If the gray matter serves me right I think it was Christmas Eve 1988. I was
working the Ottumwa Div DS Job in Galesburg. Galesburg to P Jct with branches.
It was after the CTC at Burlington had been moved to Galesburg and put on this
desk. It was a cold (not sure on stormy) nite and I had 491 pull thru
Burlington to make a pickup at West Burlington. They had around 100 cars and
the crew bottled the air and went in to make the pickup. As they pulled out I
heard on the radio the brakeman ask the engineer where was the train . " You
don't think it rolled away do you?" just as the approach lit and the bell rung
for the approach. I had just lined the Burlington to Galesburg Way Freight out
of the yard and across at Wood Tower to head to Galesburg. I dumped the signal
on him and hollered for him to head for the hills as 491's train was coming
down the hill. The Time ran out on the signal just as the train got to it and
I had the crossover lined for the bridge but because the train was running 50
to 60 mph on the 25 mph track it came unglued and tore out the crossover,
signal bridge and piled up right at the west end of the Mississippi River
Bridge. We called the Superintendent and said merry Christmas we have a big
derailment at Burlington. I still use the nice 1988 safety award gym bag I
got for that mess.
SJH
----- Original Message -----
From: qutlx1@aol.com
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 9:27 AM
Subject: [CBQ] Runaway- more clues
Archie,
Your comment about the car spotted at an industry that rolls toward the main
is somewhat close to what I'm looking for in this use of the term runaway.
Now we have two clues; the situation generally involves a single or few cars
rolling freely,unattended and unintentionally and a lot of guys are involved.
I did enjoy the coal train runaway story as having worked to Burlington
always wondered about that hill.
Leo
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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