Imperial Valley press., 1939-08-14
Continued from Page u

a desire To loot the passengers.
The earless man was seen early
yesterday. soon after the wreck
peering down into Palisade canyon,
filled with the mangled dead and
the miserable injured and the twist
ed steel of one of the worlds finest
trains. from the top of one of its
high walls.
Officials believed the saboteurs
either had been frightened away
by the horror of the wreck or by
the fact that enough men survived
uninjured to make lootins imprac-
teal.
All Accounted For
All of the 1874 persons aboard the
brown and yellow monster when 1t
plunged from a small triss-type
bridge into the shallow Humboldt
river l6 miles west of Carlin Sat-
urday night. were accounted for.
County Coroner r. S. Harris, and
a jury, after preliminary examina-
tin of the quarter-mile of rended
trackage pronounced this verdict:
twenty persons came to their
death by train accident and to the
best of our belief the wreck was
caused by a rail misplaced by n
person or persons unknown"
Railroad officials said the spikes
and ties had been pried up at a
point where the track curves into
the bridge. Then the track angle
was changed. The train as it took
the curve spread the loosened rails
and as several cars left the tracks
the train plunged to destruction.
After preliminary investigation
two crowbars found near the scene
were eliminated as clues. At first
believed left by the sabotage sus-
poets, they proved to have been
dropped along the right-of-way by
the first wrecking crew reaching
the canyon.
In describing the condition OF the
defaulted rails which were 165 feet
east of the bridge, they said it was
obvious tnaJ the saDoteurs removed
an angle bar which held rails rig
idly parallel, removed some 40
spikes. then pried the rail section
inward. One plate connecting the
rails was removed and propped at
an angle gainst the rail and nailed
into place as a natural derailment.
The rail was then nailed down,
leaving a four-inch gap through
which the trucks of the train
plunged onto the roadbed. A green
tumbleweed had been placed in the
gap to conceal the act of sabotage.
Expert Did Job
George C. Patterson. of the
Southern Pacific operating depart
ment, issued this statement after
viewing the wreckage:
1T was obviously the work OF
either railroad man or someone
who had had experience at track
work at some time. The clevernesa
with which the track had been
taken up and then replaced in po-
sition to wreck the train, coulG
mean only one thing-sabotag
The person or persons who did ii
knew their business. Not even the
wires were disturbed to break the
connection and thus set the block
signal against the approaching
stream-liner
Only three cars of the train re-
manned upright On the tracks
The train whose twin 900-horse-
power Diesel engines are capable
of turning its driving wheels to
a maximum speed of l1O miles per
hour. was west bound from Chicago
to San Francisco.
Engineer Ed Hecox was driving
the Diesel-engined power unit at
approximately 80 miles an hour.
The momentum pulled the auxiliary
power car and the baggage car
over the buckling rails The next
car, a chair car. also hurtled the
collapsing bridge and ended on its
side 200 feet on the other side.
The next six coaches ripped through
the side of the bridge and into