I recently became the owner of 3 original (I believe) Kodachrome slides depicting the aftermath of a wreck involving one of the Frisco's homebuilt mountain-types, the 4409. I can't seem to find much info on this wreck, other than some black and white photos posted on rrpicturearchives.net. According to that site, this wreck occurred near Newburg, MO possibly in 1949. I would appreciate any additional information on this event. Enjoy!
Great photos! Thanks for posting. I got rid of all my accident reports during our 2016 move from StL to Florida (along with many other stupid disposals!), so I can't look up the accident. Somebody will. K
I don't have my wreck reports handy but I think this was at Niangua, MO and was due to a boiler explosion. If you will notice, the smokebox front is blown off and the firebox floor is opened up. I played around a little with the images to lighten them up just a smidge.
The boiler "explosion" and ensuing derailment occurred during the wee hours of February 26, 1949. The derailment occurred about 1 mile east of Niangua at MP 205.6. The curve is 3 degree-26 minute and the grade is 1.15% ascending. Locomotive 4409 was in charge of the Will Rogers which consisted of 5 head-end cars, 2 chair cars and 3 Pullmans. The locomotive and head-end cars derailed, while remaining cars remained on the rails. Surprisingly, there were no fatalities. The engineer lost his arm and the firemen suffered scalds on his chest and face. An express messenger received minor injuries. The smokebox door frame and door were found embedded in the slope of the cut. In a bit of doublespeak, CMO W. B. Berry noted that "the wreck was caused when the locomotive crownsheet gave way because of low water, blowing out the front of the locomotive. It was not a boiler explosion." Don, did the Frisco place fusible plugs in the crownsheet? The 4409 was not returned to service.
You can see that when the bottom of the firebox blew out, everything got a heavy coat of soot on it. Amazing the power released when a boiler explodes. I've seen photos of big articulateds where the boiler was ripped from the frame and launched. That takes POWER!
I looked in my downloaded copy of the "Steam-Locomotive-Diagram-Book-1880-1942" (page 186 apparently dated 10/13/47 and page 187 apparently dated 7/17/40) and found 4409 and 4407 were not mentioned. I could find no other diagrams for 4409 or 4407 in the book. My copy also shows a 4400-class diagram on page 211 (of 213). This page has no date, but appears to be a cleaner copy of page 186 so it shows no mention of 4407 or 4409. Why were these two not shown in the diagram book?
Alan Schmidt truncated the dates when he copied the diagram. Will look at my original copies when I get home. 4407 and 4409 hade been retired and the numbers removed from the diagram
Just checked my diagram copies - 4407 and 4409 also missing. Checked the diagrams in Stagner's "SLotFL" book - same. What happened to SLSF 4407? K
It appears the numbers were removed from the 4400 diagram, but the date at the bottom was not changed.
As noted previously, Alan clipped the rev dates from the diagrams, when he copied them. The Rev dates are usually in the left margin. Locomotive 4407 left the roster circa Dec 48, and 4409 was stricken from the roster circa Aug 49.
Yes, indeed. The photocopy of "Steam-Locomotive-Diagram-Book-1880-1942" is missing the left-most inch where the dates show.
St Louis used to have two newspapers, the Post Dispatch and the Globe Democrat. Post was a left leaning paper, the Globe right. I remember reading somewhere where the Post said the engineer lost his left arm, Globe said right. Gotta be a story in there. Karl, I've never read anything about the Frisco using fusible plugs. Not sure what kind of boiler explosion this was. If the engineer lived, it must have been a somewhat limited one. It blew the smokebox front off and the bottom of the firebox is peeled open. Probably strong enough to derail the engine. I'll have to go dig out my ICC reports and see if I have that one. Art Johnson took a few B&W shots of the wreck.
The Feb 27, 1949 Sedalia Democrat notes that the Fireman Breesawitz disputed the low-water hypothesis, and he claimed that a defect with the feed-water heater was the culprit. Given the damage sustained by the locomotive and given the fact that both enginemen survived, there might be some truth to his claim. The Sedalia paper also wrote that Engineer Fulton lost his right arm. Finally the paper reported that the "Texas Special and one of the Frisco trains (the Meteor?) came through Sedalia on Katy tracks Saturday because of the wreck." One has to wonder how the two trains were routed "west" of Sedalia... on the Clinton Sub? ...or on the Afton Sub?
Ken wrote: "Note the bell is solid sooty black." Kinda makes it look like a MoPac engine, doesn't it?