Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad

There actually is a location in Colorado called Troublesome (for Troublesome Creek) just a few miles east of Kremmling, where Union Pacific (nee-D&RGW) still has a short siding.

Our feature starts off with a lecture from G.B. Aydelott, President Rio Grande Railroad, scrolling across the screen and continues with the somewhat patronizing tone of the narrator. “This train is worth over a MILLION dollars”, he repeats over and over (implying “which you careless employees turned into splintered wood, contorted steel, and ruined lading”).

Having experienced the wrath of management, our story begins in the remote community of Bond, Colorado. It’s oh-dark 30 in the morning and the 5 man crew (remember those?) is reporting for duty to take the SPD (Southern Pacific – Denver) to Roper Yard in the Mile-High City.

The head end crew, (engineer, fireman, head brakeman) prepares to climb aboard DRGW #5554, an EMD F7A built in February 1949 leading an A-B-B-A set of units. The beautiful “Prospector” scheme in Aspen Gold and silver graces the flanks of these locomotives.

Compare watches, check the V-16s in the engine room, brake test, and we’re on our way eastward.

Finally, it’s daybreak as the head-end crew calls out green signals to each other. In fact, they’ve seen nothing BUT green signals since they left Bond.

Making a respectable 52 mph, the crew chats about how lucky they were to get such a good train.

Meanwhile, the dispatcher has routed a westbound into the siding at Troublesome. This is the MX (Market Extra), a local train headed to Phippsburg, CO on the Craig Branch.

The MX has a 3 unit A-B-A set of EMD FTs (with dynamic brakes) led by DRGW #5434, a diesel built in May, 1943.

As they are shooting the breeze, no one is looking forward, and the guys completely miss the solid yellow signal at West Troublesome switch.

It isn’t until the #5434 rumbles by, that they realize a meet is going on and the hogger puts the train in emergency. Too late, the #5554 smashed into a line of 40 foot box cars, YAAAAAAHHHH!

Yes, I know this is CTC territory, but you’d think the meet would have been mentioned in the paper orders they picked up at Bond?

The DS knows something is up, as his CTC board is flashing like a Christmas tree. Sure enough, smashed F units are scattered everywhere.

Calling all cars, calling all cars… Fortunately, injuries are relatively minor for both crews and one trainman is able to phone in the accident to headquarters. Miss Knipfel and her cohorts pass on the word as the teletype furiously clatters out the details. An office flunky relays the bad news to a big shot in the conference room and the railroad LEAPS into action!

What appears to be (no number visible) an EMD GP7 5100 series, built June 1952, is coupled to the “Big Hook” to be rushed out to the wreck scene. The Rio Grande MOW paddy wagon joins the convoy of road equipment tooling down US 40 towards Troublesome.

What a mess. The first order of business is to clear the line for track repairs.

Look at all those suits! A large percentage of D&RGW management is on site, who, as the narrator sneeringly reminds us, could be better utilized elsewhere. We agree. At least half of those brass hats could be back at the office whomping up a mission statement, or something…

Anyways, back to the real work to be done. Workers use bulldozers to literally pry mangled box cars apart with a cable.

If you’re lucky, a crane can place a box car back on the rails; if not, you use a cable to ROLL the car away from the track

More wreckage and twisted metal.

THE END – A Sonochrome Picture out of Denver, Colorado (de rigueur for 1950’s train documentaries) brings this movie to a close as the CB&Q-DRGW-WP California Zephyr passes under the US 40 highway bridge.

If you’d like to view the feature I reviewed yourself, the link is below:

That is, if it’s still on YouTube.

If you have ANY information about this movie you’d like to share, please contact me at: Lindsay.Korst@gmail.com, or leave a comment.  Thanks and enjoy the blog!

THE END