1939 City of San Francisco derailment

Railway accident caused by sabotage January 2026 February 2025 1939 City of San Francisco derailment City of San Francisco $5,000 Reward SP 1939.jpg reward poster Wanted poster placed by the Southern Pacific Railroad pleading for information 40.5755261 -116.2981592 title,inline 1939 08 12 9:33 p.m. Harney, Nevada United States Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) Derailment Sabotage City of San Francisco 24 121 List of rail accidents (1930–1939) On August 12, 1939, the City of San Francisco train derailed outside of Harney, Nevada, United States, killing 24 and injuring 121 passengers and crew. The derailment was caused by sabotage of the tracks. Despite a manhunt, reward offers, and years of investigation by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), the case remains unsolved. DeNevi Don Tragic Train: The City of San Francisco—The Development and Historic Wreck of a Streamliner 1979 Superior Publishing 0875645259 http://www.gbcnv.edu/hickson/CitySF.html Recalling a Train Wreck Howard Hickson Great Basin College July 10, 2002 https://web.archive.org/web/20170610163518/http://www.gbcnv.edu/hickson/CitySF.html 2017-06-10 June 12, 2017 Background The City of San Francisco was a cross-country passenger train running from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois. The train was jointly operated by three railroad companies, and the Nevada portion was operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). The incident happened approximately 1.5 mi km east of Harney, a named rail siding along the SP main line as it follows the Humboldt River through Palisade Canyon, between the towns of Beowawe and Palisade. Benchmark Maps Nevada Road and Recreation Atlas Benchmark Maps 42 G6 2003 1:280000 0-929591-81-X The train derailed at a high embankment next to a bridge over the river along a curve in the canyon. Sometime later, the Humboldt River was re-channeled and the tracks adjusted at this curve. There is no bridge at the location of the derailment today.http://elkorose.schopine.com/harney.html 1939 City of San Francisco derailment Elko Rose Garden Association May 5, 2002 Dan Turner February 19, 2021 May 14, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210514123322/http://elkorose.schopine.com/harney.html dead Incident thumb|A train similar to the one that crashed The City of San Francisco was travelling westbound for Oakland but was running behind schedule by around half an hour. After leaving Carlin, Nevada, engineer Ed Hecox had increased the speed to 90 mph km/h to make up time. At 9:33 p.m., Hecox and his train hit a patch of rail that had been deliberately moved out of alignment and camouflaged with brown paint and tumbleweed, derailing the train while it crossed the #4 bridge in the Humboldt River Gorge.https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/city-of-san-francisco-train-derailment-unsolved-14425484.php In 1939, sabotage killed dozens on the City of San Francisco. The killer was never found Katie Dowd San Francisco Chronicle September 9, 2019 September 10, 2019 Haine Edgar A. Train Wrecks Cranbury, NJ Cornwall Books 1994 107 Hecox survived and ran to the telephone at Harney to contact emergency services. Volunteers from Beowawe and Carlin rushed to the scene with medical supplies, but survivors were not taken to the hospital until a rescue train was assembled and took them to Elko the next morning. Five cars were destroyed and written off: SF 601 Presidio (32-seat coffee shop–kitchen car), SF-602 Mission Dolores (72-seat diner), SF-701 Embarcadero (dormitory-buffet-lounge car), and two sleepers, Twin Peaks and Chinatown. Wayner Robert J. 1972 Car Names, Numbers and Consists New York Wayner Publications 150 The SP tracks were out of service for several months, but the nearby tracks of competing Western Pacific Railroad were intact and used for both rescue trains and regular service until the SP tracks were repaired. Elko Daily Free Press Reno Gazette Journal From 1939: 20 known dead in train wreck August 13, 1939 July 7, 2014 June 7, 2017 http://www.rgj.com/story/life/2014/07/08/known-dead-train-wreck/12318557/ A total of 24 people died and 121 were injured. Investigation In the following days, divers discovered tools in the Humboldt River, exposing the disaster as an act of sabotage. Investigators estimated it would take a strong person about an hour to move the tracks, and noted the previous train passed through the area four hours before; SP's lead investigator, Dan O’Connell, estimated several hours, and a reenactment for the San Francisco Chronicle the year of the derailment required four heavy tools. SP established a $5,000 bounty (US 5000 1939 -3 eq) for the saboteurs (eventually increased to $10,000), and numerous lone hobos were arrested, although some investigators argued the sabotage was likely carried out by two or more people with knowledge of railroad operations. The arrests and interrogations led nowhere.https://www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jsnhb/v6n2/trainwreck.html Nevada Train Wreck: Unsolved Mystery Sierra College Tahoe Nugget Mark McLaughlin August 24, 2011 June 7, 2017 May 6, 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210506172507/https://www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jsnhb/v6n2/trainwreck.html dead The media coverage during the investigation proved hostile to SP. One of the first newspaper reporters on the scene was a photographer for the Elko Daily Free Press, who took pictures of the wreck site. SP accused the paper of publishing pictures taken at angles that made the damage appear worse than it actually was, to which the photographer responded, "God knows, it would have been impossible to make it look worse than it was". The railroad was criticized for the amounts paid in compensation. In one case where a passenger originally bought a ticket on a coach fare train, but before boarding upgraded to the City of San Francisco, a premium fare train, SP only refunded the difference between the two tickets. Other papers promoted a theory that the sabotage story was a coverup to hide SP's negligence in allowing Hecox to operate the train at such high speed. These papers interviewed and noted that some passengers were uncomfortable with the speed of the train several minutes before it derailed. As the train rounded curves passengers had difficulty standing and some beer bottles were shaken off of tables. Despite these details, the official position of both SP and the Federal Bureau of Investigation remains unchanged that the train was sabotaged, noting the evidence the rails were moved and the track circuits were bypassed. The case received new attention after the 1995 derailment in Palo Verde, Arizona. One week before the Arizona derailment, the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society published an article about the Nevada derailment in their magazine.Washington Post Tale of a 1939 Wreck is Studied for Clues to Train Sabotage https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/10/12/tale-of-a-1939-wreck-is-studied-for-clues-to-train-sabotage/c583425d-e0d6-4fa0-927c-2f2768ace53f/?noredirect=on October 12, 1995 Philips Don July 16, 2020 In addition to both accidents occurring along SP track, investigators noticed other similarities with the Nevada derailment, namely tracks moved on a bridge with a high embankment and bypassed track circuits so the signaling systems would not warn of a track break.https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/11/us/56-years-ago-a-similar-crash.html?ref=amtrak 56 Years Ago, a Similar Crash The New York Times October 11, 1995 November 27, 2011http://www.recordnet.com/article/19951011/A_NEWS/310119982 39 Nevada train wreck similar to Arizona crash October 11, 1995 June 11, 2017 The Record Stockton, CA These similarities and the timing of the magazine article initially led to suspicion the Arizona wreck may have been a copycat crime of the Nevada derailment. While the FBI interviewed people involved in the publication of the magazine article, no connection between the two crimes was established, and both crimes remain unsolved. To this day, the wreck of the City of San Francisco remains unsolved, and remains the deadliest rail disaster in Nevada. See also List of unsolved murders (1900–1979) References Category:Accidents and incidents involving Southern Pacific Railroad Category:August 1939 in the United States Category:Disasters in Nevada Category:Eureka County, Nevada Category:1939 mass murders Category:1939 disasters in the United States Category:1939 in Nevada Category:Railway accidents in 1939 1939 City of San Francisco derailment Category:Rail transportation in Nevada Category:1930s mass murders in the United States Category:1939 murders in the United States Category:Unsolved mass murders in the United States Category:Unsolved murders in Nevada