The “Orange Special” Wreck

The “Orange Special” Wreck. . You are now standing on the historic railbed and to your right at the gate that separates the old railbed from the highway, the Southern Pacific covered an old trestle with fill on the steepest grade on the Promontory Mountains. For years helper engines called “hogs” stationed at Promontory Station were used to assist in getting heavily-loaded trains up the hill and to hold back freight cars coming down. , Spring 1888: , “During the heavy orange season whole fruit trains were put on ‘passenger schedule' and rushed east at speeds averaging almost 30 miles an hour Even while going down treacherous East Promontory Hill there was a sense of urgency; so desire for speed sometimes got the better of caution, and at one such time and probably for that reason, four or five box-cars in the middle of an ‘orange special’ jumped the track on the ‘hill fill’ and rolled down the south embankment for some short distance causing the box cars to split open and scattering of the orange crates over the hillside with many of the crates themselves splitting open… A large quantity of these oranges were subsequently retrieved in a more or less bruised condition to the point where all the close ranchers on East Promontory mountain and local railroad employees in the area were eating more oranges in the ensuing two weeks than they would ordinarily consume in an entire year.” (W.A. Clay)