CASPER — The headlines in late 2001 in Wyoming turned from a national disaster to a local one in Casper.
A memorial at the city’s BNSF Railway Depot carries a continual reminder of the loss and cost.
“In loving memory of Mike Hoover, who gave his life on a cold December eve at Arminto, Wyoming, while in his 30th year of service to the BNSF in performance of a job he loved,” reads the inscription on the stone. It also has an etched likeness of Hoover between a moose and a ram and below two fish and a steam locomotive.
The outdoorsman, hunter and fisherman was an engineer for the BNSF. A Natrona High School graduate, he got onboard with the railroad shortly after high school.
Chad Hoover said his dad chose the railroad because it was an opportunity for a “good paying job and livelihood.”
It was Dec. 7, 2001, the nation’s Day of Infamy marking the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II. Hoover, 48, was at the controls of a BNSF westbound freight designated “BNSF 4882 West.”
The designation correlated to the number of the lead locomotive in the three-locomotive train. The “west” meant they were headed west, most immediately through central Wyoming passing through Thermopolis up to Greybull.
A mixed-manifest freight train, it had several different types of cars on the rails behind the engine. The freight had originated in Fort Worth, Texas, and was headed for Laurel, Montana.
In the cab across from Hoover was his partner, a conductor, checking the tracks on his side ahead and the cars behind as they rolled closer toward Arminto, Wyoming. They were nearly an hour out of Casper, where they had boarded the train and replaced the previous crew.
Hoover’s hand on the horizontal speed lever had the train rolling at 47 mph in a 49 mph zone.
Premonition
Chad Hoover, 25 at the time, said he received a call from his dad earlier in the day.
“I was working and my dad called me at work, and I thought it was a little weird at the time,” he said. “He was nervous about something, and I don’t know what it was about. But he ended up going to work that evening and dying. I don’t know if it was a premonition of it or what.”
A veteran at the railroad, Hoover understood that the tracks ahead represented a “dark” area that had switches that were not signaled, electronically controlled or monitored. Speeds approaching the switches reflected the need for safety.
As he approached the Arminto siding about 6:25 p.m. in the darkest month of the year the locomotive headlights looked out at the track beyond. When the edge of the lights caught first sight of the switch, Hoover saw it was set to take him into the siding instead of carrying him down the main line.
And sitting in that siding was an eastbound empty grain train labeled BNSF 7938 East with two locomotives and 105 empty grain cars behind it. There was no crew on the train.
Hoover threw on the emergency brakes. Whether there was time to follow safety procedures and hit the floor before impact is not known.
Chad Hoover said he was told that his dad “yelled” to the conductor to get down as the 210-ton locomotive hit the sitting train and rolled up on top of it peeling off the entire top structure of the sitting locomotive. The force of the moving train, two locomotives behind and following cars shoved the sitting train down the track pushing grain cars at the end onto the main line.
Hoover’s locomotive rolled onto the right side of the track and the second locomotive in the moving train ended up on top of the frame of the sitting lead locomotive. Six freight cars behind derailed.
Head Trauma
Hoover suffered severe head injuries at impact and is believed to have died instantly. Somehow, the conductor survived the wreck and was able to find his way out of the wreckage. He used his cell phone to call BNSF dispatch in Fort Worth, Texas. The railroad notified Natrona County dispatch.
Sheriff’s deputies and fire departments raced to the scene. News accounts state a helicopter was dispatched as well.
The Casper Star-Tribune follow-up account to the wreck Dec. 13, 2001, included information from Karla Hubbard, who was headed home from Casper to Ten Sleep for the weekend. She pulled up to the crossing headed north on Arminto Road and found the train was stopped. Shortly afterwards on the cold December night a man came up to her vehicle.
“He said there’d been a train wreck and said the engineer of his train was in bad shape,” the newspaper quoted Hubbard. She told the newspaper that he looked shaken and she let him sit in her pickup to await emergency crews and to stay out of the cold.
The newspaper account stated the pair could see emergency lights in the distance, but no one was making their way down to the crossing. When the conductor asked for a ride to the emergency vehicles that were blocking Arminto Road about a mile away, they saw there were eight other emergency vehicles another mile down the road. None of them had moved toward the wreckage.
Sheriff Mark Benton told the newspaper that they had asked the railroad if there were toxic chemicals onboard and the railroad said there was diesel fuel, and they would check further and get back to them. Fifteen minutes or more later there was still no reply, so two firefighters put on breathing apparatus and checked the train for survivors.
The conductor told responders about the train’s manifest, and they saw no sign of chemical exposure on the conductor, so they moved to the crash site.
A rock outside the BNSF Railway Depot in Casper, Wyoming honors a Casper engineer who lost his life on Dec. 7, 2001, in Arminto, Wyoming. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
A photo of the lead locomotive that was sitting on the tracks shows almost nothing left at the Arminto, Wyoming crash. (Courtesy Trainweb.org, Doug Duncan) 
The crash caused damage to several pieces of rail that had to be replaced. (Courtesy Trainweb.org, Doug Duncan) 
BNSF engineer Michael Hoover and a conductor took over a westbound freight in Casper. The depot still is a center for BNSF operations. (Library of Congress) 
The siding in Arminto, Wyoming, is shown above the main track in this Google Earth screeshot. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
The Casper Star-Tribune had an article detailing Michael Hoover’s death on Dec. 9, 2001, two days after the crash. The obituary for Michael Hoover in the Casper Star-Tribune on Dec. 11, 2001. The funeral had to be moved from the funeral home to a local church to accommodate mourners. (Newspapers.com\) 
(Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Railroad Funeral
There they discovered the body of Hoover. He was transported to Wyoming Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. Chad Hoover said the family was called to the hospital.
“We went to the hospital and then they told us after a while that he died,” he said. “The railroad paid for the funeral. I was kind of in a zone when I found out he died.”
Chad Hoover said the railroad planned for a small memorial service at the funeral home but then learned that a lot of people were going to show up. It ended up being held at a church in Casper.
“There was a lot of people who showed up because he was known for being on the railroad for 30 years,” he said. “They gave me and my brother a little urn, plus my stepmother got a bigger urn. They paid for the rock memorial down at the depot, too.”
BSNF did not respond to a request from Cowboy State Daily.
The National Transportation Safety Board preliminary findings as reported in the Casper Star Tribune on Dec. 28, 2001, revealed damage caused by the wreck was $72,000 to the track and $3.1 million to the locomotives and other cars owned by the railroad.
A report filed by a Natrona County deputy sheriff stated that the switch was secured by a padlock, and footprints were around the switch. The switch showed no sign of tampering.
Hoover’s widow, Belinda Hoover, was quoted in the newspaper as saying she believed the “dark territory” or lack of a signal for the switch claimed her husband’s life because he did not have enough time to react.
An investigation report of the incident is not on the NTSB website.
Missed Switch
Chad Hoover said his understanding of the cause was that a track inspector forgot to throw the switch.
Hoover left behind his wife Belinda, two sons, a stepdaughter, three grandchildren and many in his extended family.
Chad Hoover said his father loved to fish and hunt and he would go to fishing tournaments with him.
“I have a lot of good memories of that stuff,” he said. “He was a good guy and I miss him. I think about him all the time.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
