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We could pick these nits to death. You probably go into more detail than is reasonable already! ;o)
The source is the Department of Transportation list of train derailments in the last century up until about 1966. I have the website bookmarked at work but I can't seem to locate it here so I'll forward it to you on Monday. I'm attaching excerpts from these records which chronicle damages to Santa Fe F's over the years but the website is interesting because it is actually a collection of PDF files which are copies of the original railroad accident report forms. There are a few photos as well as track diagrams, etc. Interesting reading.
According to the documentation, Train 8, the Eastward Fast Mail, engines 30CBAL, was given orders in the early morning hours of September 5, 1956, to take the siding and meet Train 19, the Westward Chief, engines 41LABC, at Robinson, New Mexico. No. 8 would have normally been superior to No. 19 ("Eastward trains are superior to Westward trains of equal or lesser class") but 19 was way late so the dispatcher stabbed 8 at Robinson.
The fireman of No. 8, half asleep or more, tumbled out of the cab and went forward to line No. 8 out of the siding after No. 19 passed. He made two fatal violations of the rules: 1. Do not stand closer than 100 feet from the switchstand when waiting for meeting trains and remain on the opposite side of the track from the switchstand until the met train passes, and; 2. Do not unlock the switch until the met train passes. He walked right up to the stand and unlocked the lock. Then, as 19 bore down on him, Mars light flashing, he got confused. "I unlocked it, but did I line it? I'm not sure. Maybe I did! Oh no, what do I do? What do I do?"
Yep. He did it. He lined the switch "back." Unfortunately he hadn't line it in the first place. No. 19 plunged into the Robinson Siding right into the Fast Mail. At point of impact, 41L plowed into 30C at 73 Miles Per Hour with the combined weight of four F-7s and a full Chief trainset. Four crew members were killed and scores of passengers injured. Fortunately, most on 19 were asleep in padded berths and the rider coach on the 8 was way at the end. Both 41L and 30C were, and I quote, "demolished." The others were only "badly damaged." It was several days before the fireman returned to the scene of the crime.
Now both of those engines emerged from the ashes as totally rebuilt units. They have all the outward physical characteristics of late Phase II F-7s (split dripstrips and rounded windows, vertical split louvers on the middle panel [4, not five like an F-9], 36" dynamic brake fans, etc.) but, as you pointed out, EMD was well into F-9 production at the time. I don't know if they were rebuilt by EMD (as I suspect) or if they were pieced together by the Santa Fe.
Bottom line, after 9-5-56, 41L was no longer a Phase I F-7 and 30C was no longer a Phase IV F-3 or a F-5.
As a further point of interest, Trains Magazine did an article on the wreck several years ago.
Herb Kelsey
In God We Trust
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