I recall your original Q&TL post, and both then and now I’m curious about this accident. I’ve enjoyed wandering along that trail many times, and I’ve definitely noticed those cars. They both look very neatly arranged next to the old railbed — lined up next to each other, perpendicular to the railbed. It looks like they were intentionally put there, as opposed to a wreck. What do you think?

I had really never thought of them being intentionally placed, though its an interesting idea. If they were placed-they were done so with a crane or other heavy machinery. There is no spur here, and to get down to these guys you have to drop down a foot-tall man-made wall. While the rock car sits upright, the tender is most definitely upside down. It’s also damaged severely on the far corner (on the edge you can’t see from the trail). One of the “mandibles” to the horseshoe end is twisted sharply to one side. It all seems to suggest a derailment.

But then again, why just these two cars? Why here so close to the roundhouse? And why leave them here at all? I’m sure this whole spot was deforested, so it would seem odd to just leave two wrecked cars sitting here without removing them. Either way I can’t think of any other reason why they would be here except a derailment. Maybe someone else could shine more light.

You’re right, the damage makes this look like an accident, yet the other circumstances make it look intentional. Perhaps an accident happened nearby, and the cars were simply towed and/or pushed into their current position, since it wasn’t worth it to repair or move them any farther.

It’s also possible that this happened near the end of the life of the mine, when there wasn’t as much need for every single rail car.

I’m back from the dead with a new baby boy (born Thanksgiving day) and a new Job (back up in Marquette)… Sorry for the delay but I’ve been busy and so ahve you fromt he looks of the site!This wasn’t an accident, this is the result of scrapping/moving the locomotives out of the round house. QMHA sold off a few of its locis and moved the two on display up the their present location. If I remember right they were all stores in or near the round house. The tender is probably from one of the Loci’s that left the area. As far as the cars go, a bounch of those were sold by QMHA to a scrapper and the cars were probably left there after the trucks were removed either for scrap or salvage.

Joe’s back to save the day! Congratulations on the newest addition! Just wait till he can walk before bringing him down in the mines with you. My son just turned 6 recently, and I already have him obsessed with ruins. (he’ll call them out to me whenever we’re driving around)

This would explain dcclark’s observation that they were placed there as well as the “S” painted on their sides. It also explains why the tender is upside down and damaged - both probably occurred when the trucks were being removed. Now I’ll have to re-title the post! Thanks…

Congrats, Joe!

It still must have been quite an effort to move the cars that far down the grade, but this does make sense to me.

Explorer, I love the new design (although yeah, the grey text is still a bit hard on the eyes).

For information on the Q&TL check out the HAER report about the Quincy mine. There is a section that discusses the railroad from its earliest planning stages to its end when it was absorbed by the Quincy mining company.

Tenders hauled coal as well as water. The tender would have the center, in the open end of the car, filled with coal, with two metal projections on each side filled with water. The tender would drain from the front end of it(open end) through the hook-up you described.

It appears as though the inside walls on the “projections” on the sides of the car are missing. I assume the red was a special paint used to prevent rust…but I cannot confirm that for certain.

When I started exploring the Quincy area in 1981-82 there were two engines in the roundhouse, and the roof was still pretty much intact. I’m not sure where to even start looking, but I used to have tons of black&white “artsy” photos I took in that area; the engines, buildings, water tower, 1st ex-wife, etc. Have to be in a box somewhere… Explorer; where did the link go to “new posts and comments”? Having a hard time finding the new postings. KF

Robbie -

So the front end of the tender would be the notched end? I guess that makes sense since they would have to get coal. Perhaps the salvaged the coal bin part but just left the water jacket for some reason. I would agree with the red paint, I’m thinking rust proofing as well especially since it held water.

Captain…

You need to get me those photos, everyone would eat them up (including myself) Get Looking!

Anyway, the new comments can still be found in the upper right of the main page. As for the new posts I will always feature them in the big wide image on the front page. I will also list them under the “copper country journal” link from the main page as well.

I know its not the best system, but within the next few weeks this entire site will be undergo a complete overhaul as part of something much bigger on the way. The new design will make finding new stuff much easier, so you’ll have to slush through it until that happens.

Since I don’t know how close this is to the roundhouse, its hard to comment on this. But, you have to remember what they do at the roundhouse, they fix things, if a derailment happened somewhere out on the railroad, the damaged equipment would be brought back to the roundhouse for fixing. I would guess the tender portion was damaged bad enough that it was removed from the frame of the car and new one was fabricated to replace it.
And yes, the notched end would be next to the engine, the fireman would turn around with his shovel, get a shovel full of coal out of the tender and turn around again and throw it in the firebox of the locomotive. In your second photo, the portion of the tank sitting on the ground that is round, that would be the water filler, they would pull up to the water tank, open the lid on top of the tank, put the spout down into the tank and let the water go.