We went exploring the Denver Pacific (1896 to 1908) through Terry Ranch this afternoon further south than i have ever been on the roadbed. I think i have found the site of a dramatic accident of some description but knowing little about the internals of a firebox or boiler explosions am not sure, perhaps someone can enlighten me ?
The area is littered with firebricks many have numbers like 35 and letters like UP molded in them and are scattered for about 200-300ft on both sides of the roadbed but mainly east, and pieces of mesh type material and a bent and torn piece of piping with a seam down the length of it. Also there is a curious arrangement of stones on one side of the track looking conspicuously like a memorial.
Could this be an explosion site, or is it possible for the firebox to collapse and be dumped trackside ?

Look forward to the replies
Mike Pannell
Cheyenne

Around here there are (or was) a couple of retaining walls along the RR ROW that were made out of Arch Brick and Boiler Tube.


-Hudson

It would seem that you have found evidence of the scattering of old or used firebrick and steel tubing, but as you know, that does not a boiler explosion make. I would get to a library and look for specifics that could be related to the terrain and perhaps some record of what became of the locomotive itself. What did Indiana Jones say? "99% of archaeology is done in the library, and 'X' never marks the spot".
Further site investigation seems in order, especially if you methodically grid the area with string and map out what you locate. I would hesitate to exhume too much without permission of the state historical commission.

State historical commision wont be consulted, its private land and we have the owners permission to explore at will, so we will head back with metal detectors etc, i fail to see why a area littered with large chunks of fire brick, iron and a special placing of stones on a totally level grade doesnt indicate a boiler explosion or some kind of major incident, what other scenarios do you suggest ?
I am told that before 1930 the railroads investigated boiler explosions and no one else, so maybe newspapers would mention something, we also found lots of slivers of fractured rail scattered near the ROW.

Mike Pannell

I would start with the ICC accident reports

http://ntl1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_railroads

Its not a complete record but it may help

Private land or not, you may find yourself coming up against some state law that governs archaeological digging, whether the land owner likes it or not. Be careful of this. Granted, it's probably not an earth shattering event, but it may be included as a death site.
I can't conceive of any other reasons for the scattering of firebrick and iron, except a possible derailment, a dump site. As I said, you have probably found the site of the boiler explosion event. You may locate other abandoned locomotive parts from the era.
I would suggest, however, you read up a little on mapping such a site, and lay out a grid pattern prior to just going in and throwing dirt around. It adds credibility to your research and will create a data net that others may study afterward.

Mike,

I think your hunch may be correct. If not a boiler explosion, it could have been a wreck site. Checking old records and newspapers would be a part of the process, but working on-site with a metal detector is the best way to move forward. If there are pieces on the surface, there could be dozens of pieces 3-6” deep. That looks like an easy surface to metal detect compared to sites overgrown with trees, brush, and briars, and all their roots. It would be most interesting to see what the metal detector says about that pile of stones.

A possible boiler explosion would be an interesting proposition because, if there are a lot of pieces on the site, it probably would be possible to confirm a possible boiler explosion, as opposed to just a collision. The firebricks alone give evidence of at least a collision, as opposed to a mid-train pileup. A boiler explosion would also leave a potentially much larger debris field than a wreck without an explosion. And with an explosion, there are likely to be twisted fragments of boilerplate giving very clear and convincing evidence of an explosion.

From what you know about the railroad grade, do you have a timeframe for its operation? Can you narrow down the range of possible locomotives in that timeframe?

On the other hand, railroads used to dump "stuff" wherever they wanted to fill in low spots. Firebrick and chunks of metal underlie a lot of former railroad property. Accumulations of ash are also common. So, might be interesing to find old topo maps from before the railroad was built if such exist, and then consider how it was constructed from a civil engineers perspective, and where filling might be useful after the line was opened from a drainage POV.

dave

Thanks for all the replies, i have never come across so much debris on a railroad grade, we found broken joint bars at the same location as well. The line was in operation from 1896 to 1908 and is between Carr CO and Athol WY, Carr was a pretty major helper point for shoving trains up the fearful grade to Athol. The new avoiding line was built in 1908 to ease the grade and joined the UP at Speer SW of Cheyenne.
Of course broken joint bars can be from demolition too, we also found more of the anti rail creep brackets which were used on the hill.
Mike Pannell

It's hard to tell what you've found, especially from a distance.

One thing does strike me as odd though. You mention lots of fire brick, and one piece of steel pipe, along with some track parts.

Have you found any other metal parts? It seems to me that in order to scatter firebricks far and wide, and break joint bars and rails, you'd certainly have the metal components of the locomotive breaking as well. I doubt the railroad would clean them up so thoroughly that you wouldn't find even bits and pieces.

At the moment, since you're mostly finding just firebricks, I have to agree with other posters that a likely scenario is filling in a low spot or wet spot. Or possibly a derailment of a car load of junk that was simply left where it fell?

Iron pieces end up buried just below the surface after 100 years. Every year the ground puffs up from the frost and then settles back down when it thaws. So it slowly swallows small iron parts because of their relatively dense nature.

Firebricks would tend to remain on the surface because their density is so much lower than iron. If there is legal authority to search with a metal detector, that site looks like a golden opportunity. That collection of very subtle surface clues is exactly what a century-old wreck site often looks like.

Mike, I've been following your post's on this possible boiler explosion site with interest. Being that the line was only in operation from 1896 to 1906 will certainly make your search for any accident accounts much easier while going thru microfilm or records due to the short time period that the line was in operation.

That sure looks like ideal RR hunting grounds to metal detect compared to the overgrowth and vegetation i usally have to deal with here in Ohio. If nothing else and it was just a dumping ground to dispose of old material or to fill a grade you ought to be able to at least turn up some interesting old RR iron!

Close to where i live in Norwalk,Ohio back near the river with high embankment approaches to a 1871 stone double arch RR bridge and the line dates back to 1852. Several years ago i stumbled upon 2 areas on the sides of the embankment where there seemed to be alot of old RR material and debri. Like Ron mentions the larger objects stay at the surface.I also found pcs. of fire brick, regular old building brick, ashes,broken glass, pcs. of rusty iron. metal scraps,broken RR lens,and a few coupling pins and journal box covers. Since the RR shops and roundhouse were in town i assumed they just dumped unwanted RR material over the embankment for fill and to dispose of stuff.

A few years went by and while searching the the newspaper microfilm at the library i found an account where in the mid 1890's the RR took 2 old derilict wood freight cars filled with debri from the shops and shoved them over the embankment and then burned the wood remains. I then knew the one site i stumbled upon was from the 2 old freight cars filled with debri. I had visions of maybe unearthing the trucks or wheels or maybe even a drawhead. I've searched the area many times and found nothing more. Maybe there buried under lots of earthen fill? I presume the big iron might have laid there until the WW2 scrap drives then it was removed. Guess i'll never know?

Finding the old newspaper account made it worthwhile learning what really happened back there! So hopefully you will find something be it at a library or old records of what happened at your site or you may find some pretty old interesting RR iron to prove your theory! Good luck and keep us posted!

A similar story from about 45 years ago. My friend was a Grand Trunk Conductor and great railfan. He had a few snapshots of a 1917 head-on collision at Gilead, Maine, along the Androscoggin River. After doing a bit of research, he and some friends scale down to the tracks, and then down to the river. The place is still littered with cinder screen and odd bits of steel, but the prize they winched out was the smoke stack from a destroyed Mikado. It is on display in Gorham, New Hampshire, today. The locomotives are not in the river, by the way, but one may still find trucks and other goodies in that area.