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to Burbank where they were dispatched to their type tools were stolen and used in each case.
destinations by way of the Coast Division. The This account of the wrecking attempt was widely
estimated resumption in rail traffic was accurate, circulated by local newspapers and confusion had
and trains negotiated the new track, by-passing the evidently distorted the actual facts.
wreckage. Early Monday morning, November 11, As if destined to become a victim of some
1929, the trains again ran on the San Joaquin train wrecker, Sam Zachery was nearly put in the
Division. On Tuesday morning the following front ditch near Hasson station a few nights before the
page story appeared in the Los Angeles Times: West Coast Limited incident. The facts were
reported by Zachery who was an eye-witness to
MIRACULOUS ESCAPE the earlier train wrecking attempt. "I don't remem-
ber dates too well, but I think it was two nights
Railway men marvelled at the miraculous es- before this man wrecked the train at Saugus. I had
cape of members of the train crew and passengers been called with Engineer A. C. Ward up the
as the heavy engine swerved from the loosened Coast Division and we had a 2600 or 2700 series
rails dragging the two cars with it while another 2-8-0 consolidation engine with about 60 freight
left the rails. They state that the slow speed of cars. We were running ahead of a passenger train
the Limited approximately 25 miles an hour round- (I don't remember the number of the train) and
ing the curves and pulling the grade in Mint Canyon were meeting another train at Santa Susana. After
was the one factor that prevented loss of life and passing the train at Santa Susana, it had time to
many injuries. go to Chatsworth against the passenger train. This
Railway investigators and special men de- same man who wrecked No. 59, as he admitted
tailed from the sheriff's office after an extensive later, broke into the tool house at Hasson and took
inquiry gave their combined versions of the wreck a spike puller and a wrench. He pulled all the
and holdup by describing the movements of the spikes, took the bolts out of the angle bars which
train and bandit. left the rail lying loose. The bonding wires re-
According to the information disclosed, the mained connected to each end of the loosened rail
authorities believe that the affair was carefully providing continuity for the signal circuit. As
planned and carried out by a person familiar with we went over this rail which was loose, it shifted
railway construction work. over and our flange hit the next stationary rail.
They believe that the man timed the speed of We were told the flange of our locomotive marked
the Limited for several days prior to the actual the top of this rail for nearly 90 steps, then fell
wrecking. back onto the rail. Our locomotive broke the bond
wire when we went over the spikeless rail and
This story, written in an obvious attempt to actuated a red block signal at both ends of the
minimize the seriousness of the wreck, gave the circuit. After we passed the train at Santa Susana,
engineer and fireman of No. 59 little comfort. it had to be preceded by a flagman because of
Their injuries were all too painful and all too the restrictive signal indication. The alert brake-
real. Continuing examination of the area disclosed man found the loose rail and had it repaired so
that the tool house near the section shanty had that his train could continue on to Chatsworth to
been broken into, and the claw-bar and wrench meet the passenger train. Because of the fact that
obtained at about 6:00 P. M. just after darkness we were running ahead of the passenger train, it
mantled the canyons and mountains of the district. was no doubt spared the fate that turned the engine
The wrecking of the West Coast Limited was on No. 59 into the ditch." For some strange reason,
almost identical with an effort made the previous Sam Zachery seemed to be in the wrong place at
Thursday night near Santa Susana on the Lark, the right time, but his formal meeting with destiny
a San Francisco passenger train that traversed was forestalled.
the beautiful California coastline. This attempt Dan O'Connell, Chief Special Agent for the
was foiled by an alert trackman who discovered Southern Pacific Company, arrived at Saugus and
the theft of some tools and then traced them marshalled the members of the law agencies and
to the scene of the wrecking attempt. Mike Smith, then spread a dragnet over the entire area.*
trackwalker, found the altered track and tightened
the rails before the passage of the Lark. It was *O'Connell had the reputation of being one of
believed that another train had negotiated the the most able railroad detectives in the country, as
weakened track prior to the time that Smith had it was his untiring efforts that resulted in the
found evidence of the train wrecking attempt. As capture of the De Autremont brothers. These
in the wrecking of the West Coast Limited, a local cold-blooded murderers had stopped train No. 3
tool house had been broken into, and the same in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon on October

THREE BARRELS OF STEAM 44