Four of Wyoming’s Most Famous Train Wrecks

Thankfully train wrecks and wrecks with trains do not happen that often.

A train wreck is defined as when a train or its cars jump the tracks. A wreck with a train is when a train hits another or a car or animal hits a train.

Here are a few of the bigger Wyoming train wrecks and wrecks with trains throughout the state's history.

‘I Have Lost My Train in the River’: Carnage on the CB&Q. Wyoming history reports his sad tale with pictures of twisted metal and a passenger car sticking up on end in a seemly impossible position. 30 were killed.

Train derails south of Thermopolis. It is surprising that no one was hurt, once you see the condition of the engines and how far down they had to fall to land in the middle of a raging river.

BNSF Train With Vehicles Derails.   Burlington Northern Santa Fe is had a derailment of eight rail cars on a freight train in northeast Wyoming May 24 in the small community of Rozet, east of Gillette. The Associated Press said no one was injured.

The Wreck Of Big Boy 4005. Those old Big Boy steam engines were massive. On April 27, 1953, the crew of the Union Pacific 4005 were moving across southern Wyoming.  The 4005 entered the open switch at 50 mph causing it to careen off the rails and skid along its left side tearing up rail and roadbed. The locomotive, tender, and first 18 cars derailed. The cab of the locomotive was destroyed.The first 12 cars piled in a 70' high heap. The engineer Leo Murry and fireman Lawrence Endres were killed instantly, but amazingly brakeman, James Anderton, survived.