The big hook.

This is another enlargement from the wreck train photo.  It's a little fuzzy, since it's quite an enlargement I'm trying to extract from a small snapshot.

The crane is attempting to lower the loco back on the tracks.  Are the loco frames physically attached to the trucks, or do they just rely on gravity to hold them together?  I thought I read somewhere that it's just the engine weight that keeps them sitting on the trucks.  (If so, I'd assume that the wreck crew would have to lift up the loco frame first and place it on some cribbing, then pick up the truck and get it back on the tracks.)

Back to the 1969 Train Wreck photos.

Patricia Mathu photo, May 1969.