Re: I think the engineer was trying to make up time
Author: George Andrews
Date: 10-11-2020 - 17:54
Lucky Strike Wrote:
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> Some here believe that the engineer was overly
> concerned about being behind schedule. He was
> likely going faster than the curves at Harney.
Several passengers felt the train had been running too fast around previous curves, though the Engineer, Fireman, and a Ride - Along RFE all " said " the train was traveling no faster than the posted 60 MPH through the 5th crossing. OTOH, Union Pacific did hand off the COSF to Espee at Ogden 50 minutes late.
I do find the line change timing curious. Northern Pacific also instituted a line change after a fatal passenger train derailment of The North Coast limited in 1962, though this line change at Granite, ID. did eliminate a tight 30MPH curve westbound at a steel viaduct. NP also saw reason to disconnect a troublesome disc brake system on the passenger cars soon after the NCL wreck.