Talk:1939 City of San Francisco derailment

A fact from 1939 City of San Francisco derailment appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 4 July 2017 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that despite years of investigation and a manhunt, the 1939 City of San Francisco derailment remains unsolved?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2017/July. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/1939 City of San Francisco Derailment.

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Location of the accident

Latest comment: 4 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

The GPS co-ordinates in the article as of July 26, 2020 are not correct. As the sources in the article confirm there are two seperate tracks in the canyon: It the Southern Pacific tracks (the southernmost) were damaged, the Western Pacific (northernmost) tracks were not. The GPS co-ordinates pointed to a bridge along the northern most tracks. Here are some clues to the location I found in the sources.

[1] Lawsuit filed by a survivor, contains a vivid description of the canyon where the derailment occurred. Mentions being between bridge #4 and #5 which are 1160 feet apart. That's a big clue. It also mentions being to the east of a big curve called "Curve 613". This doesn't help much as of the 5 or 6 bridges in the area, all are to the east of the biggest curve.
[2] photos #2 and #3 in this source show the bridge at pretty close to the right angle of the river. There's only 2 sets of bridges in this area that match that description.
[3] photo # 2 in this source shows the two tracks on the same side of the river, and with at least one tunnel in the background.
[4] However, the biggest clue is at 4:13 in this video, which has an areal photograph. It confirms that the bridge in question featurs both tracks are on the same side of the river, and crossing together, with a tunnel on the WP track. There are no tunnels in the vicinity today. However, that mountain contour is consistent with were there are a now a couple of large rock cuts along the modern grades, that easily could be daylighted tunnels. As such I'm convinced the "right bridge" is this one: [5]

As such I will make the change. Dave (talk) 23:19, 27 July 2020 (UTC)Reply

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