February 14, 1959 - Two serious hotbox incidents southwest of Rochester, on two different railroads.
On the Lehigh Valley, and Eastbound freight stopped near Caledonia to handle a hotobox, and was rear-ended by another freight.
Either one or two brakemen (accounts vary), were slightly injured, and six cars were derailed.
On the B&O, a Southbound empty hopper train was observed passing Silver Lake Junction with a hotbox. The
crew on the caboose was alerted by hand signal, and the Conductor was able to bring the train to a safe stop at
Gainesville, using the valve in the caboose. Their normal procedure was to back the engines through the
siding to inspect the train. In this case, the train came to a stop with the engines and several cars
south of the switch. So they cut off the cars from the rest of the train, and proceeded to shove through
the passing siding. The leading hopper car for this move, happened to have its brakeman's platform facing
towards the second car, so the brakeman rode the move between the first and second cars. Several of the
cars rode up on ice over the rails, the couplers slipped by, and the brakeman, my Dad's friend Eddie Lathan,
was fatally injured.