There was suspicion by the ATSF that someone closed an anglecock...but the Gov. found evidence at the crashsite that the soot stains on more than one anglecock inidcated they were closed after the crash, likely done so by the managers crawling over the smoldering wreckage hoping to shift the blame. Prior to departure, the Barstow trainyard car inspectors Sanchez and his partner called in a leaking cushioning device, but were told to let it go "one more trip" by the lead man. In the end, the cushioning device was located and flagged as very likely to have pinched the train brake line, but the pinpoint cause was inconclusive, other than to say the brakes failed downhill. The surviving engineer was given a job for life, and visited our class when we were student conductors. He also played the tape of the radio transmissions during the event.

Santa Fe continued to play the vandalism angle, and also blamed the engineer for not following through with the running air brake test east of Summit when it was alleged that there was an indication of brake problems, but this was in the days before two-way telemetry. Had there been two-way telemetry or a caboose with an air gage, a un-matched brake pipe reading would have been noted, and the crash prevented, some say. But the cushioning device would still have been out of the picture during a running air brake test because the train is stretched out during the running test, and the cushioning device would not enter the scene until the train is bunched going downhill. If there had been an alert crew on a caboose, they could have pulled the air from back there, and the balance of the train would have been in emergency.

The fence, lighting and Summit Security remains also as a way to help prevent theft of lading while trians pile up (no pun intended) waiting to go down the hill to Berdoo.

Two things that did come out of this was the modification of the control stand where the Dynamic Brake holding feature now allows for the D. Brakes to operate while an Emergency application is applied, something that was not available at the time. The other is two-way telemetry and two-way emergency application, both which must be tested prior to departing Barstow.

Still waiting for the Mechanical inspectors to be taken seriously at all times, though.