Sad day for DM&E Crews through out Iowa

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that is sad to rear about. It said a switch was open and not lined for the main. And judging by the photo of the 2 locomotives they must've been at track speed. The one locomotive looks to have had the entire engine and compressor ripped off the frame along with the shell of the body.

Condolences to both families.
 
My sympathies to the familes and the DME employees. Sounds like human error. Apparently the double-ended siding is used as a set out track and, whoever switched the siding, forget to line the first switch back to the main.
 
This is sad news. I've seen engine 4001 "The City of Wall" a few times while I was living up in South Dakota. What was the lead engine?

This kind of reminds me of a story of when I was in Rapid City. A train of hoppers (full of cement) got loose and rolled through town. They ended up on a dead end siding. The train cars jumped the track at the end and kept on rolling. They rolled across a street where a couple of them ended up on their side. The road was closed for a day or so. Fortunately they were able to save most of the train as the cars cut their own rails into the cement road, so as the locomotive could pull them back onto the track. Surprisingly, no one was hurt, but what a sight to see!
 
The odd thing about the 2nd photo is the extensive amount of damage to the lead loco which would normally be the result of high speed collision. Yet the cars and second loco appear to be on track in the 1st photo which normally indicates a lower speed collision.
Loaded cars would have pushed thru and empty cars would have piled up.
From my experience anyway...
 


I noticed the same thing, Rico. Maybe the engineer had time to apply the brakes so the lead unit too most of the impact. If the standing cars were empties, most of the collision force would have been absorbed by the lead unit. I noticed they marked the wheel postions of the covered hopper with paint on the rails so I'm sure they are trying to figure this out also.
 
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