1/25/56 - WEISBERG, INDIANA

Weisberg is located on the CIN / IND line between Lawrenceberg Jct. and Greensberg; station is on a short tangent between reverse curves. It was dark and snowy.

X3106 WEST (48 cars + caboose) added Helper Eng. 1980 on the head end at Lawrenceberg Jct. and Dp. at 5:09 AM. The train stalled on the upgrade just west of Weisberg and the crew conferred and decided to make a reverse move to get slack and try again. While making the reverse movement, they collided with the head end of X9401 WEST (64 cars + caboose) which had added Helper Eng. 1967 on the head end, Dpd. Lawrenceberg Jct at 5:35AM, and stopped in accordance with signals from the Flagman of X3106. The Cab and rear 2 cars of X3106 were derailed, and Helper Eng. 1967 and tender were derailed and overturned. Some of the wreckage obstructed Tk. 2. X3005 EAST coming downgrade at 40mph was flagged but could not stop and hit the obstructive debris at about 15mph but did not derail.

The Conductor of X3106 was killed and the crew of the 1967 and the Flagman of X3106 were injured.

This was probably the last 3-train incident on the NYC in which all trains were steam powered.

So they "took slack" for a quarter mile, at a speed up to 11 mph.

Many, many times when there is a mess like this, it's not just one thing that is done wrong, but a combination.

*backing too far down the hill
*Conductor of first train not dumping the air, especially when the following train became visible
*Conductor of first train not being in a position to unload when a collision was imminent
*Apparent failure of head end crew to immediately protect the adjacent track (EB's engr saw 2 men on the ground and sounded a warning)

If you were conductor or flagman in this situation, in pre-radio days, you were really playing a guessing game about what to do. When the train stopped, you had to guess if it were stalled or was there another reason to stop? Do you just wait for the power to take slack or send out a flag? Do you know the RR well enough to know how far back the engineer might shove to get a re-start? Can the flagman get back far enough or fast enough to protect the train? To me, the rear end was stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea, and the rule book was not of any use.

NKP1155 wrote:If you were conductor or flagman in this situation, in pre-radio days, you were really playing a guessing game about what to do. When the train stopped, you had to guess if it were stalled or was there another reason to stop? Do you just wait for the power to take slack or send out a flag? Do you know the RR well enough to know how far back the engineer might shove to get a re-start? Can the flagman get back far enough or fast enough to protect the train? To me, the rear end was stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea, and the rule book was not of any use.

The flagman had already dropped off near the depot, and the conductor also knew they would not make it. The flagman does not really enter into the equation. The conductor had to make a judgement call on whether to pull the air or not when they started back down the hill. As for what to do, the rule book DOES enter into it, in that Rule 99 would have dictated the flagman protect the rear of the train . No mention was made of dropping off a lit fusee before they actually stalled but again that would not have made a difference. Taking slack is one thing, shoving a quarter mile at speeds up to 11 mph is another.

And it should be noted that while the official reports quote interviews with every surviving crewman about everything that happened, what ACTUALLY happened does not, in some cases, get into the official report after all. Not saying that is or is not the case here, but it's something to keep in mind.

With the flagman dropped off at the depot, was there a plan to get him back onto his train? Would the head-end crew know he was off the rear end? Was there a point further along where the two trains could close up for the transfer? If not, might the conductor have to go back flagging if they stopped, and he too could be left behind?

It was not unheard of for a flagman to get left behind. It would fall upon the rear brakeman or the conductor (assuming a 6-man crew) to provide protection after that.

Several years back there was a humorous true story in CLASSIC TRAINS magazine. The author was very young and somehow got on the wrong side of a cranky old conductor on the B&O. When recalled and his train started moving, he could not catch up, while the skipper stood on the back platform and watched him run in vain. So the flag watched his train disappear. He flagged the next train by, which happened to be a passenger train, and it went non-stop to the terminal on green signals, passing the freight. When Mr. Grumpy Conductor arrived at the yard, guess who was already there waiting for him!