Kansas City Southern’s crack passenger train, the “Southern Belle,” ran head on into a standing freight train at Baton Rouge, La., on Dec. 8, 1967. A northbound freight with three GP30s was set to hold the main, and await the passenger train, which would take the siding. The front end brakeman on the freight was to line the switch, but the passenger train appeared through thick Mississippi River fog before he could haul over the switch. The impact folded boxcars behind the Geeps, and crumpled the E unit. For more about wrecks, read our special, “Train Wrecks,” set to appear in March 2012. Photo by Wilbur T. Golson
