The Race for a Photo
This one’s about a prize-winning photo I took way out in the some rough country. A train went off the rails between towns, and while our photo editor was chasing down the accident from a chopper, I was chasing it down on foot. I didn’t know we were in competition until later.
My photo, as you’ll see, got run on the front page, and went on to take honors as Best Spot News Photo in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest for that year.
I was out on my usual news-gathering rounds when I got word there had been a train accident. I never used a police radio, though two of our other reporters did (I couldn’t stand the constant squawking), so I would have gotten this tip-off from someone with inside info. This would have been either the deputies at the Union police station, or Tom Nuernberger, chief paramedic at the Union rescue office. I believe it was Tom. I would have also gotten from him instructions on how to reach the scene. Tom would have had that knowledge at his fingertips. He knew Franklin County inside and out, from politics to roads (and the places that had noroads).
There were very few places where this stretch of the railroad was easily accessible by vehicle, and that spot wasn’t one of them. I remember parking my car at the edge of some woods and charging in, fighting my way through trees, brush, and rock, and up and down several hills, to get to the railroad alongside the Missouri River. And doing it at a run, in street shoes, with my camera swinging side to side at my neck like it meant to knock me out. Somehow I hit the tracks at just about the right spot—a long train on its side, cargo spilled everywhere—and went up and down the scene, snapping pictures. Then I headed back into the woods—mostly uphill this time somehow.
When I got back to the newspaper office, mud-splattered and covered in stickers and leaves, and announced I’d gotten photos, Jim Miller Jr., the photo editor, exploded in anger. Jim was somewhat elderly and far from robust. He could never have made that overland race. But he had connections, and, as part-owner of the newspaper, a budget. He had hired a helicopter. He’d gotten aerial photos. His film was already being developed when I arrived. I know he must have been proud of himself, just as I was proud of myself. He’d probably already started collecting his praise, as I planned, at the earliest possible minute, to start collecting mine. It was looking like a fine day for Jim. Then in comes the young reporter, not even an official photographer, resembling someone who’d just fought a bear, announcing he’d gotten close-ups.
I remember Jim cursing and stomping his feet. We’d all seen these tantrums before, but didn’t like seeing another one. He was very well liked. Jim was somewhat frail, so when he stomped from room to room in that mood, he sometimes came close to toppling. You wished for his sake he wouldn’t do it.
He didn’t cuss me out directly. He just cussed and stomped in a general way. Afterwards he congratulated me on my initiative, and told me my photos were very good. He was someone you couldn’t be at odds with with for long. I almost wished he’d gotten the only photos.
It was one of my pictures (attached), not Jim’s, that made the front page. And that photo went on to take the state prize I mentioned. I did feel proud of that photo, and of myself for getting it the hard way. I felt only slightly heroic, though. At the time I just thought, “I’ve got to get a picture!” I’d gotten a news lead, and I had the means of covering it, so I owed it to everyone around to do it. I would have felt negligent if I hadn’t.
RAIL TRAFFIC RESUMES TUESDAY
By Missourian Staff Writer (not Tom)
March 19, 1986—At least one of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks closed by a derailment east of Washington Monday was open Tuesday morning.
The 11-car derailment, which closed both the east and west-bound tracks, occurred at about 9 a.m. Monday at the 46.5 mile post, one and one half miles west of Boles.
West-bound Amtrak trains were running Tuesday morning. A railroad company representative said that both of the tracks might have been cleared by then.
All railroad traffic between St. Louis and Kansas City had been closed Monday because of the derailment.
Most of the 11 cars which derailed were empty or were carrying grain, according to Bill Halmich, Washington fire chief.
A tank car fell into the Missouri river, but it was empty, clean and did not create a hazard, he said. There were some hazardous materials in cars which were not derailed, according to Halmich.
At the scene, track was badly torn up. It was loosened from the ties for a considerable distance.
The freight train had three engines, 24 loaded cars and 28 empty cars.
No injuries were reported. The cause is being investigated.
Washington firemen went to the scene to determine if any hazardous materials had been spilled. They also conferred with railroad authorities on a plan of action in the event any trouble developed when the cars were put back on the track, Halmich said. Access to the scene was difficult, he added.
John Schumacher, a member of the Washington fire department, piloted a small plane in which Halmich and Marty Risch went up to study the derailment scene from the air.