1 Locomotive’s Brakes Were Disconnected

Four days before a Southern Pacific freight train derailed and slammed into seven homes here, the brakes on one of its rear locomotives were disconnected, authorities investigating the crash said Monday.

Although the significance of the find was not immediately clear, authorities with the National Transportation Safety Board said it could be key, particularly if those handling the train believed all their brakes were operable.

“The dynamic brakes on one engine were tagged on May 8, meaning they were cut out,” said NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz. “Why, we don’t know. But if the crew up front didn’t know about it, then that may have been a problem.”

In another development on the third day of the NTSB’s investigation of the devastating wreck, officials said the 69-car freight may not have been weighed before it left Mojave with its load of sal soda or trona--a sand-like material that was mined at Owens Lake.

Although the cargo list specifies that 60 tons of material were placed in each car when they were loaded in Rosamond, Lopatkiewicz said that “we do not have any information yet that suggests this load was ever weighed.”

When asked how railroad officials could fill out a cargo list without weighing the material first, Lopatkiewicz said, “That’s what we want to find out.”

Meanwhile, families who were evacuated from 29 homes near the Duffy Street crash site after concerns about a gasoline line buried by the rail cars were expected to return home late Monday. Fire officials cleared the area Saturday because of fears that the 14-inch line might be punctured by machinery dragging the mangled rail cars away.

Most of the families were put up in hotels by Southern Pacific officials, who have offered to buy the demolished homes and help the displaced residents rebuild or relocate.

In one of the worst derailments investigated by the NTSB, the runaway train barreled down the 4,200-foot Cajon Pass, plunged off a 30-foot flood levee and crumpled a row of homes in a working-class section of town as residents were getting ready for work Friday morning.

Killed in the wreck were two trainmen--the conductor and a brakeman--and two children whose home was crushed by a pile of steel hopper cars. Damage was estimated at more than $4 million.

Despite the path of devastation left by the Long Beach-bound freight, the neighborhood’s mood brightened late Friday as one man buried beneath a towering pile of rubble was plucked to safety after a 14-hour effort.

Christopher Shaw, 24, was transferred out of the intensive care unit at San Bernardino County Medical Center on Monday and is fair condition with two broken legs and a spinal fracture. Firefighters said he drew air from a pocket created by rafters that protected him from the weight of the wreckage.

Investigators are expected to continue prowling the train’s remains and interviewing crew members until the end of the week. Then, they will analyze the data and decide whether to hold a hearing to subpoena witnesses and solicit public input, Lopatkiewicz said.

Although no conclusions have been drawn about how the freight became a runaway, evidence collected so far points to the possibility that the train was heavier than its crew believed and suffered some degree of brake failure.

Southern Pacific workers interviewed by the NTSB have told investigators that at least some of the train’s open-air hopper cars were full to the brim, meaning they carried 100 tons of material, not including the 30-ton weight of the rail car. That figure conflicts with the cargo list, which says each car carried just 60 tons of sal soda.

If the cargo list weight is correct, the train should have had no problem making its way down the grade under normal braking power. Its listed weight of 6,151 tons was below that carried by most of the 103 other freights that came down the track between Jan. 1 and May 10, NTSB officials said.

But if the weight was greater than the crew believed, problems would not be unusual. Knowledge of weight bears directly on how an engineer manages the braking system, a factor of particular concern on a long, steep grade like the Cajon Pass, officials said.

In addition to the rear dynamic brakes that were disconnected days before the crash, NTSB investigators say, the switch controlling a separate rear engine was in “isolation” and thus was not providing brake power.

“We knew from the event recorder that there was no amperage coming from that engine,” Lopatkiewicz said. “Finding the switch in the cab in isolation is consistent with that. We just don’t know why the switch was in that position or how long it had been there.”

The NTSB also revealed that the engineer and the brakeman were previously cited for safety violations related to excessive speed and failure to properly connect brake lines between locomotives. But Lopatkiewicz cautioned that it is not uncommon for veteran trainmen to have violations on their record.

Southern Pacific officials have declined to comment on any aspect of the investigation. On Monday, spokesman Jim Loveland in San Francisco would say only that the busy line carrying the runaway train was built in 1967 to allow trains to bypass the congested San Fernando Valley.

Loveland said the route, known as the Palmdale Cutoff, carries about 15 trains a day and is inspected weekly.