Art & Inspiration Identify this train wreck

Thanks. That was good.

 

Man, I would have loved to have seen that, but hated to be in the way.

 

This old railroad history is neat. All over western Pa. are abandoned former road beds. In the winter when vegetation is gone you see remnants of old bridge piers and such. Plenty of old coal mines around.

 

Wow! Right now this is (to me) suddenly the most interesting thread on the HAMB!
I love history, mysteries, stuff made of cast iron, large vehicles and even the bear tracks!
This is VERY COOL! I'm dying of curiosity, wish I could see this stuff! MORE! Somebody figure this out!

 

The way I am getting it the 303 was the baggage car number.

 

Which road/ trail is this on? My family is heading up there end of august and it's great to check out stuff knowing the history behind it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

It's on the west side of Hagerman P***. The p*** was still closed due to snow when we were there in June. If it's open, you can get there from the Leadville side. We came up from the West side starting in Basalt.

Take the Frying Pan River Road to the end of the pavement well past Ruedi Reservoir and Meredith. When the pavement ends, there is an intersection with a forest service map posted on a sign.

The main road to Hagerman P*** switches back momentarily to the West. A secondary road goes to the East and dead-ends at the Nast Tunnel. Al you can see of the tunnel is the water diversion structure that impounds a portion of Ivanhoe creek and sends it through the mountain where it pierces the continental divide and ends up in the Arkansas drainage project.


The wreck can only bee seen from the Hagerman P*** Road, but it is more easily accessible from the dead end road. The dead end road isn't very long and goes right to the bottom of the cliff at Hell Gate. It takes many miles to reach Hell Gate via the old railroad grade, which is now the Hagerman P***/Frying Pan Rd. To hike to the wreck, pull off the dead end road just west of the biggest promontory rock which towers above the north side of the road. This is not very far from the end of the road. We crossed the ditch using a fallen tree as a bridge. You'll be climbing over very large boulders, but if you're careful, you'll find a route to the junk.


If you want to see where you are going first, continue on the main Hagerman P*** road. It will eventually turn back to the west. You'll p*** the coke ovens in Sellar Park, and the road will wind around to reach to top of the cliff at Hell Gate. There's no formal campground, but Sellar Park would be a great place to camp and watch wildlife. If you want to see the coke ovens up close without getting your feet wet, go back to the western most point on the gravel portion of the Hagerman P*** road and take the primitive road under the power lines. That will get you on the same side of the creek as the ovens. Keep an eye out for bears.

 

wow, such a cool thread

 

It should be obvious when you get to the cliff at Hell Gate. Another subtle clue that you are there is this hand-laid foundation. I'm guessing this was for a water tank in the steam locomotive days.

 

Is there any chance of scouring police, sheriffs or whatever's records to find this wreck? County coroners records? Who do/ did railroads have to report accidents to? What Federal, State or local regulators? The only thing i hate about mysteries is NOT KNOWING!!! LOL

 

Who knows... in my former town, there is a grave marker from the 1880s, saying the 20 year old guy ..."Kill'd by the cars". (that is how it was spelled) Took a moment to realize it had to be train cars. I see nothing of this incident in a town history book.

My elderly friend keeps saying there was a huge fatal locomotive boiler explosion "on a curved section, near a field" in my current town, and I find no history on that either.

 

The frame is from the tender of a steam locomotive. They used a link and pins coupler between the engine and the tender, with a conventional Janney type coupler on the other end. Also some of the pictures show part of the water canteen from the tender.

 

There is a searchable database of train wreck investigations going back to 1911 on the ICC web site.

 

Thanks for posting this really interesting thread. I'm hooked and I'm going to have to keep watching it to see how it works out!

 

...was surprised to see how far the locomotive tumbled down the hillside, but left he gazebo unharmed

 

You guys have pictures of a train wreck and are looking for answers. I found the story of the wreck and went looking for pictures when I stumbled onto your site. Here is the scoop:

The wreck is the remains of Colorado Midland tender 303. In early 1913 this engine & tender were westbound towards Basalt when the engine left the tracks to the inside of Hell's Gate after hitting a kink in the rail caused by a large falling rock. While the engine stayed up on top, the tender plunged to the bottom. Sometime later, the railroad was concerned of the publicity image of a wrecked tender with Colorado Midland written on it way below Hell's Gate, so they sent a crew down there to blow it up. Unfortunately, the explosion only further mangled the wreck and knocked down the high tension electric transmission tower from the Shoshone hydroelectric plant - which the Midland had to reimburse for the damages. Apparently the tender was originally fairly battered by the fall down the gorge, but it was the attempted dynamiting that really mangled what was left and ****tered it about. It remained in view of p***ing trains, but I guess was now disguised enough that further demolition attempts were not warranted.

The previous October, engine 301 exploded near Stellar, so its tender was then ***igned to engine 303 and renumbered.

Couldn't find any wreck pictures from 1913, and no direct newspaper citation from either book below.

Source: Colorado Midland by Morris Cafky, Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, First Edition 1965, page 366
Minor notation in: The Midland Route: A Colorado Midland Guide & Data Book, by Edward McFarland, Colorado Railroad Museum, Revised Edition 1980, page 274

 

Can't thank you enough for providing the rest of that that story! That all fits.

The only mystery left is how and when the Hupmobile ended up at the bottom of the same cliff. My guess is it was pushed off for fun. No proof of that-just a hunch. I am further guessing that some parts were stirpped off of it before it was pushed off and a few were carted off later.

 

Amazing resurrection after a year.
Some how I don't think pushing the Hupp over would be that much fun.
We drove a 49 Ford, (sorry) over a cliff one time years ago and it was no fun at all. It didn't blow up, no fire, just laid there on its top laughing at the drunk fools who had to walk many miles to the road.