1941 issue of Trains Magazine, the first modern Caucasian to discover this natural passageway was William Wolfskill in 1831 during his journey from Santa Fe to the small city of Los Angeles. American-Rails.com collection. The train had departed Los Angeles at around Midnight. Foster testified that although he knew the device was not working when he started down the grade, he decided to proceed anyway. . An excavator was then brought in to remove trona spilled from the freight cars, starting on May 16, the same day that SP resumed service on the track through the crash site, and ending on May 19, six days before the rupture. Two rail workers Witnesses allege that the train's engineer failed to sound his horn until two seconds before the collision. Once he realized the train was exceeding its authorized speed, Hill applied emergency braking which deactivated the dynamic brakes. A full body orgasm at the L.A. Phil? February 1, 1996 He was 38. [4][5] The total property damage was US$14.3 million (equivalent to $31.3million in 2021), with more of this damage resulting from the fire than from the train derailment, although there were more fatalities from the derailment. . The NTSB report determined that if the train had started down the hill at a speed lower than 15 miles per hour (24km/h), it might have been possible for the crew to regain control of their train and brakes. The initial inspections of specific portions of the pipeline found no damage from the wreck, and so they deemed it safe to recharge the pipeline with product at full pressure. Also onboard were fiberboard, tires, fuel oil, lubrication oil, and diesel oil. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. In fact, we have some friends driving in from Los Angeles who were supposed to take Interstate 15. It was also discovered that the SP's engineer training program did not have any material on how to regain control of a runaway train, and the railroad's oversight on mountain operations was inadequate. At about 4:10AM on Feb. 1, 1996, ATSF symbol H-BALT1-31, westbound from Barstow to LA, derailed and wrecked on the south track of the Cajon Sub at MP 60.4. They were being SAN BERNARDINO A freight train carrying dangerous chemicals plunged from the rails on a steep downgrade in the Cajon Pass and exploded in flames before dawn Thursday, hurling a noxious. Under the direction of William Barstow Strong the AT&SF and StL&SF signed the "Tripartite Agreement" in 1879, which essentially gave the former control of the latter. locomotives and 46 of the 49 cars on the train derailed. That accident is a small part of the whole testimony, which can be found at . Re: Cajon Pass 1996 Runaway Report - Glen Icanberry Copyright 2007-2023 American-Rails.com. When the train was stretched, air flowed the length of the train as it should. In addition, four residents were killed in their homes. . In 1885 the California Southern Railroad opened the first usable and efficient transportation corridor through the region, which later became the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe's (AT&SF) main line. California, and was headed for Los Angeles. at Drawbar Flats, on Cajon Pass, in 1996. https: . The Wreck of the Q-BHLA 1-10 Cajon Pass, Ca, 12/14/94 Two months after the wreck, there were veritable drifts of these tin lids scattered here and there around the wreck site. Kevin Williams, Former USC Football Star, Killed in Train Wreck The brakeman and conductor remained unaccounted for. When that happens, the engineer has only partial use of the air brakes. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? At this point, the railroad's future appeared uncertain; it ran out of money but still needed to reach the Santa Fe/A&P at Barstow. The railroads agreed to the installation of the devices on virtually all freight trains operating anywhere in the nation by June 30, 1997. Anyways, speaking of train wrecks, and cajonies, I think the forum has had it's fair share of "train wreck" sob stories, and only some . Mike Bledsoe photo. There were also northern and southern routes commissioned. It proved a difficult task but they were able to maintain a maximum grade of 3.4% for eastbound movements between Cajon and Summit, which sits at an elevation of 3,823 feet above sea level. Pipeline officials remained on site as safety observers during the cleanup of the rail cars, but not during the cleanup of the trona material. Train and helper crews of Southern Pacific 7551 East, "Pipeline That Triggered Fire Reactivated: Judge in Santa Ana Says He Lacks Jurisdiction to Halt Flow", "Railroad Accident Report Derailment of Southern Pacific Transportation Company Freight Train on May 12, 1989, and Subsequent Rupture of Calnev Petroleum Pipeline on May 25, 1989 San Bernardino, California", "The Cross at the Loop" by Kevin Stevens, The Kern Junction Railroad Photo Gallery, "The Great San Bernardino Train Wreck" by Hatch & Judy Graham, California State University, San Bernardino, California University of Science and Medicine, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=San_Bernardino_train_disaster&oldid=1146184289, History of San Bernardino County, California, Accidents and incidents involving Southern Pacific Railroad, Transportation in San Bernardino County, California, Railway accidents and incidents in California, Transportation in San Bernardino, California, Short description with empty Wikidata description, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 7 (3 train crew on SP 7551 East and 4 residents), Allan Riess, Brakeman on 3rd locomotive (age 43), Lawrence Hill, Engineer on helper unit 7443 (age 42), Robert Waterbury, Brakeman on helper unit 7443 (age 57), Warren, Jennifer. Trainz Wrecks #9 1996 Cajon Pass Wreck - DeviantArt The dynamic brakes of the fourth locomotive, SP 9340, operated sporadically and were of limited use. there were suspect cars SFLC 10005, and ATSF 90033 which had defective cushion underframes. Alas, in 2013 the site closed. Robert Lauby, chief of the board's rail safety section, said local managers had misinterpreted an order from top railroad officials and routinely ran trains down the grade with inoperable rear-end braking devices. Patrick Davis, who was having difficulty breathing, was admitted to St. Bernardines Hospital in San Bernardino, where he later was listed in serious condition, suffering from chemical inhalation. And that wasn't all; even into the early diesel days the AT&SF's gorgeous 4-8-4's could still be seen assisting the silvery, sleekSuper Chiefthrough Sullivan's Curve, a location made famous by Herb Sullivan who captured several stunning photos thanks to its wide open vistas. Author's collection. This is a list of rail accidents from 1990 to 1999. Interstate 15. It is the result of the San Andreas Fault, which splits two mountain ranges, the San Bernardinos and San Gabriels. 1996 Cajon Pass Runaway 24 Years Later - DeviantArt And of course, Union Pacific also featured big power here such as the 2-8-8-0 "Bull Moose" Consolidation Mallet and 4-6-6-4 Challengers. And nine people were hurt on Feb. 14 when a freight train slammed into a railroad office building near St. Paul. Ortiz/Williams Memorial - Cajon Pass - Trainorders.com Discussion be seen rising from the burning tank cars. ), Lakers vs. Warriors: What scouts expect in playoff series, The Great Big Highly Specific Guide to Disneyland, Decades of failures leave L.A. County facing up to $3 billion in sex abuse claims, LAPD investigating stabbing near Los Angeles High School, Bass budget proposal for Animal Services is far less than what department requested. What is now recognized as Cajon Pass was well-known by the region's Native American Indians, particularly theSerrano, long before Europeans arrived. .. On Feb. 1, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train crashed in the Cajon Pass near San Bernardino, killing two crew members. Cajon Pass Triple-Tracking Updates (Plus Barstow-Daggett) The derailment occurred after a snowfall of 16 inches, but the cause was not clear. He said his back was hurting. (318K QuickTime movie). Gerald Davis awakened his son, Patrick, telephoned Eastman, who lives nearby, and the three of them raced down the hill to where the lead locomotive lay tipped on its right side, its nose buried in the bottom of a sandy wash. Patrick Davis, 33, said he could see the engineer, who has not been identified, poking his head out of the cab., He was completely delirious, Davis said. Following its completion, Cajon Pass provided the Santa Fe with a through corridor to Los Angeles and San Diego, cities which would transform into major ports and commercial centers a century later. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? Initial Notification: On February 1, 1996, a runaway Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train, 4 locomotives and 49 cars, derailed on the south main track near the intersection of interstates I-15 and 138 in Cajon Junction, California. There apparently were no other crewmen on the train. Gold Medal flour recalled due to salmonella contamination. ", This page was last edited on 23 March 2023, at 07:47. All 69 hopper cars were destroyed and scrapped at the crash site. Of the houses destroyed, five were directly across the street from houses that had been destroyed in the derailment, while another was the only house on the track side of Duffy Street to have been spared damage during the derailment. Thomas and his friends will make an appearance in Washington at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. [2][3] Seven houses on the street immediately next to the tracks were demolished by the wreck, as were the lead locomotives and all of the freight cars. One could witness all of Santa Fe's big power here such as 4-8-2's double-heading passenger consists like thePacific Limitedwhile 2-10-2 "Santa Fe's" and 2-10-10-2 "3000 Class" Mallets fought heavy freights over the pass, sometimes double-headed while others were cut in mid-train. At their session in Washington on Thursday, executives of freight railroads will meet with officials at the Federal Railroad Administration to discuss safety problems. Gold Medal flour recalled due to salmonella contamination. The slower a wheel moves, the more easily friction can induce slowing traction instead of heat. . It was also determined after the wreck that the engineer operating the helper locomotives knew of the faulty dynamic brakes on one of his units, but did not communicate that information to the head end crew. cajon@groups.io | Cajon Pass 1996 Runaway Report - Glen Icanberry On Feb. 22, the nations 10 largest railroads agreed to place the devices on all trains operating on mountain grades by Dec. 15. The trains engineer, who suffered a broken back in the crash, was pulled from the wreckage by three men who braved the spreading fire and fumes to save him. At around 2:30 a.m. on the morning of February 27, 1967, Santa Fe's train #8, the eastbound "Fast Mail Express," exits from one of the two tunnels (since daylighted) on Cajon Pass. Through a stock and bond exchange, the AT&SF acquired control of the California Southern allowing for repair of the flood damage and completion of the unfinished 81-mile stretch from San Bernardino to Barstow (then known as Waterman). I put the train into full emergency [braking], but it continued to gain . Cajon Pass near the intersections of California Route 138 and Consequently, at 1:30 AM on May 12, a crew consisting of Lawrence Hill, an engineer, and Robert Waterbury, a brakeman (acting in a position known as a "lookout") was brought on duty at West Colton and transported by company van to Dike (located at Devore), where they boarded a two-unit helper locomotive consisting of units SP #7443 (an EMD SD45R) and SP 8317 (another EMD SD40T-2 Tunnel Motor). Much of the NTSB's investigation into the two disasters was focused on the activities surrounding the derailment. "42 Killed in Head-On Japanese Train Crash; Officials Say Collision May Have Been Caused by Malfunctioning Track Signal. "flames going 600 to 800 feet into the air.". There may be more - but four. The hoppers were removed first, a process which took two days. It is an excellent resource with thousands of historic maps on file throughout the country. Since the railroad was provided a great deal of property from Kimball's National Ranch, it launched construction from National City (also the location of its primary shops), just south of San Diego. Activities of Helper Unit. Braking ability diminishes exponentially for every degree of grade at a 2.2% grade, the dynamic brakes of one fully operational locomotive was capable of maintaining the speed of 1,700 to 1,800 tons of weight (either in freight cars or freight) at a speed of 25 miles per hour (40km/h). The derailment brought the death toll from railroad accidents this month to 18. The NTSB testified before a Senate Committee on a broad range of accidents, including the 1994 Cajon Pass incident. Firefighters from several agencies met Thursday to determine By the time the fire was out, it had fatally burned two people, and destroyed eleven more houses and 21 cars. The train, run by the Southern Pacific Rail Corporation, a subsidiary of the Denver-based Anschutz Corporation, had 82 cars and was bound from East St. Louis, Ill., to Roseville, Calif., near Sacramento. is worth, but here are the facts. The engineers weren't found to be at fault at all, as they acted within reason. Realizing the StL&SF's completion could seriously jeopardize its own transcontinental aspirations, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe became involved. At the time the A&P was under General John Fremont's direction, an individual who was successful in securing about one million acres in federal land grants to see the southern leg completed. The story behind "The Cross at the Loop" - TrainWeb.org Unit SP 7443 was repaired and repainted by SP and returned to service. Despite stakes being placed along the pipeline's route to show where it was to the crews cleaning up the spilled trona, the cleanup nonetheless caused undetected damage to the pipeline. They set a target date of July 1, 1882 to complete the 116 miles from San Diego to San Bernardino, which would meet the Santa Fe/A&P at the latter location. "Basic safety jobs were not being done. That changed with the Transcontinental Railroad's completion in 1869 between Sacramento and Omaha, Nebraska. When the mining company turned in the final contract to the clerk (Thomas Blair) for the bill of lading, they had not filled in any weight, under the assumption that the railroad would know that they had filled the 100-ton cars to capacity. Five years earlier, a Southern Pacific freight train careened out of control down a parallel track in the Cajon Pass before plunging over an embankment into seven homes in San Bernardino, killing two boys in one home. As Richard Steinheimer notes in his article from the September, 1974 issue ofTrains Magazineentitled "Cajon Pass Revisited," at the turn of the 20th century the Los Angeles, San Pedro & Salt Lake Railway (LASP&SL), a Union Pacific predecessor, was looking for a means through the mountains. By August, 1883 the Santa Fe had completed its route to the California border at Needles but, due to the original A&P's charter, could only meet the Southern Pacific at that point. NTSB Chairman Jim Hall says the wreck is one of at least 10 during the last three years that could have been prevented if the trains had been equipped with working remote control devices. destroyed in wrecks. According to Keith Bryant, Jr.'s excellent book, "History Of The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway," the PR would follow a route along the 35th parallel. Although the exact scenario is not yet clear, sources close to the investigation said the train apparently was accelerating downgrade, out of control, when it toppled from the tracks on an S curve a few hundred yards north of the intersection of California 138 and I-15. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/22/us/a-derailment-in-colorado-kills-two.html. By assuming the maximum weight of the train, that would guarantee that the dispatcher would assign at least the minimum number of locomotives needed to ensure that the train would have enough braking capacity needed to keep the train under control on steep grades. Its an inconvenience, but not a major problem.. Cajon Pass (Railroad): History, Photos, Operation - American-Rails.com Return to LunarLight . A freight train carrying 120,000 gallons of sulfuric acid down a steep Colorado mountainside derailed south of Vail early this morning, killing two crew members and puncturing at least two tanker cars containing 27,000 gallons of its poisonous cargo. Alan Pollock, a spokesman for the NTSB, said recording devices on the locomotives should be recoverable from the wreckage, and if they were turned on they will show the trains speed, throttle settings and brake settings in the moments before the crash. He, and his party, worked west from Fort Smith, Arkansas, passing through West Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico before arriving in Southern California. He said he never checked to see if the device was working before the train left Barstow and said company rules did not require him to do so. One of Cajon's first noteworthy improvement projects occurred in 1913 when a second line was completed (boasting two tunnels), to help accommodate growing traffic levels. I-15 is not expected to reopen until this afternoon. A popular pastime for many is studying and/or exploring abandoned rights-of-way. In particular, as this pipeline supplied Las Vegas, Calnev was under pressure to quickly resume the flow of product, and a San Bernardino resident later remarked that serving Las Vegas was worth more than everything in their California town. Initial suspicions of sabotage have been replaced by a growing belief that as the freight cars bunched together after the train crested the summit, one of the hoses between the cars was squeezed closed. In the end, the California Southern received much more than originally agreed upon; this included 17,356 acres of land south of San Diego, two miles of property along the waterfront, 486 city lots for a depot and terminal, and finally $25,410 in cash. This would be the second such shipment. Cajon Pass has had it's share of runaway trains and it's likely more will take place in the future. and direction and to test for humidity. A pair of Union Pacific DDA40X "Centennials," led by #6926, along with SD40-2 #8030, work trailers westbound over Cajon Pass, just east of Keenbrook, California, circa 1976. By January 2, 1882 there were 55 miles completed to Fallbrook Junction and later that year, on August 16th, track crews arrive in Colton (just south of San Bernardino). 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