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CLARENDON - A fiery head-on collision between two trains killed one man, injured three and created a massive accident scene along U.S. Highway 287 near Clarendon on Tuesday morning.

Lubbock native Gayland Shelby, age unknown, was killed when the westbound freight train on which he was the engineer collided with an eastbound coal train about two miles west of Clarendon, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Wayne Beighle.

"When you look at the damage this did, it's a miracle we didn't have more people killed," Beighle said.

Beighle said the death count would almost certainly have been higher, but bystanders and rescue personnel dug Bruce Pattersonout from beneath a burning coal car.

Patterson, 57, of Amarillo was flown by Lifestar to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo, where he was listed in stable condition late Tuesday.

The two other men on the trains - Rodney Torres, the 34-year-old conductor of the freight train, and Ronald Gordon, the 51-year-old engineer of the coal train - were also taken to Amarillo and listed in stable condition.

The collision happened about 9 a.m. on the single-track stretch of railway.

Beighle said both Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains were moving, although the speed of the trains was unknown.

The coal train was headed from Wyoming to Texas, while the freight train was headed to California from Kansas.

Texas Department of Transportation workman Mike Ritchie was installing a road sign along the highway when he heard the brakes of the coal train screaching and then the collision.

"We heard them hit, so I looked up and there was just fire everywhere," Ritchie said. "I saw this huge fireball shoot up maybe 200 feet in the air."

Ritchie said the impact sounded like thunder, and the resulting fireball put off enough heat that he and his partner could feel it from their location almost a mile away.

The momentum of the two trains, both more than a mile long, caused massive damage to the locomotives.

Joe Faust, regional director of public affairs for BNSF, said the freight train, more precisely known as an intermodal train, weighed 5,546 tons, while the coal train weighed in at 15,843 tons.

The force of the impact crushed the leading locomotives on the two trains and tossed around the cars like toys. One of the locomotives was ripped away from the chassis and pushed back from the wheels, while another was tossed on its side. It quickly ignited.

The derailing cars ripped up the tracks, pushing one 20-foot-long section up through a coal car, leaving the track sticking straight up into the air.

The accident derailed 22 coal cars, including about a dozen that were neatly stacked side-by-side by the force of the impact. Three of the freight cars were derailed as well.

Rescue crews from nearly a dozen local towns rushed to the area and found the accident scene covered in flames.

"It was just chaos," said Clarendon Fire Chief Delbert Robertson.

The flames were being fed by diesel fuel, which is difficult to extinguish, so firefighters had to call for trucks from Pampa and Amarillo that could pump fire retardant foam, Robertson said. The flames were brought under control in about two hours.

Beighle said it appeared the crews of both trains may have tried to jump off before the collision.

The rescue effort mandated the closure of the northern lanes of the divided highway, but Beighle said officials expected to have all four lanes reopened by sundown Tuesday.

Officials from the Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were on the scene Tuesday to conduct an investigation. Faust said the two agencies and BNSF will cooperate on the investigation to determine what caused the accident, but he couldn't say how long it would take to make a conclusion.

The railway along Highway 287 is BNSF's main track, so crews will be working hard to clear the tracks as soon as the investigation in concluded, Faust said. In the meantime, BNSF will be working to reroute train traffic around the damaged area.

Received this in an e-mail: Have seen this elsewhere too. (I assume it is true)  BNSF Head-on collision near Clarendon, TX 5-28-02

      "This portion of the railroad is BNSF's Red River Valley Subdivision, formerly the main line of the Fort Worth & Denver Railway.  The collision occurred about half way between Amarillo and Childress.  It is non-signaled territory dispatched by Track Warrant Control (TWC).

      The eastbound train held authority authorizing movement to the east siding switch at Ashtola.  When this train was approximately five miles west of Ashtola, the dispatcher issued an additional Track Warrant to this train, with a "Box 2" to proceed from the east siding switch at Ashtola to the east siding switch at Hedley.  This Track Warrant included a "Box 7", not in effect until after the arrival of one westbound train at Ashtola.  Thus, the authority conferred by this second Track Warrant  required the eastbound train to wait at Ashtola for the westbound train to clear in the siding, before proceeding to Hedley.  However, the crew of the eastbound train did not stop at the east siding switch at Ashtola as required, and continued approximately 10 miles beyond Ashtola before colliding with the westbound train near Clarendon.

      The engineer of the westbound train was killed and the other three crew members were injured.

      The second Track Warrant issued to the eastbound train had been correctly repeated by the train's crew back to the dispatcher. "