I happened to stumble on this article tonight and was shocked to learn that a 1950 NMRA fan trip on the new Speedrail interurban line in Greenfield Wisconsin (near Milwaukee) had resulted in a terrible accident killing ten rail fans including William A. Wight, the Associate Editor of Model Railroader magazine. The trip had been run in conjunction with NMRA's Milwaukee convention that year, and along with the terrible tradgedy of harming persons there to celebrate the line, was directly responsible for Speedrail's operations to fold the following year. (One ticketed fan overslept that morning, missed the trip, and avoided injury or death !) Almost sixty years later, my heart goes out to all the traction fans who suffered harm that day, engaged in what should have been a joyful occasion.
Here's the article written by Joe Russ:
http://my.execpc.com/~jruss/NMRAspeedrail.html
Here's the article written by Joe Russ:
http://my.execpc.com/~jruss/NMRAspeedrail.html
~Paul Joyce~
Moderator: Toy Trains, Model Railroading, Outdoor and Live Steam
Paul Joyce passed away in August, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion at railroad.net.
Moderator: Toy Trains, Model Railroading, Outdoor and Live Steam
Paul Joyce passed away in August, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion at railroad.net.