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Photo of train wreck, Rifle, CO, 1902. (Photo by Fred Garrison)

This striking image shows the wreckage which resulted when a Colorado Midland Railway train carrying cattle and freight collided head-on with a Denver and Rio Grande (D&RG) freight train shortly after 5:00 p.m. on November 15, 1902.  The collision took place just east of the Rifle, Colorado, rail yards. 

The coal car for Midland Engine 22 was knocked off its truck (i.e., the undercarriage containing its wheels, suspension, etc.) and the locomotive pushed back over the tender’s truck into the first cattle car.   You can clearly see the results in the photo.  Asa R. Tharp, the fireman on the Midland train, was standing on the gangway between the engine and the coal car at the time of the collision and fell to his death on the rails.    Tharp, a resident of Leadville, had married Ada Cruson of Leadville just a few weeks before his death. 

All crew members of both trains were injured in some way, including Midland engineer Fred Stiffler, who avoided death by being thrown from the cab but suffered head lacerations and a broken left arm and hand.  D&RG engineer Andrew Danielson suffered back and face bruising, and head brakeman W. B. Crawford sustained a back injury.  It was first thought the D&RG fireman, whose name I couldn’t pin down, had perished and was somewhere in the wreckage, for no one could find him.  However, he had survived the collision and immediately ran unnoticed to a farm house to obtain assistance.  Many cattle on the Midland were killed or injured.    

The cause of the collision was determined to be an oversight by a dispatcher identified only as Mr. Sykes.  Sykes was said to be one of the most reliable of dispatchers and was grief-stricken after learning he had caused the accident. 

“Hoodoo” is a term used by railroaders of the old days to describe a locomotive that has seen more than its share of adverse incidents, including wrecks.   Midland Engine 22, built in 1887 by the Schenectady Locomotive Works in New York, was thought to be such an engine.  Prior to the head-on collision described above, it survived a fire in a Colorado City repair facility in the 1890’s, and was involved in two other fatal incidents.  In the first of these, Engine 22 exploded, killing several people.   That was early in the early 1890’s.  The second occurred in 1897 and involved a head-on collision.

The 1897 wreck occurred September 10th at 12:13 a.m. on a rail line between Grand Junction and New Castle, which was shared by the Midland and D&RG Railways.   The westbound D&RG, a passenger train pulled by Engine 506, had just left New Castle (New Castle is about 13 miles west of Glenwood Springs) for Grand Junction and had progressed about a mile and a half when it collided head-on with a Midland cattle train pulled by Engine 22.     The impact was devastating and, because it happened near a curve, came with little warning.  William Gordon, the D&RG engineer, only had enough time to reverse the engine and hit the air brakes.    The collision ruptured the gas tank used for lighting the passenger cars, soon engulfing both trains in flames.  Depending on which account one reads, 10 to 20 people were killed, including Gordon, who was thrown 150 feet from the wreckage. 

Gordon was not found until about an hour after the crash, when the cattle were about to be released from the cars.  He was still alive and must have overhead the command to release the cattle, for he called out and asked that they not be released, probably for fear he would be trampled.   When help arrived, he relayed details of the crash.  However, suffering serious internal injuries and being badly scalded, he would die later that day.  The crash also claimed the lives of D&RG fireman Bob Holland, Midland engineer Bob Ostrander and Midland fireman Frank Hines.  As it turns out, Fireman Holland was substituting that night for James Craddock, who taken had taken the shift off to sit for the engineer exam.       

Before his death, Engineer Gordon blamed the Midland conductor, Frank Burbank, for the collision.    The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel subsequently reported an assertion by Burbank that a discrepancy among the railroad watches used by train personnel was partly to blame for the collision.  Burbank was subsequently arrested by the sheriff on orders from the coroner, though it’s not clear if the arrest was founded on Gordon’s statement or other information. 

In an inquest held the day after the accident, a jury heard testimony from Burbank, as well as the dispatcher involved, a person by the name of Moreley.  As reported by the Cripple Creek Morning Times, I found Burbank’s testimony confusing, though he clearly said the collision happened at 12:00 or 12:01, as opposed to the actual time of 12:13.  This would be consistent with his assertion that there were discrepancies among railroad watches.  Moreley testified that the Rio Grande train, complying with a scheduled one-hour delay, was due to leave New Castle at 12:08 and that Burbank had two options:  1) To take the Midland train to Silt, which sits about 7 miles west of  New Castle, and lay by in a siding there until the D&RG train had passed, or 2) Take the Midland train clear to New Castle, but only if they could arrive there by 12:00.  Obviously, in light of the fact that the crash happened at 12:13 a.m., the Midland’s arrival at New Castle would have not even been close to a 12:00 arrival time. 

The jury concluded that Midland Conductor Burbank and Engineer Ostrander (deceased) had attempted to make the run to New Castle in a time period already allocated to the D&RG and were thus responsible for the collision. 

Jumping forward to April 1, 1908, we find Engine 22 still in service to Midland and obviously rehabilitated after it’s head-on collision at Rifle in 1902.  It’s pulling a passenger train, in second position behind Engine 20, up Trout Creek Pass near Buena Vista and headed toward a bridge spanning a gorge approximately 100 feet deep.  What neither engineer could know until coming around a curve was that the bridge was on fire.  Upon seeing this, each of them quickly applied the emergency brakes, hoping to stop the train before it reached the disintegrating bridge.  Their actions were effective but not timely enough to prevent both engines from plunging head long off the precipice.  The engineer and fireman for each engine had stayed aboard until it was clear there was no chance of stopping in time, and then jumped for their lives.   The baggage car behind the engines ran out over the edge several feet before the couplings snapped, but it went no further.  All the passengers were safe.  And the engineers and firemen had all landed safely.  

I was astonished to read that both Engine 22 and Engine 20 were successfully retrieved from the bottom of the gorge, repaired and sent back into service.  Engine 22 would serve Midland Railway until the railway closed in 1920, at which point it was sold to another railroad. 

I don’t know if I marvel more at Engine 22’s crash record or at the abilities of the skilled workers, including boilersmiths, crane operators, mechanics and machinists, who repeatedly brought the Hoodoo back to life.

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