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Rail Travel News is a twice-monthly print publication, published since Dec 10, 1970.
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PO Box 9007,
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     The southbound Coast Starlight, train 11 that left Seattle on June 22, 1982, was stopped at Gibson CA, 18 miles south of Dunsmuir at 1:35am on June 23 when a fire started in Superliner sleeper 32010. Two elderly passengers died as a result of the fire and about 55 to 60 others were treated for smoke inhalation.
     A Los Angeles woman in the upper level of car 32010 died of burns, and an Idaho man in a wheelchair, semi-handicapped, died of smoke inhalation on the upper level of adjoining sleeper 32039. Damage to Superliner equipment was as follows: car 32010 totally destroyed, $1.2 million; sleeper 32039 heat and soot damage, $92,300; diner 38025 heavy heat and soot damage and broken windows, $85,100; Sightseer loungd 33020 smoke and soot damage, $125,000.
     Initially the fire was believed to have started from electrical problems in the sleeper, but as investigations got underway later, electrical malfunctions were ruled out. Then arson was considered, as there had been a stowaway on the train who got off at Gibson and who had boarded at some unknown point south of Portland.
     Finally, the investigation settled on a smouldering cigarette in a room of sleeper 32010, apparently a deluxe bedroom. The room in question had been used about three hours earlier for an "informal meeting" of two Amtrak personnel and two railroad personnel. Most likely, a cigarette was left smouldering in a mattress.
     The press reported in early July that the conductor of the train had been found intoxicated and had been seen drinking on the job, in violation of railroad rules. The railroad (Southern Pacific) said the conductor was "not working" pending the conclusion of the accident investigation. The conductor was put off duty at Dunsmuir. Amtrak said that the investigation of the disaster should be finished by mid-July. [At that time conductors on most Amtrak trains were railroad employees and not Amtrak employees.]
     Amtrak received very bad press in this disaster, especially since it followed by only eight days the fatal derailment of the San Francisco Zephyr in Iowa. On TV and in newspapers passengers charged that the crew did not do enough to help passengers in the blaze, that there were no fire alarms or smoke alarms, that passengers were pretty much on their own in finding escape from the train, and that the smoke was toxic. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the designer of the car interior, Kevin Martin, said that the materials used were selected for their low flammability level.
     The consist of the Coast Starlight was [engine numbers unknown], cars 1261, 39902, 31013, 31042, 34005, 34097, 33020, 38025, 32010 and 32039.
                                                  * * *
     Recently a passenger on that train, Marvin Doudna, provided RTN with a first-hand account of the incident: "I was on the southbound Starlight in economy room #5 upstairs when I was awakened in the wee hours on a perfect June night by someone pounding on the outside of the car. Peering into the darkness, I saw we were in a deep canyon beside the Sacramento River, with Interstate 5 above.
     "We were at Gibson, a siding. I quickly pulled on my clothes to go downstairs and check (scanners weren't used much), but when I slid my door open, thick smoke hit my face and I realized I was in mortal danger, as someone was yelling, 'Come out! Come out!'
     "I joined many sleeper passengers, some in pajamas, backed up against the canyon wall. My sleeper, between the lounge and a rear sleeper, was being uncoupled to stand separate. Then as we gazed in awe it turned into a raging inferno with roaring flames shooting out of every door and window until the car was gutted!
     "It took an hour until firemen struggled with equipment down from the road, so all they had left to do was search inside, where they found one fatality, an elderly woman who had not been missed. A handicapped man in the rear sleeper died from smoke before the sleepers were separated.
     "The northbound Starlight then came by and we continued, leaving the last three cars behind. The conductor, from Redding, allegedly was fired for being found drunk when Southern Pacific authorities arrived. Ironically, a color photo of the blackened sleeper appeared on the front page of my Ohio hometown daily, fortunately after I had phoned that I was okay."
     Ill-fated sleeper 32010 became one of three Superliner I sleepers that have been scrapped to date. (The other two were 32008 scrapped in April 1985, and 32004 scrapped in October 1995 after being in an Arizona sabotage wreck that has never been solved.) The other two smoke-damaged cars on that train were returned to service, and the rest of the cars continued to operate as before except that car 34097 was damaged at Minot ND on the Empire Builder on November 19, 2003, and car 31013 was converted from a coach-baggage to a smoking coach and renumbered as 31513.
     The initial report on the incident appeared in Rail Travel News #247 in June 1982.
  
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