Trainman Noticed Brakes Lost Pressure : Against Railroad’s Rules, Emergency System Activation Was Delayed

An engineer on a Southern Pacific freight train that derailed and killed four people here told federal investigators Monday that he noticed a crucial loss of pressure in the train’s brake lines about a mile down the treacherous Cajon Pass descent.

Despite a pressure loss of at least 14 pounds per square inch, no immediate action was taken to activate the train’s emergency braking system as required by Southern Pacific regulations, National Transportation Safety Board officials said at a briefing Monday night.

It was not until the train had gone another 13 miles down the grade Friday that the “helper engineer” activated the emergency brakes, NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said.

That same engineer also told investigators that, although he knew that one set of dynamic brakes in a rear locomotive were disconnected, he failed to inform the lead engineer of that fact.

That lapse could be key because it could have caused the lead engineer to believe he had full braking power as he began the long descent down Cajon Pass.

“We asked (the helper engineer) why there was not better communication between the two engineers,” Jim Kolstad, acting NTSB chairman, said. “He didn’t have a good answer.”

Kolstad noted that radios used by crew members to communicate with each other were fully operative.

In another development on the third day of the NTSB’s investigation of the wreck, officials said the load of sal soda the 69-car freight was carrying from Mojave to Long Beach was not weighed.

Moreover, five railroad clerks that saw the train pull out of Mojave told NTSB investigators that at least 25 of the hopper cars were loaded to the brim. One clerk said every car was completely full.

These accounts conflict with a manifest or list of goods filled out prior to the train’s departure that said the cars were just two-thirds full. NTSB officials said they had not discovered who prepared the manifest.

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 seven 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 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 in 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.

In an interview from his hospital bed Monday, Shaw said he sang songs and talked to himself to remain calm during his 14-hour ordeal. Wrapped in bandages but alert and talkative, Shaw said he tried frantically to dig himself out but had little luck.

“I dug one way for a while and then I couldn’t reach any farther,” said Shaw, who works for a San Bernardino janitorial service. “But I knew I had to keep trying.”

Periodically, when rescuers took breaks from their digging effort, Shaw said he grew frightened. But with breathing in his tiny airspace already a challenge, he said he knew it would be dangerous to panic.

“I was afraid they were giving up on me,” said Shaw, who was staying at his mother’s Duffy Street home because he and his girlfriend had an argument. “But I was not going to give up. If I had to stay another day in there, I knew I could do it.”

Shaw, who initially believed the derailment was an earthquake, said he deduced it was a train wreck because after he was buried, he could feel one of the freight train’s huge steel wheels with his feet.

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.

Weight, Brakes

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.

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.