30 New Corvettes Buried In Idaho

[PD41]

Working with this older guy the other day and he used to do railroad trackside
de-railed cleanups. He said back in 1998 a train derailed in the middle of nowhere desert of Idaho.

Once the insurance deal was made they had backhoes come in and bury about 30 BRAND NEW CORVETTES. He said it was cheaper for the rail company to just bury them on site. Also said some of the body damage on 1/2 the cars was not very bad.

Sounds hard to believe but I see no reason for this guy to make up this story.

What do you think ?

[tabs]

Rural legend.

[pwd72s]

Did he say he could lead you to the spot? 'Fraid I agree with Tabs on this one.

Even as parts cars there would have been enough salvage value to get 'em out of there.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Did he say he could lead you to the spot? 'Fraid I agree with Tabs on this one.

Even as parts cars there would have been enough salvage value to get 'em out of there.

Am I still your Tabbydoll?

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by tabs

Am I still your Tabbydoll?

You know I really thought of using that...

I'm still wondering about the new 'Vette that's absolutely perfect except for the smell...

You know, the car somebody died in and the corpse not found for weeks...

[Chocaholic]

In 1998 we had the EPA. Cars are not biodegradable and contain many chemicals. I say....BS.

[MRM]

No, it is impossible. There are strict regulations for disposing of cars. They are full of toxic chemicals. Before a car goes to a junkyard it has to be drained of all fluids and the battery and several other parts removed. I don’t remember what all is involved, but it’s extensive. There’s no way they could have been left buried in the desert.

[Sooner or later]

He must be thinking about the Corvette museum sinkhole.....

[Por_sha911]

It is absolutely true! I know for a fact where they are located. Please Paypal the gift amount of ___ to my off shore account and I will send you a map of the exact location. I put this is green because it is a even newer green deal that is just as viable.

[Tobra]

When was the last time this guy saw bigfoot?

[Sooner or later]

Bigfoot dug the burial pit.

[PD41]

Did some google searching; Found a thread on derailed trains.

NON-BELIEVERS, this has happened several times back in the day.

They used to bury all kinds of stuff following a derail cleanup.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3082713



They used to drag them out of the autoracks with winch lines and run over them with bulldozers to make sure none could leave the site.

I was once told that once the claims are settled they are sometimes parted out,but never sold intact. Back in the early 70's the Mop at a derailment around Kenneth, KS on the Missouri / KS Border. One of the causalities was a load of 1972 Corvettes, this was before the days of enclosed auto racks. The car remained up right and the Vetts didn't have scratch on them. Some of us inquired about them and were told they would either smashed or parted out ; might guess they were smashed. What a waste.


I remember the Southern Pacific buried a number of Caddilacs along the right-of-way just west of Gaviota on the Coast Line after a 1960's derailment.



Just east of Buford, WY on UP is a pile of buried Mopar products from a derailment circa 1976, I could not believe my Dad, who was a Signalman, when he told me they were burned and buried. Then in the summer of 1977, there were a spate of derailments east and west of Green River, WY that was so bad that UP President Kenefick was doing flybys in the corporate jet, wondering what was wrong with the railroad. At Verne, WY, west of Granger, I was still a newbie Assistant Signalman on UP's Signal Department who had to help lay in a temporary multi-conductor cable to replace several torn-out poles and line wire on the signal line and connect it to the remaining pole lines on each end. A big steel gang was there, hurriedly hand-setting rail, ties and spikes, and we would follow behind to do the rail bonding so the rail was a continuous circuit for signals. Easily 100-plus workers toiling in the sun. During the course of this, the big D-9 Cats righted the 4 auto racks, built up successive dirt mounds at the end of each car so the automobiles could be driven or pulled off. Most were totally driveable, and they parked all the Camaros, Firebirds and Trans-Ams in a long gleaming line on the prairie, instant new GM car lot. All the while other Cats were busy digging a hole near the cars. At one point, a D-9 clattered up to the cars and jerked in place perpendicular to the line. All work stopped by everybody and it was eerily silent as the D-9 Cat climbed the first automobile, and proceeded to chew through all of the rest of them and above the sound of crumpling metal and smashing glass was a long, low moan from all the workers as it was doing so. Then the Cat made a loop, and with the other two made quick work out of shoving them all into the hole they had dug. It was hard to keep working knowing the piece of junk I had to drive to work in, and here these were all just being destroyed! The whole pile was set on fire after wrecked carloads of splintered lumber were added on top, and some time before we arrived back at the site the next day with the first two of many poles we had to re-set, the whole wasted mess of tangled cars was buried. And the trains were running through again. To this day I think about all the fresh Chevy 350 V-8's buried out there under the Wyoming prairie. I do not know if this is still done today, but that is what I witnessed then. Future fossils? === === = === JLH



Back in early 90's around 93-94 when I first got started in Fire service and was in process of training. I got sent down around College Station area for week long auto extrication class. After couple days of class room work the class headed out to training ground for the hands on part. When we arrived everyone's jawed drop in line to be cut up by us were brand new Chevy trucks one guys in the class asked how they get these truck and we were told from a train derailment few miles outside of town. Also in class for next couple of days was a rep.from GM to make everyone was destroyed. Turned out be very good class didn't mind cutting up damage trucks but the dozen or more that didn't have so much as a mark on the paint sure was hard.

[ckcarr]

I bought my Corvette for only $100. It was an ad on Craigslist by a disgruntled woman involved in a divorce. I heard that he was not too happy about the deal...

[ckissick]

The same thing happened to a bunch of Cadillacs. But they didn't finish the job.

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by ckissick

The same thing happened to a bunch of Cadillacs. But they didn't finish the job.

I painted my name on one of the middle ones.

[Hawkeye's-911T]

The buried Spitfires in Burma - https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/hunt-legendary-spitfires-buried-burma-11442354

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

In 1998 we had the EPA. Cars are not biodegradable and contain many chemicals. I say....BS.

Could have some one out there drain and remove, then crush and bury.

It is possible it happened, but it also seems possible the cars would not be worth digging up.

I was expecting a well planned time capsule type event when I clicked the thread.

[yellowperil]

Didn't really read the posts, but I thought this might be a sequel to "Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" Guess not, right?

[herr_oberst]

I searched for train derailments in the late '90's in Idaho on the NTSB website but didn't find anything. Not saying it didn't happen, we know how gov't website databases are, but this has my 'urban legend senses' on alert.

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/railroad.aspx

[wdfifteen]

Reminds me of a story my dad told. He was on his way home from the Philippines after WW II and his troop ship met a cargo ship. He was part of a group of men transferred to the cargo ship to help push all the brand new tanks, jeeps, trucks etc head for war overboard. The ship turned around and came home empty.