Famous Bay Ridge Derailment of the '60s

I was dining at a pub in Rockville Centre last week with a railfan buddy who posts here. We were having drinks shooting the shit, etc. The manager/Bartender overheard use talking about trains and trolley cars. He joined us and told us of his youth in Brooklyn and how he and his buddies used to hang out on the Bay Ridge branch dodging trains, etc.

Well, he amazed us when he mentioned that a high school chum of his had caused an horrible derailment on the Bay Ridge branch. He wasn't sure of the years, but figured it was sometime in the mid-1960's. We asked him if it was 1967 or thereabouts involving the large orange NH engines. He seemed to think it did. According to this gent, his pal was arrested by police when they came down to the school.

We told him that his buddy was responible for one of the worse accidents on the line and that the images of the wreck were available online via the New Haven site. I told him I'd drop off some printouts next time we come by if he's not able to find the site.

Well, that only proves that incredible stories can be had from just sitting around nursing a couple of brewskies!

Found these pictures online:

http://www.nhrhta.org/htdocs/photo.htm

Yeah, we assume that's the incident in question....thanks for the link.

I posted the original pictures. My Dad was in charge of the cleanup and the snapshots are in my collection. There were lots of vandalism events down on Bay Ridge, and quite a few involved boys that weren't so lucky as to get away. I remember a particular event for which Dad was called out, involving a kid who hopped a moving freight, climbed to the top of the boxcar and grabbed the catenary. Charred meat was all they could clean up.
Bay Ridge was no playground.
I also have slides of "The Great People Poop Wreck", where the sewerage treatment plant exploded and bowled over entire freight trains in the yard.

Any info on where (what overpass) this was at?

If you go to that exact spot today, there are still twisted pieces of rail in the weeds.