Wrecks
And Clean-up Trains is a collection of mishaps and incidents mostly
from the 50's and 60's, but includes a few earlier than that.
We begin with the
New Haven Railroad with 2 freight train wrecks, and RDC incident, and
another freight or two. In some of these we see the big Derricks at work
hauling wheel sets, or lifting freight cars or coaches out of the way,
or back on the rails. We also see bull dozers at work at one scene and
Derricks working as well. These are all steam-powered cranes, but these
were filmed in the 60's during the diesel era. In some cases we see the
work trains with the cranes or a GP9 or other diesel power moving the
train around. There is a lot to enjoy in this segment shot by one
photographer in the 1960's.
Next we see the
aftermath of 3 different steam-era incidents on the Denver & Rio
Grande Narrow Gauge in Colorado. This material has some still images
including a movie wreck around 1950, but shows one of the engine before
the wreck in service. Then we see some still shots of engine 485 which
fell into the Salida Turntable pit in 1953, followed by engines 497 and
498 wrecked sitting at Cumbres in 1960. This is movie footage of them
sitting as the photographer had chased a freight to Cumbres. Both were
later repaired and saw service after 1960.
Next is a black and
white segment showing film while riding a passenger train in 1946 on the
Union Pacific. We see a wrecked 4-8-4 in the siding with a challenger
3838 in steam, and another one as well at Thayer Junction, Wyoming. This
is short, but we have some information about the incident.
Another Union
Pacific derailment follows in 1955 at Dodd, Colorado. The west bound
"Challenger" streamliner was detoured off the mainline due to high water
and washouts on the mainline near Julesburg, and took the line from
Julesburg to connect to the Denver-Cheyenne line to bypass the bad area.
Unfortunately it hit another washout at speed and derailed. We see some
of the train aftermath, and 2 cranes working to clean-up some of the
mess the next day, as well as the work train.
Next is a
Pennsylvania Railroad Black and White film during the steam-era which
shows a derailed steam engine which appears to be from a land-slide. Not
much is known, though there are a few neat scenes of other trains, and
work on the wreck site.
A pair of Derrick
Cranes are seen working a derailment on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
somewhere in Kentucky along the Ohio River. A pair of F-units are seen
on one work train, and an Alco on the other one.
Another Pennsylvania
Railroad derailment is seen at Convoy, Ohio in 60's with 2 E-units on a
passenger train that hit a heavy truck trailer.
Last but surely not
least is a 1958 wreck at Sardinia, Ohio on the Norfolk and Western
Railroad where two freight trains hit head-on in the early morning hours
of Easter. We see 2 camera coverage(this was about 20 miles from where
we lived), including the two sets of overturned GP-9's and freight cars
mangled. We also see a N&W crane at work. A special bonus is the
passing of passenger train #26, the eastbound Powhatan Arrow, powered by
Steam engine Class J 4-8-4 number 611, which survives today. This was 3
months before this train was dieselized.
There is a lot of
interesting material in this one-of-a-kind show you won't find in any
other video presentations. Music and narration guide you along in this
show made from converted films to video. No sound of course with these
old films. Lots of info though.
