It was bad luck for the Super Chief. Running into severe storms after leaving Kansas City, No.17 was departing Newton, when the Train Dispatcher was informed that there was a washout between Newton and Dodge City. He dropped the signal at the west end of Sand Creek. The train got stopped and the Fireman went to the phone booth and was soon joined by the Brakeman. The DS instructed them to back up the train to the depot at Newton. During the back-up move, the rear unit of the locomotive consist was struck from the side by a grain truck. The engine turned onto its side and the other three rednoses jackknifed. A switcher towed the train back to Newton, where stationary steam was available, while a decision was made as to No. 17's fate. With the rain still pouring, the decision was to re-route No. 17 over the southern main line, via Oklahoma, Texas and eastern New Mexico. Since this occurred during the wheat harvest, the only engine on the ready track was a pair of geeps which were marked up for the Great Bend local. Well, sometimes you get what you get, and, in a short time, No. 17 was streaking across the plains and wasting no time doing it.
Here, the following morning, Engineer Wallace "Machine Gun" White has 'em rolling across the High Plains Division, doing his best to make track speed (plus a little extra) heading up Martin Hill and around the numerous curves of the rough country of west Texas, as he presses on toward the next crew change, in Caprock. Fireman Wendell Burleson had gone down to the Crew Office at Caprock after an early breakfast, to check his standing on the Extra Board, and learned of the re-routed Super Chief. He jumped into his 1947 Ford and raced home to get his movie camera, and then rocketed over the 2-lane roads to get these four scenes committed to film.
