On May 10, 1954, NYC 3029 leading train #78 met her end at South Anderson on the South Wye as she arrived. The switch had been unlatched and moving at 15 mph, the end came for a blueprint engine. The best of the L3b's said Maurice Lewman. I have added three decent photos of the derail on the Michigan Division, South photo page of my Railroads of Madison County site at: http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ 3029 was never returned to service.
Be still my heart! Terrible to see one of the Central's finest go down. It gives you some idea of how heavy those great beasts were, seeing how deep she dug herself in once off the rails. Did Maurice take those?
No. Maurice did come up with them and they are from his collection. These are the best that I have seen so far. And she did dig herself in.
To show you how perfect this engine was a short story.The only thing that did not work 100% was the hook on the curtain across the back of the cab to keep the weather out.On the day of the accident it was cool and the crew had the curtain closed and the hook wired shut.When she jumped the track the brakeman tried to go out the curtain an jump off. Not being able to get the curtain open he had to ride it out but if he had jumped it probably would have squeezed him between the grab irons. So even in its imperfection it was perfect. LEW
