On Jan. 16 officials of the Denver" & Rio Grande Western and the Denver & Salt Lake Railway Co. loudly blew their own horn. The tortuous, dangerous trackage they shared through the Colorado Rockies, said they, would henceforth be as safe as a baby's crib. Reason: they had spent $5,000,000 to build a "foolproof" central traffic control system (CTC). A dispatcher could keep such close tabs on train movements that it was "absolutely impossible for two trains to come together unless an engineer deliberately runs through a signal."
Four nights later an eastbound Denver & Salt Lake freight crawled through...