OCR Text |
Show RUNAWAY TRAIN ATKENNECOTT SUNDAY NOON Quick thinking by control tower tow-er operators Monday was credited credit-ed with saving the lives of a "number of Copperton rail yard employes" when a 1500-ton ore train raced out of control down a mountainside Sunday. Kennecott Copper Corp. officials offic-ials said operators, William Ablett Ab-lett and J. L. Murano cooperated in derailing the thundering mass of steel and ore from the Bingham Bing-ham open cut mine before it ploughed ot 70-mile-an-hour speed through the center of the Copperton yards where the men were at work. Two rail employes on the line who were riding the train were injured however. They were William Wil-liam H. Harper, 60, Midvale, the engineer, who suffered a sprained sprain-ed knee and lacerations, and Moyle Stock, 31, Bingham, brake-man, brake-man, received a dislocated ankle and shoulder and locerations when they jumped from the train. Both were reported in good condition con-dition at St. Mark's hospital. The train, pushed by an electric engine and made up of 12 ore cars, left Bingham shortly before noon Sunday on its trip through the train tunnel to Copperton and Magna. Apparently the first seven cars were without air brakes, for one half mile out of the tunnel, Engineer En-gineer Harper realized that his train was out of control. He said he tried to signal the brakeman by whistling, but Mr. Steck could not hear him. With that the engineman leaped leap-ed from the train, which was then going an estimated 50 miles per hour. When the runaway train roared roar-ed past the central yard control tower, operator Ablett signaled Mr. Murano in the Copperton tower that a "train is loose." Mr. Murano closed a switch in the yards in order to derail the approaching "avalanche." He also al-so warned yard workers by public pub-lic address system to "scatter." Brakeman Steck rode on the front of the ore train as it clattered clat-tered past Mr. Ablett's tower, but two and one half miles from the tunnel he leaped "from the train which was then traveling at more than 60 miles per hour. A mile further down the line, the last five cars and the locomotive loco-motive broke connection, jack-knifed jack-knifed in the air and plunged off the track, splitting ties and mangling man-gling rails. The first seven cars',' each loaded load-ed with 100 tons of ore, sped on i toward the Copperton yards which Mr. Murano was seeking to clear of workmen. This section of the runaway hit the closed switch, shearing the hard steel rail and leaping the tracks in a wild plunge. A 400-foot section of rail was bent in a huge arc, while ore was spilled over a wide area. None of the yard workers were hurt, however, largely as a result re-sult of Mr. Ablett's and Mr. Murano's cooperation in warning the workmen. Kennecott officials said the lines had been repaired by 4 a.m. Monday morning and normal traffic resumed through the Copperton Cop-perton yards. No interruption of work at the Magna mills was suffered as there was sufficient ore stockpiled stock-piled for continued operations. An investigation was being conducted by the company to determine de-termine cause of the failure. Y. |