Wreck at Ellett on Virginian

[NW Mailing List]

Harry,

The fireman killed in the 1941 accident at Kumas was named "Steorts."  His son was a classmate of mine at Princeton High School, and the son told me recently how crushed he was as a nine-year-old when he learned that his father was killed in the wreck.

Gordon Hamilton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 2:47 PM
  Subject: Re: Wreck at Ellett on Virginian





    You can read the ICC accident report for this 1927 head-on collision at Ingleside here:

    http://ntl1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_railroads
  Gordon:
  I used the DOT library to check out the March 13, 1941 investigation which occurred at
  Kumis. Maybe Kumis had been misrepresented as Ellett.  It hadn't.  Later I found they're
  12 miles apart.

  No steam engines were involved, but the investigation revealed several historical facts:
  1- This was the last VGN investigation where the ICC identified crew members by name.
  2- Even before radio, VGN had concocted a system to communicate signals between units.
  3- VGN began installing spring switches in 1931 and by 1941 had 16 spring switches in service.
  4- At the west end of Kumis was a #10 turnout, but VGN later upgraded turnouts to #15's.
  5- Originally the distant signals for spring switches were semaphores, but were later changed to
      searchlights.                                                    Harry


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