Thanks Dave, this is a great story. I have the remains of the fireman's side
number plate from the 5604. The date of the accident and , "five men killed"
are scratched into the paint on the glass. I don't know its history, but I
found it in a Burlington junk shop.
Do you suppose Mr. Erickson would be willing to talk with me? I suspect he may
have worked with by grandfatehr and great grandfather who were Q engineers
during the time he worked for th Q. Please contact me off list if such a
contact seems possible.
Thanks,
Mike Gardner
gardnermc@e...
"David E. Lotz" wrote:
> Today, in the Burlington Hawk Eye, a good friend of mine, and major source
> of Bulletin 26 material, Norm Erickson was interviewed about the fateful
> shop train wreck of February 26, 1938. I hope I don't get in trouble, but
> here is a copy of the text. To check it out on your own, follow this link:
> http://www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln7_0226.html
> David Lotz
> (314-846-8632
> * E-mail: Dave_Lotz@m...
>
> Survivor still wonders why he wasn't on train
> n Burlington wreck 64 years ago today claimed lives of five of Norman
> Erickson's co?workers.
> By Bob Hansen
> The Hawk Eye
> The photographs and newspaper clippings have begun to fade and yellow, but
> Norman Erickson's memories of that fateful day 64 years ago today remain
> ever clear.
> On Feb. 26, 1938, a train carrying workers from the West Burlington shops
> collided with a fast freight, killing five men, and Erickson can only wonder
> what twist of fate saved him from being on that train.
> In those years before efficient public transportation, it was necessary for
> the CB&Q railroad to transport workers on a special train that ran between
> the depot and the West Burlington facilities.
> Erickson, then 21 years old, remembers boarding that train virtually every
> morning and then taking it home at night. But on Feb. 26, that routine
> changed and Erickson took his auto to the shops.
> "I'm not sure why I drove my car that day," Erickson said. "Maybe I had to
> be home early for some reason, but it was something that I very seldom did."
> That day was a Saturday, but the shops were operating because of a holiday
> the preceding week. At the end of his shift, Erickson walked past the
> waiting train to where his car was parked. As he passed, he called to a
> number of friends offering them a ride into town.
> Erickson dropped his friends off, but as he drove to his home, the car radio
> suddenly broke into its regular broadcast to report a train wreck with
> fatalities near the Izaak Walton Club House.
> Erickson sped to his house and told his sister of the accident. Then both
> immediately left for the wreck site, for Erickson's brother?in?law was on
> the train. They arrived 15 minutes after the accident and the scene was one
> of confusion and tragedy.
> "We got there and I went forward to help, but the police had arrived by then
> and all I could do was watch. There were still men trapped in the cars and I
> remember one poor guy along side the track. He had apparently jumped from
> the train, but had been hit by the trucks from beneath the cars and killed,"
> Erickson said.
> Erickson quickly learned that the fully loaded work train had pulled from
> the yards and onto the main track when it was struck by an eastbound fast
> freight. Just before the collision, someone shouted a warning aboard the
> work train and some workers were able to leap from the cars, but others
> remained aboard.
> Five men, James Cowger, Walter Whitford, David Neder, William Cook and Otto
> Langer, died in the crushed cars or in the tangle of metal alongside the
> track. Roy Robinson survived the crash and was able to tell the newspaper of
> the scene aboard the work train as the riders waited for the trains to
> collide.
> "It was dreadful, waiting for that crash we knew was coming in a minute,
> carrying certain death down the tracks. I'll never forget the awful
> sensation of waiting there for the onrushing freight locomotive to telescope
> our train. We knew what to expect," Robinson told the reporter.
> Erickson confirms the confusion of the wreck site near a small lake in West
> Burlington.
> "Everyone knew there were still men trapped in the cars, and everyone was
> pretty frantic trying to get them out. It really bothered me that I could
> only stand there and watch and not help, for some of those guys were my
> friends," Erickson said.
> "I remember some of the men jumped out of the train and then threw
> themselves over a fence into the lake because they were so anxious to get
> out of the way of the wreck. Later it was a family joke that my
> brother?in?law, Ralph, jumped out of the train and ran all the way home. It
> might have been funny later, but it sure wasn't funny that day."
> Erickson also vividly remembers the scene at the shops the following Monday
> when the workers returned.
> "I remember clearly how quiet the shops were. There was none of the usual
> noise and laughter because we had lost so many of our friends. It was
> especially strange to walk by the machines that no one was running because
> they had been aboard the train."
> Erickson retired from the CB&Q shops in 1977 after 41 years of work, but to
> this day he is still puzzled why he chose to drive that fateful day and was
> not aboard the work train.
>
>
>
>
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