City of San Francisco Streamliner Catastrophe

Submitted by Jan Petersen

On August 12, 1939, on a bright moonlit night at 9:33 p.m., Southern Pacific’s ”crack streamliner”, the City of San Francisco, derailed near Harney, Nevada in the canyon just west of Palisade, Nevada. This catastrophe killed 24 people and injured 121. Of those hurt, 32 required hospitalizations.

Luxury described the City of San Francisco streamliner. It was promoted as the fastest, most powerful train ever designed and built. The launch press release stated, “As modern as tomorrow.” Travel time from Chicago to the west coast was less than 40 hours. Almost a quarter of a mile long, it was powered by six giant engines generating an incredible 5,400 horsepower to pull the train’s 1,207,151 pounds. The ultra-modern passenger train symbolized the ultimate in safety engineering.

 Following behind the power units were cars named for San Francisco landmarks: Market Street, Presidio, Mission Dolores, Nob Hill, Embarcadero, Twin Peaks, Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, Union Square, Seal Rocks, Telegraph Hill, and Portsmouth Square. With comfort and speed it could carry the crew and 171 passengers-220 people.

Engineer Ed Hecox, a 20-year SP veteran, was at the controls. Pulling out of Carlin, Nevada. he realized the train was 26 minutes behind schedule. He told the fireman they would arrive on time at Oakland because he could throttle up to 90 miles an hour across Nevada.
After the wreck, one passenger, recalled the train was speeding through the curves after they left Carlin. He remembered two bottles of beer were thrown from their edged table onto the floor. A woman was thrown from her seat into the aisle and everyone laughed awkwardly… a few minutes before the derailment. The train was going faster than it had on previous legs of the journey.

At 9:33 p.m. Hecox saw a tumbleweed on the tracks as the train approached railroad bridge #4. He felt the engine lurch, then jump the tracks. The train traveled almost 900 feet before grinding to a halt. The bridge collapsed. Five cars: Twin Peaks Pullman sleeper; Mission Dolores diner; Embarcadero crew dormitory-club car; Chinatown Pullman sleeper and Market Street chair car telescoped into each other and then dropped into the Humboldt River. Three other cars derailed and went down an embankment.

Hecox recalled, “As the engine stopped, I jumped out of the engine and ran back to the cars.. All I could hear was the screams and moans of the injured and dying. Everywhere there was dust. I could not see a single living person.” He then ran down the tracks to Harney, about one and one-half miles away. After making emergency telephone calls, he returned to the site with the Beowawe section crew. Six cars remained upright.

Joe Bell, then 11 years old, was one of the first on the scene. He came with his father and the Beowawe constable. They heard pounding and found the section crew under a car moving a rail. It was later claimed that the men were moving rails back in place to get the last four cars back on the tracks in order to move the survivors out.

Rescuers from Palisade, Carlin, Elko and nearby ranches showed up to help through the night with the injured, dying and dead. 

It was a gruesome scene. Parts of bodies were scattered about and people were moaning for help. Train cars were hurriedly assembled in Carlin and the 30 plus wounded were taken to the 55 bed Elko hospital. There were already 30 local patients in the hospital.  It was certainly a mass casualty event.

In Elko, a local service club met the train and transported the patients to the hospital by private cars, several blocks distance. In 1939, the ambulance service was the mortician’s hearse and the only one in town. The hearse was also put in service.

Local doctors were called to come immediately. A surgeon visiting at Dean Witter’s Horseshoe Ranch pitched in at a moment’s notice. The Southern Pacific in Ogden sent over a doctor and an intern. 

In the next hours the accident scene was filled with local volunteers who showed up to help. Onlookers also arrived to view the scene. With all the rescue efforts taking priority, the area was compromised for investigation purposes so that no real clues could be found. A few people even picked up souvenirs to take home.

At the accident site, bodies were covered with sheets and blankets. Most had been in the cars that went into the Humboldt River.

Investigations began with railroad agents, law enforcement, FBI and the Interstate Commerce Commission questioning employees, passengers and area residents. During the next few days and weeks, divers recovered tools from the Humboldt River and a couple of jackets were found in the area. Railroad detectives maintained they were dropped by the saboteurs. Many characters of questionable reputation, were questioned and released. Several confessed but were written off as totally unreliable. Thousands were interviewed in the following months but no was ever charged.

Newspaper reporters were barred from the hearing. The journalists  bitterly complained of withholding information. Rumors abounded.

An Elko newspaper photographer, Earl Frantzen, was accused by the railroad of taking pictures from an angle which made the wreck look worse than it was. He commented, “God knows, it would have been impossible to make it look worse than it was.”

The railroad investigation only added to the confusion by clearing the railroad of all wrongdoing. Some claim they did this to head off future lawsuits. The final and formal conclusion, after hearing the railroad’s evidence, was that there was no doubt the accident was caused by a moved rail. Who moved it and why was never resolved.

Some passengers claimed that the streamliner was traveling very fast.
A sheriff and a constable both said they could not find any evidence of rail tampering.

The FBI disagreed with the railroad’s decision.

Those who testified at the hearings were mostly railroad employees and residents of railroad towns. Jobs could have been lost if they charged the railroad with negligence.

If someone had been arrested, charged, and convicted, perhaps the controversy, 86 years later, would not still exist. There will always suspicion and doubt about the cause.
 

Sources: “Recalling a Train Wreck” by Howard Hickson, Northeastern Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Tragic Train by Don DeNevi and newspaper stories from the Elko Free Press and the Elko Independent

Photographs from the archives of the Museum.