I recently bought the attached postcard photo on eBay and spent a good deal
of time cleaning it up. The image was unidentified except for the
penciled notation on the back, "Wreck on CB&Q RR out of Marsland [Neb.]
where Santafe Johnson was killed." Looking at the image I was able to
identify the boiler about to be raised and loaded on the FM-7 steel flatcar
coupled to the wrecker's boom car as belonging to an O-1 Mikado -- the same
class of engine coupled to the wrecker. The FM-7 flats came in 1909, as
did the 75-ton Industrial wrecking derricks, and the O-1s came at the end of
1910 and beginning of 1911, so at least I had a starting date for trying to
pin down the actual date of the accident. Even with Rupert's help we got
nowhere searching for accidents near Marsland, but when I Googled Santa Fe
Johnson I was quickly reminded that he was the engineer killed in the boiler
explosion of O-1 5020 on Provo Hill, well beyond Marsland in the southwest
corner of South Dakota, on Feb. 15, 1913. Several group members (myself
included) posted photos of the remains of 5020 after the crown sheet rupture
neatly separated the locomotive's boiler from its running gear. Pete
Hedgpeth posted a view of the right side of the boiler after the explosion,
taken from the front end, where this photo shows the left side from the rear
end. But there is no doubt that this is indeed the 5020 after it
blew. The scenery -- or lack of it -- is the same in both photos.
I actually bought the photo as much for the pressed steel truck under the
derrick's boom car as for the overall scene. The Q was not an advocate
of pressed steel construction for either passenger or freight cars or their
trucks, and it simply did not purchase cars with pressed steel trucks.
Thus the boom car is in all likelihood a wreck victim itself, which the Q was
forced to pay for and recouped some of its loss by repairing the car and
converting it for company service. But just what is that truck?
With those leaf springs above each journal, it's not a Fox truck, the most
common of the pressed steel freight car trucks that flooded the market in the
mid- to late 1890s and remained in favor not much beyond 1910. Again,
Google found the answer for me, and I'm attaching an brief article on the
Cloud riveted steel freight car truck patented by John W. Cloud in 1896.
Cloud was secretary of the Master Car Builders Association and the Master
Mechanics Association, and his truck began to be produced by Schoen (soon to
become Pressed Steel Car Company) during 1897.
It's hard to imagine how long it would have taken to uncover the
information about this photo before the advent of the internet and
Google. It certainly could have been done, but it would have taken many
hours -- days, probably -- and visits to one or more libraries.
Hol