SD45 SLSF 912 SD45 SLSF 904 According to my personal notes in a 1969 Employee Time Table, SD45 SLSF 912 was destroyed at Olustee, OK on June 3, 1970. SD45 SLSF 904 was heavily damaged. The wreck happened in heavy fog after someone opened a derail and released handbrakes allowing several cars to roll onto the main track. The fireman, Bob Thorton, a friend of mine was killed. I befriended him when he worked as a hostler in Oklahoma City during 1968-1969. I used to ride with him in the yard.
SD45 SLSF 912 Ronald, Marre and Harper's Frisco Diesel Power lists SD45 SLSF 912 as being remanufactured by EMD 3/25/1971 SD45 SLSF 948 was also rebuilt by EMD at some point during 1971. Paul
SD45 SLSF 912 SD45 SLSF 904 I was trying to find some old Kodak film my grandfather took of this derailment. I stumbled across this article. How young 3 of the 4, these guys were when killed. DERAILMENT KILLS FRISCO CREW MEN OLUSTEE, Okla. Four crew members of a Frisco freight train were killed early today when the train derailed near this southwestern Oklahoma community. The Highway Patrol reported the 86-car train rounded a curve and smashed into seven freight cars that escaped a sidetrack in Olustee sometime during the night and rolled about 1-1/2 miles northward down the track. The Highway Patrol identified the victims as James Willard Heahth, 60, of Oklahoma City, the engineer; Robert Ray Thornton, 30, of Moore, the fireman; Jerry Arthur Howard, 23, Oklahoma City, a brakeman, and Terry L. Lober, 23, Harrah, also a brakeman. All four were in the front engine of three diesels pulling the mile-long train. Altus police reported the train was en route from Quanah, TX, to Oklahoma City, OK. About 25 of the 86 cars were derailed, and some overturned. The accident occurred about 1-1/2 miles north of Olustee about 1:45 a.m. The crash knocked out telephone service to the small towns of Olustee and Eldorado, about 14 miles to the southwest. "It looked like the boxcars on the siding polled downhill about a mile and a half," a trooper said. "The cars broke through a derail and went into the main line. "The freight train hit them as it rounded a curve and the lead engine was completely demolished." A six-inch segment was sliced out of one rail "like two karate chops had cut it " at the point of the collision, one person at the scene reported. Ada Evening News ~ June 3, 1970
