What is all of this talk about JUST an engineer? Isn't this at the least a two man crew? Maybe had there been a conductor this wouldn't have happened. By the way, how long was "the engineer" on duty? Did He have time to apply enough hand brakes? I can see if He was approaching 12 hours and about to die on the law, He would apply all that He could up until the last second. Maybe this explains why, if it is proven to be true, that not enough handbrakes were tied. Did a fireman bump the brake handle on the lead locomotive? One other thing, and remember We are hearing this from the press who doesn't know jack about railroading, the mention of the engineer not being called after the fire department was finished with whatever they did. Had the engineer been called His rest would have been disturbed and the time started over giving Him adequate rest for the next day.