The Great '60 Erie Train Wreck

[rrnut282]

What little burg are you referrring to? I went to school just across the road from the Erie.

[Anonymous]

Someday in the distant future archeolgists will dig up that old china and railroad parts and surmise that ancestors ate iron/ parts on china plates and drank linseed oil for refreshments.

[AltonFan]

The Erie still had serviceable steam in 1960?

[Anonymous]

Interesting indeed!!! Do any pictures of this wreck exist?

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forums, liltony! I really enjoyed reading that story. That must have been some wreck!

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a small Indiana Town where the Erie was king. Running just a block from Grandma's house, I was fascinated by the great smoking beasts
that pulled the varnish and steel. I was really sorry to see the onset of those smelly new diesels, but still was a railfan at heart. On evening in 1960, my friend and I were driving to the county seat to meet a couple of girls. The road ran next to the tracks in several places, with one section about a mile long. As we were racing the speeding freight down that area, nearly neck and neck[ my old nash didn't go too fast], several cars of the freight derailed just a few hundred feet behind us. The thunderous noise, and the quake caused by those cars piling up across the highway, disturbed a church service in the little burg we were passing through. Naturally we stopped to see what had happened, as
we were first hand witnesses. There were several cars loaded with pipeline pipe, which had run across the road, and into a pasture, spilling those huge pipes like so many jack straws. 2 tankers were loaded with linseed oil headed for a paint manufacturer split open allowing the oil to run down the ditch like a heavy rain had fallen. Several more cars were piled up, some containing government paper. others china dinner ware and furniture. We skipped school the next day, opting to get as many buckets and cans as we could to save some of the linseed oil to sell. Many others had the same idea. We also took
the liberty of grabbing some of that green stripped paper[ until the feds caught us and made us give it back], and some china. We were excited to see the work train arrive with a steam engine at the head, and a huge steam crane to
help put things aright. Althought the mainline was repaired and open in just a few hours, it took several days to clean up the mess and bury all those dishes.
Now the old road is gone, with few indications it ever existed. But, the Erie will live in the memories of many who lived in it's wake.