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  • On this date in Rochester rail history...

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New York State.

Moderator: Otto Vondrak

 #1316726  by Benjamin Maggi
 
BR&P wrote: Conrail was famous - or perhaps infamous - for balancing mainline power which accumulated at Selkirk or points east, by running "Lites" or "Cab Lites" - a train of engines only, or engines and cabooses only.
It was always fun to be railfanning Conrail though and see a train of nothing but engines (I was born too late to see an all-caboose move). Good for picture too!
 #1317168  by C2629
 
If you had stopped at Conrails Rochester Yard engine house the morning of February 13 1977, this is what you could have seen. C&NW 814 and C&NW 972 waiting their next assignment. The yardmaster that day wanted to put them on the salt train to P&L junction but since the C&NW 972 was an SD45 and the B&O didn't want six axels on the line it wasn't to be.
Attachments:
C&NW 814_edited-5.jpg
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 #1317340  by jr
 
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.
 #1317474  by BR&P
 
February 14, 1978

Nothing major at CR but a few interesting notes - the Fairport Traveling Switcher was derailed at Fairport. With more snow possible, two plows were at the engine house ready for use. And the Second Belt, instead of heading right to Kodak, took 5 cars to Pittsford out the Auburn Road.
 #1317738  by BR&P
 
February 16, 1978

Conrail EX-1 derailed their engine on the Lima Branch about a mile north of Lima

The 1st State Street job plowed the Hojack west to Hamlin

The Middleport Turnaround, coming back to Rochester, struck an auto at Maple Street, no injuries

February 16, 1980

OMID crew on duty 0730 to go to Marion. Waited 1 1/4 hours at Newark for the Conrail pilot to show up. Heavy ice at Marion, off duty at Sodus 1700.
 #1318336  by BR&P
 
February 20, 1980

Ontario Midland freight headed east to Red Creek derailed at Lawville Road, east of Wolcott, due to ice over the crossing. Engine 40 laid over on its side, but the crew was uninjured.
 #1318655  by BR&P
 
The train was the Third Belt. Kachler's book "The Snowflaker" has several photos. It took 2 steam cranes and a barge-mounted crane from Canada to extricate the locomotive from the river.
 #1319019  by sd80mac
 
RSD15 wrote:On February 22 1947 NYC engine 1599 went off the approach to the open bridge at Charlotte NY ending up in the Genesee river.

http://dotlibrary.specialcollection.net ... ct+3094%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BRP-
"The maximum authorized speed or ridge 0-151 is 8 miles per hour." Safe to assume that "or" is "on"

It seems that report left out some.

It says Flagman was injured. I figured that he was on the engine. But it appeared that Fireman was only other person on the engine.

It didnt explain how fireman escaped.. and didnt explain how flagman got injured.

If it was moving 3 mph, why didnt engineer get off the engine? I recall that 6 mph is the max that train crews can get on and off. I would guess that engineer had health issue that lead to this?? I may be wrong. too many holes in investigation report.
 #1319031  by terms-d
 
sd80mac wrote:If it was moving 3 mph, why didnt engineer get off the engine? I recall that 6 mph is the max that train crews can get on and off. I would guess that engineer had health issue that lead to this?? I may be wrong. too many holes in investigation report.
I don't know if the rule has changed over time, but the current consensus among most railroads is "walking speed" (defined as 4 MPH) is the maximum speed in which you can safely get on & off moving equipment.
 #1319051  by BR&P
 
Ken, it's my opinion the report is in error and it was the fireman who was injured. Kachler's book says the fireman was swimming for shore when the rest of the crew got to the bridge. Even a few moments in the icy river would require hospitalization. And while the report mentions 3 brakemen (one of whom would presumably act as flagman if needed), there is no mention of a flag per se other than that one mention.

Nobody could explain why the engineer didn't stop. The bridge tender had set a red lantern between the rails before moving the bridge, but it might be easy to miss that, especially if looking back frequently.

One thing which does not add up - they had hold of 38 cars, and it says the conductor and 2 brakemen were near the east end of the cut, with another man on deck 10 cars back. It says all of them gave stop signals when they saw the engine pass the stop sign. It was 4:23 AM, snowing, and a strong wind blowing, and they were 38 cars back. Do you really think they could see exactly where the head end was? The head man, yes, but the others?????

As near as I can figure, the engineer was distracted somehow. It says the speed was "about" 3mph, but who can say - might have been 5. When the pilot wheels dropped it may have got his attention, but it's only a second or 2 before the drivers start past the end, and as the engine tilts, the water in the boiler would surge forward. By the time the guy realized his mistake it was too late to do anything about it.
 #1319146  by BR&P
 
I talked to an old-timer about that Charlotte bridge incident. The engineer who died was Bob Diell (Diehl? Deyel?) The fireman was Dave Clark, one of two men by that name on the NYC locally at that time. Clark quit the railroad after that experience. He did not know who the conductor or brakemen were.

He said the crew included 3 brakemen, one of whom (usually the senior man) served as Flagman. But unlike some railroads, they did not name one job specifically "Flagman". So I'm confident the injured man was actually the fireman.

The guy laughed when I read him the part about the hind end men giving stop signals - he agreed with me, 4AM, snowing, high wind, and 38 cars back, they would not be able to tell just how close to the edge the engine was getting.
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