Trains Magazine Speacial 2012 "Train Wrecks" Issue

Thanks for the reminder on this. I preordered that special issue on ‘Train Wrecks’ several months ago and had forgotten all about it. Hope to see it soon.

Growing up in the D.C. area,  I remember hearing many stories about the famous GG1 crash at Union Station, My wife had an uncle that worked for the B&O down at the Station and he always talked about the “inside” dope on that incident.   Or so he said.

I'll agree.  It's an interesting special issue.  The authors of several of the articles are professional journalists who do not write regularly for rail fan publications.

I do question the analysis of the LS&I wreck where the train broke in two and the rear portion rolled backward.  Something is fishy.  And I am not just alluding to the case of whitefish given to the state railroad inspector by the LS&I. 

Locomotive Engineer Journal (which Uncle Roland -- a UPRR Engineer -- always passed along to me after he had read it) had an article about the Washington GG1 wreck soon after it happened, and there was a photo of Harry Brower, the Engineer, who actually did do a great job of coming into the station out of control.  Without his having handled everything the way he did, the wreck could easily have been fatal.

Harry Brower's name was burned onto my brain.  Who knows why odd bits of information stick?  The name of a NYC Big Four Engineer named Howard Cole, who survived a crossing crash in Ohio, when his two-unit Erie-Built passenger diesel struck a gasoline truck, is also "branded" onto my poor ol' brain, thanks to the Locomotive Engineer Journal.