The recent discussion of the collision of a gas-electric passenger motor car with a steam locomotive near Montgomery, Ill., in 1943 has emphasized how the gas-electric always lost a confrontationof this nature. But where PMCs (passenger motor cars) collided with smaller highway vehicles, and even vehicles as large as school buses, the outcome was different, as this Dec. 20, 1952, telegram from Denver master mechanic B.F. Meligan to new Lines West motive power superintendent C.A. Moody demonstrates. I'll transcribe it just as it appears:
"AT 820AM DEC 19 TRAIN NO 16 PMC-9767 SPEED 38 TO 40 MPH CONDR MITCHELL ENGR EVANE AT MP 236 ABOUT 2 MILES WEST OF REPUBLICAN NEBR STRUCK SCHOOL BUS APPROACHING FROM SOUTH. TRAIN STRUCK FRONTOF BUS AND SHOVED IT OVER 40 FT EMBANKMENT. BUS DRIVEN BY MRS MAX BARKER AGE 33 REPUBLICAN NOT INJURED. THERE WERE FOUR OCCUPANTS, JANETTE BOOKER AGE 17, BACK INJURED, EVERETT HUNTER AGE 6 FACE AND MOUTH INJURIES, STANLEY HUNTER AGE 8 APPARENTLY NOT INJURED, BOBBY BOOKER AGE 15 NOT INJURED. 1951 CHEVROLET 8-PASS BUS BADLY DAMAGED. DAMAGE TO PMC-9767 CONSISTED OF LEFT FRONT SAND PIPE BROKEN OFF, LEFT FRONT CAB STEPS BENT AND LEFT GRAB IRON AT BAGGAGE DOOR BROKEN. DRIVER OF BUS DID NOT STOP AT CROSSING AS STATED WAS AFRAID WOULD STALL DUE TO STEEP APPROACH. ENGINEER DID NOT SEE BUS. NO WITNESSES. WEATHER SNOWING AND COLD. WHISTLE SOUNDED BELL RINGING. VIEW UNOBSTRUCTED OF EASTBOUND TRAINS. CROSSING PROTECTED BY STANDARD CROSSBUCK AND WARNING SIGNS. C-10. B.F. MELIGAN."
Trains 15-16, originally through runs between St. Louis, Kansas City, St. Joseph and Denver, operating over the secondary mainline across southern Nebraska, by 1952 had been reduced to a series of short, "connecting" runs. And the portion of the run between Wymore and Oxford (where the Denver mainline was met) was then being operated as a motor train using the 9767, a member of the final group of gas-electric PMCs purchased by the railroad, being delivered in late 1930. It had an RPO-baggage configuration and pulled a coach trailer for passengers. The original 15-foot RPO compartment had been lengthened to 30 feet, and within the past two years the unit had traded its original 400-hp Winton gasoline engine for a similarly rated Lima-Hamilton diesel, much less prone to bursting into flames in a collision.
Eastbound No. 16 was scheduled out of Oxford, the Denver mainline connection, at 5:45 a.m. and was due at Republican, 24 miles to the east, at 6:30 a.m. No. 16 generally didn't have to wait at Oxford for its connecting train from Denver because that connection, No. 6, the Coloradoan, was due into Oxford from Denver at 3:01 a.m. But on the day of the collision No. 16 was running some two hours behind schedule for reasons unknown. The slight damage to the 9767 as a result of the collision would not have affected its ability to complete the run to Wymore, and the bent step and broken sand line were likely repaired there. Replacement of the broken baggage door grab iron may also have been done at Wymore, but more likely the car was pulled off its run for a day or two and run up to McCook for repairs. The PMC would remain in use until 1961, gaining a measure of fame when on its final assignments it was paired with experimental coach "Silver Pendulum" and painted silver to match, first on the St. Joseph-Brookfield, Mo., run and then between St. Joe, Wymore and Lincoln. After retirement the carbody was placed on the ground as an enginemen's locker room at Beardstown, Ill.
More to come.
Hol
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