Pardon the length of this but there's no short way to tell it.
The "Mother" of all wrecks on the Branch happened one fine June
morning in 1971. Seems like 11812 was just motorin' through town
doin' its thing when the air went into emergency. The head end was
just starting into the curve at the bottom of Wedron Hill so the head
Brakeman took the opportunity to look over his train. As the train
began stopping he noticed the wires and line poles being pulled down
violently. He of course thought this to be quite unusual and
mentioned it to the Engineer who agreed with him.
Some time after they got stopped and had walked back to see what had
happened the Brakeman called me at home. Now he was a fella that was
usually "factually challenged". His very short and to-the-point
conversation went something like this; "get your (rear end) and your
camera down here right now, you ain't NEVER seen nuthin' like
THIS!!" Well, after I got to Wedron with my rear end and my camera I
had to admit he was 100% factual this time.
It's hard to put into words the devastation that existed where, only
a few hours earlier, a railroad had been. The train and virtually
every car in town was in a tangled mass of wreckage that extended
from the crossing to a point about fifteen car lengths east of the
crossing. The grain elevator was moved off its foundation, the
lumber shed was destroyed and there was absolutely no way to get from
the crossing to the east end of town.
Beth, of Hap and Beth's fame, was attending to those things needing
to be attended to in the morning. She told me that while "seated"
the entire building shook with a violence she usually associated with
enormous blasting operations or a severe earthquake. After regaining
her composure and putting things right she looked out the window.
She immediately figured out the cause of the earthquake-like shaking
of the ground.
A broken rail in the crossing was blamed as the culprit in causing
the most excitement Wedron had seen in many years.
When I arrived on the scene the freight Claim Agent had also just
arrived. We visited as we "strolled" across the tops of the many
cars that had gathered for the occasion. I asked him where he was
gonna start gettin' the numbers. He gave me a very pained look and
shrugged his shoulders. Later in the day he told me that
he "thought" the total number of cars involved to be around eighty-
four, or so.
If the magnitude of the wreck wasn't enough to capture your attention
a small detail in the vicinity of the crossing might have been.
As Leo correctly noted in an earlier post 11812 did not pick up at
Wedron due to the difficulties encountered in starting a train on the
hill. The Catharine Turn would take 812's cars to Ottawa so they
could be picked up there.
One night 11811 set out a bunch of MT's for the sand plant and went
on their way. The next morning, while checking the cars to determine
their "fitness" for loading, the sand plant's car inspector noticed
an unusual "MT" in the set out. This car was wood, had three doors
and all three were sealed. He contacted the RR Agent who accompanied
him to check this car out. Since a "slip bill" was all they had to
work with it was decided to open the car and see what was in it.
WOW !!!, a brand new American-LaFrance fire truck.
Well, that thing sure didn't belong in Wedron so it was picked up by
the Catharine Turn and put in the pick up for 11812 that night in
Ottawa. As ordered 11812 picked up at Ottawa and proceeded east.
While the operating schedule didn't provide for a PICK UP at Wedron
by 812 it made no mention of a SET OUT. And, set out they did.
The fire truck ended up back in Wedron, though not nearly as clean
and shiny as it had been when first it was set out. The people of
Boise, ID. were real disappointed when they found out that they were
gonna have to wait another two years to get a new truck.
Pics uploaded in "PHOTOS".
Ah, the Fox River Branch.
Karl
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