- The Derailment of the Sunset Limited : UnresolvedMysteries.
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All four notes were signed "Sons of the Gestapo. It has been twenty one years since the derailment and no one has ever been captured by the FBI or the police. A few names popped up here and there, but nothing substantial came of it.
The Derailment of the Sunset Limited by Neal Hallford
There is a theory out there that this was supposed to be a robbery of a freight train, but I don't think that theory holds up. For one thing, whoever sabotaged the rail line knew enough about railroading that they were able to move the rail without tripping the wires. The whole set-up feels like it was done by someone who used to or was at the time working for the railroad. If it was someone who worked for the railroad, then they would've had to have at least a general idea of Amtrak's schedule and when they were supposed to arrive and depart at certain stations.
So they could've reasonably assume when Amtrak was going to be at a specific location. Freight train movement is more of a wild card. Sometimes the line is super busy with rail traffic, other times it's a ghost town. I honestly doubt the person or people behind this would've set this up on a chance that they would be able to derail a freight train. It feels like they deliberately picked the Sunset Limited. As to why they would derailed a passenger train? Honestly, I have no idea, that's probably the biggest mystery of the whole thing.
So I think this mystery has two parts. Who sabotage the rail line to derailed the train, and why? Weird thing is that in the same train was involved in the deadliest Amtrak derailment in history with 48 dead when a tug boat knocked a bridge out of place minutes before the train was to cross.
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I think its important to note that for all intents and purposes it seems like the Sons of the Gestapo angle was meant to just throw people off. In the intervening period, as far as I'm aware, the FBI has never arrested or even found any evidence of the existence of the group beyond this. I found that angle super fascinating when I first heard of this, but it seems more than likely to me that it's just a red herring.
Yea, that's another weird thing about it. The Sons of The Gestapo never really became a group that was recognize by any law enforcement agency. You are very right that it could very well be a red herring, but for what?
20 Years Later, Sabotage Of Amtrak's Sunset Limited Still A Mystery
I mean, a theory that makes the most sense to me is that this is the work of a few disgruntled employees who worked for either Amtrak or one of the freight railroads that own the lines that the Sunset Limited runs on. Well imagine you're a disgruntled employee who only knows how to derail a train in a way that would require arcane and specific knowledge of trains. If you don't offer some other explanation it pretty immediately becomes a hunt for someone with professional experience on the line, which would likely put you on a short list of suspects.
By adding this made up, but credible reference to a neo-nazi group, you buy yourself some time to escape. This is especially true in a time period where the American public is just becoming aware of the existence of fringe extremist political and religious groups. Think Waco, McVeigh etc.
The Derailment of the Sunset Limited
The publics fear of these kind of groups would increase pressure on the government to maintain an active search for this group that begins to look like a fake sending the FBI on a wild goose chase and given the largely pre-internet nature of the whole thing seems like it would make it even harder for the FBI to verify. Yeah, my love for insane fringe groups and high conspiracy wishes the SoG were real and just incredibly well hidden, but I really think this is the most likely theory. Yeah, I think it was a purposeful misdirect. Evidently the notes they left at the scene all railed against the government for Waco and Ruby Ridge, too.
However I don't think that makes the case much less mysterious. The investigators seem to have cottoned on to the misdirection reasonably quickly, so you have to assume they looked into Amtrak employees. According to the articles in the OP they interviewed hundreds of people and followed up on thousands of leads. And still there's bupkis.. Oh sure, I just think a rough version of what I outlined is probably the easiest explanation. I mean when you add in the detail that shortly before the derailment there was an article published in Trains quarterly or something similarly inanely named I forget the exact one just months before the attack which described the exact method of derailment which had been used in a 's derailment and you potentially have a much, much murkier case.
My viewpoint comes from the assumption that the misdirect did eat up a decent amount of time in the investigation, admittedly I haven't been able to get a direct source to explicitly confirm this and given its an unsolved FBI case I wouldn't expect one , but I felt safe in making that assumption and given that I still think its more than likely some disgruntled employee. The other thing to note is that it needn't have been an employee of this exact or even a reasonably close line. While its true the placement of the derailment required an understanding of passenger train schedules in the region as well as a knowledge of the freights whose schedules were much more heavily guarded , clearly someone got into and out of this area easily enough to pull this off so I have no problem believing they could do enough stakeout reconnaissance over time to get the necessary understanding to approximate the required schedules.
Now back to motivation if its not a direct employee. Well luxury train travel was dying a slow death in the region as I understand it there's a good thinking sideways episode that gets into the industry's history in this area.
If you work on a different line still in the area or for a totally different company, I'd still imagine the shock of the susceptibility of passenger lines would have a major public hit on not just this company's pr but those of any kind of competing line and not only in the area, but potentially across the country as well my feelings here would be dependent on an understanding of the scale of circulation of the story at the time which I currently don't have. Now, add in that SoG note again and you not only provide a misdirect but, from the public's perception, also a hinted feeling that such a group might exist.
And at this point it knows how to do this, knows it brings them attention, knows that attention can cause public mayhem, and has a reason to want to cause that mayhem. Be the first to ask a question about The Derailment of the Sunset Limited. Lists with This Book.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Ben rated it really liked it Sep 17, Heather Conrad rated it really liked it Aug 29, John Cutter rated it really liked it Nov 10, Angela marked it as to-read Jan 05, Stephanie Clarke marked it as to-read Jan 21, Joy Jensen marked it as to-read Jun 04, Another were injured. The towboat's four crew members were not injured. Immediately prior to the accident, the Mauvilla had made a wrong turn and entered an un-navigable channel of water heading to the bridge.
The towboat's pilot, Willie Odom, was not properly trained on how to read his radar and thus, owing to the very poor visibility in the fog and his lack of experience, did not realize that he was off course.
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The boat also lacked a compass and a chart of the waters. The bridge span had actually been designed to rotate so it could be converted to a swing bridge by adding suitable equipment. No such conversion had ever been performed, but the span had not been adequately secured against unintended movement. Despite the displacement of the bridge, the continuously welded rails did not break. As a result, the track circuit controlling the bridge approach block signals remained closed intact and the nearest signal continued to display a clear green aspect.
Had one of the rails been severed by the bridge's displacement, the track circuit would have opened, causing the approach signal to display a stop red aspect and the preceding signal an amber caution approach indication.
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This might have given the Amtrak engineer sufficient time to stop his train or at least reduce speed in an effort to minimize the severity of the accident. In addition to corroborating findings of the official accident report, the program revealed that the train had been delayed in New Orleans by repairs to an air conditioner unit and a toilet. This had put the train a half-hour behind schedule. If not for this delay, the Sunset Limited would have passed over the Big Bayou Canot bridge 20 minutes before the bridge was hit by the barge.