May 30, 2017
Group - Here's a mystery for our Lines West experts to try and solve.
Following are inserted/attached two images of a long-ago derailment
involving an unidentified Class B-1 4-8-2 type locomotive and its passenger
train. The only information given is the date May 21, 1923, the train is No.
2 and the location is Blue Point, NE:
From the two images, we can see that the locomotive is an almost new Lima
Locomotive Works Class B-1 4-8-2 type constructed in 1922. It has an
extended smoke box for burning lignite coal. There is what appears in the
background to be a river in flood stage. May be the Republican River? There
also appears to be water on both sides of the right-of-way. I would
speculate that the train ran into a wash out and jumped-the-tracks at speed
from the mangled condition of some of the cars that look to have jack-knifed
behind the derailed tender. There may've been at least one or more
shattered wood baggage or RPO mail cars on the head-end, in addition to the
one steel mail storage/baggage car shown. Lastly, there is an "improved" road
and pole line paralleling the tracks.
I have searched the ICC Accident Investigation Reports for 1923 and this
wreck does not appear. I also searched for the years 1922 and 1924. I do
not see the wreck listed. I've been told that ICC Reports do not usually
include accidents where no one was killed or badly injured and no rules
violated. Perhaps, that was the situation with this wreck, although from the
severely torn-up cars, it makes you wonder. Additionally, I can find
no community named Blue Point in Nebraska. May be that was the name of the
nearest siding. Perhaps, the river and train No. 2 together will point to a
clue as to just where this wreck occurred and any details. You'd think that a
newspaper article in some Nebraska newspaper would've covered this story. I
would like to know what the locomotive's road number was, too. Can anyone
better ID these photographs? Best Regards - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL