Wreck at Ellett on Virginian

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Tue Feb 21 21:58:21 EST 2012


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
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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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