Qualla: San Bernardino Train Disaster

San Bernardino Train Disaster: Introduction

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JeremyaGreene, CC BY-SA 4.0. The clerk in Mojave looked at the paperwork for 69 hopper cars and wrote down 60 tons each. The actual load was 100 tons per car. That single clerical error, compounded by a dead locomotive, malfunctioning dynamic brakes, and a catastrophic miscommunication, would send a Southern Pacific freight train screaming through a residential neighborhood at 110 miles per hour on May 12, 1989. The posted speed limit on the elevated curve at Duffy Street was 35 mph. Thirteen days later, a petroleum pipeline damaged during cleanup would rupture and set the same street ablaze for seven hours. Two disasters, one location, six deaths, and a complete rewriting of railroad safety protocols.

Image: JeremyaGreene | CC BY-SA 4.0

San Bernardino Train Disaster: The Weight Nobody Knew

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Lake Minerals had contracted to ship 6,900 tons of trona - a mineral used in glass manufacturing - from the Mojave Desert to the Port of Los Angeles for export to Colombia. The mining company turned in paperwork without filling in weights, assuming the railroad would know that 10...

Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

San Bernardino Train Disaster: Brakes That Weren't

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JeremyaGreene, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dynamic brakes work by converting a locomotive's electric motors into generators, using the train's momentum to create resistance. On a 2.2 percent downgrade, one working dynamic brake can control about 1,700 tons at optimal speed. The train needed the equivalent of six functiona...

Image: JeremyaGreene | CC BY-SA 4.0

San Bernardino Train Disaster: 110 Miles Per Hour

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ichabod, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the train crested Cajon Pass at Hiland and started down the western slope, engineer Holland immediately felt something wrong. The train was gathering speed faster than his inputs could control. He applied air brakes and maxed out his dynamic brakes, then radioed the helper e...

Image: Ichabod | CC BY-SA 3.0

San Bernardino Train Disaster: Duffy Street

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JeremyaGreene, CC BY-SA 4.0. The lead locomotives and several freight cars catapulted off the elevated track bed into the residential neighborhood below. Seven houses were demolished. Conductor Crown was crushed in the nose of unit SP 8278. Brakeman Riess died in the cab of SP 7549. Ten-year-old Jason Thomps...

Image: JeremyaGreene | CC BY-SA 4.0

San Bernardino Train Disaster: Thirteen Days Later

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) — colouring added, Public domain. On May 25, 1989, at 8:05 a.m., shortly after a train passed through the restored track, the 14-inch Calnev Pipeline ruptured at the exact curve where the derailment had occurred. Earth-moving equipment during cleanup had damaged the line. Gasoline showered the neighborhood and ig...

Image: National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) — colouring added | Public domain