Fog in Gore Canyon

On Jan. 16 officials of the Denver" & Rio Grande Western and the Denver & Salt Lake Railway Co. loudly blew their own horn. The tortuous, dangerous trackage they shared through the Colorado Rockies, said they, would henceforth be as safe as a baby's crib. Reason: they had spent $5,000,000 to build a "foolproof" central traffic control system (CTC). A dispatcher could keep such close tabs on train movements that it was "absolutely impossible for two trains to come together unless an engineer deliberately runs through a signal."

Four nights later an eastbound Denver & Salt Lake freight crawled through a heavy fog in deep Gore Canyon 90 miles west of Denver. It missed a signal, collided head on with a westbound Rio Grande passenger train, killed the fireman. Sadly, railroad officials amended their boast: "Our new system does not penetrate fog."

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