That's incredible, Roger. It's unbelievable that one engine could be buried so deeply into the earth, yet without any visible damage to either engine. Do you have any details?
As near as I can tell, this is what happened... There was a work zone and the train was running against the normal flow of traffic. One copy of the train order and clearance form were found in the center pocket of the engineer's bib overalls still wrapped in the delivery string. There had been a temporary block established in Shiloh less than 24 hours before the accident. There was also a miscommunication in that there were only 2 copies of the "track orders" prepared for the train because someone forgot that it was a double header. Therefore, only the lead engine and the conductor got the orders - not the second engine. Also there had been a change of where the trains went switched back to their normal track after going against the "Current of Traffic" between times that these engine crews had this area last. The train hit the crossover switch at track speed with the result that both engines cleared Track No. 1 and were buried in the ditch adjacent to the right-of-way." It was June 25, 1947 and the train was train 431 called the 'St. Louis Express' by some. Although there were 6 deaths to crew and track workers, there were no serious injuries to the passengers though several cars were derailed.
It's always sad to see wreck photos, and from the writeup on your webpage, sad to hear that the crew perished. I wonder what the guy who is in the cab of 4940 was thinking in that one photo? Interesting story about Mr. Root standing up his future wife to get the photos. :tb-sad:
In the first photo, the man standing looking into the cab is an officer of the state highway patrol. My guess would be that they are trying to determine if the crew had made any attempt to slow for the cross over. The train had stopped to pick up passengers in Greenwich, 6 miles before Shiloh. The crew of the second unit did not dismount to read the order picked up by the lead unit. The investigation assumed that the crew had failed to read the order and that the crew had assumed they would cross over at Shelby since on their previous run, they had crossed over at Shelby, 6.5 miles after Shiloh. The speed limit to cross over is 15 mph, and they hit the switch at 80! The crew on the lead engine died in their seats. The crew on the second engine died approximately three hours later. Both crews (engineers and firemen) were scalded to death. The engines were operating at about 225 lbs of steam. The other two fatalities were section men that happened to be working at that point and were crushed by the first express car. Miraculously only three passengers had lacerations and were treated at Shelby hospital. I've got an inside source for this wreck. My grandfather was the telegraph operator on duty in Shiloh at the time of the wreck, and my dad was the third trick operator in Shelby that night. While my grandfather is gone, my dad remembers it as if it were yesterday. That was the day that my folks had been going to have an engagement party, but it was canceled because of the wreck.
Hi Libertyheir, Welcome to the TrainBoard. Apparently you have access to alot of interesting and informative information. I hope you're able to participate on this forum frequently. Thanks for providing this information specifically, it's very enlightning. Sadly, it also points out how people with reptitive jobs can get sloppy with their performance and ignore proper procedure, as it appears in this case.
Welcome to Trainboard and the New York Central forum, libertyheir. I echo Hytec's comment and hope you can share more history with us here. :tb-biggrin:
Thanks for the welcome! My dad will love my picking his brain about 'used to was'... He worked at the interlocking in Shelby for 35 years until modern equipment phased out the interlocking. Per my dad, Shiloh did not have an interlocking. There was a temporary telegraph office set up in the freight station while maintenance was being done in the area. This wreck tore up both sets of tracks (eastbound and westbound) as well as taking out the telegraph and telephone lines. Crews worked through the night, and restored the telegraph lines during the wee hours of the 26th. Eastbound tracks were back in limited operation restoring passenger service to Shelby the following day. I can imagine the panic within my mom's family. All they knew was that there had been a bad wreck in Shiloh where my grandad was working. No word from him and until they could get to Shiloh, they had no way of knowing if he had been injured.
Oh Man, that would be wonderful. Please consider using a recorder to capture his memories. I know when my grandchidren ask me about an interesting topic, it's possible that I suddenly suffer from diarrhea of the brain, and mouth. Sadly, my G-Kids and I forget what I say. Please record, not for us, but for you, your kids, and the rest of your family. I sure wish I had done that with my parents and in-laws.
A bit of additional insight and clarification in the circumstances of this particular wreck. As I had said previously, a temporary telegraph office had been set up in the freight station at Shiloh. The switches for the crossover just south of Shiloh (westbound) were a temporary installation while the right of way underwent maintenance. It's much like you encounter on the freeways and turnpike when the highway department is working on a bridge and they split the existing lane and move opposing traffic across and put up signs warning that it's two-way traffic. My grandfather had been assigned to work Shiloh simply because of his position within the normal shift rotation. He normally worked a swing shift of three days in Shelby and three days at Vernon Junction just south of Shelby. The main part of his job at Shiloh was to operate the switches to cross the traffic from one set of tracks to the other, depending on which direction the next train was headed. He had received the notice that the train was at Greenwich and would be headed his direction and would need to cross over to the westbound tracks. He had just got back to the freight station after setting up the crossing and was standing trackside when the express came through. From that time it was 10-12 seconds before it tore out the switches. Per my dad, it was not uncommon to run double headed, even though the second unit wasn't really necessary. The railroad commonly did this to simply reposition locomotives where they were most needed. In this case, the dispatcher had not informed the operator at Greenwich that the train was double headed. The result was the operator only made out the order for one engine and it was handed up to the lead engine when they stopped for passengers at Greenwich. It's rumored that the order was found unopened in the engineer's pocket after the wreck. For the record, Shiloh's two-letter call sign on the telegraph was SX. The call sign for Shelby was SY. Whether or not the engineer saw and misread the order or failed to read it at all will never be known. Per my mother, the first word they had was when my grandfather's brother arrived at the house. He was a telegraph operator on the B&O and heard that there had been a bad wreck at Shiloh that was believed to have taken out the freight station. They believed that my grandfather may have been killed. Since the railroad communication lines on the Big 4/NYC were down, no one knew for sure until they drove to Shiloh. My grandfather worked his regular job alternating between Shelby and Vernon Jct (no time off). Once the wreck was cleaned up and everything restored to operation he was called in to testify at the investigation. One question that no one could ever answer was why the maintenance crew did not flag down the train. Most of the maintenance crew that was working on the right of way was between half a mile to a mile before the train reached Shiloh. Apparently a lot of assumptions were made... Mom said that it took my grandfather a lot of years to get over it. One of the things that bothered him the most was the smell of the burned crews. When he had mentioned the wreck when I was a small boy, I didn't understand that it had happened at his feet. I had always assumed that he arrived on the scene an hour or so afterward. Finally, in case I've confused anyone... If you look at Shelby/Shiloh on a map (Google) you'll see that Shiloh is almost due north of Shelby. It always confused me as a kid when the railroaders would talk about eastbound/westbound tracks in Shelby... Didn't make sense to me then because the tracks run north and south. Cleveland is north and Columbus is south... In railroad terms, traffic headed toward Cleveland was eastbound, and headed toward Columbus was westbound.
Thanks for that very interesting report. Lots of possible reasons for errors there. Please keep picking your grandfather's memories of these things. That's the only way we who were not there can learn of them. :tb-biggrin:
Libertyheir, thanks for that information. It definitely was tragic for your grandfather, and understandable that it affected him for years.
FOUND PICTURES FROM SHIOH, OH TRAIN WRECK. I THINK MY GRANDFATHER WAS ACTUALLY WORKING (ENGINEER) ON THAT TRAIN. AT LEAST HE APPEARS IN ONE OF THE PIX DRESSED FOR WORK. HE WOULD HAVE BEEN IN HIS LATE 60'S AT THAT TIME. SO I DON'T KNOW WHETHER HE STILL WAS ALLOWED TO WORK. HE DID THAT COLUMBUS TO CLEVELAND ROUTE AND I FOUND A NEWS ARTICLE WHICH MENTIONS HIS CREW ON THAT ROUTE IN BETTER TIMES THAN THIS STORY.
