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  • B&O wreck on this date

  • 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

 #1555422  by BR&P
 
It's been 5 years since I noted this in another thread, and we have probably gained a few new members since. So for those who might be interested, here's a memorial to a couple B&O trainmen who perished this date.

October 26, 1946

A sad day on the B&O. A road crew arrived from East Salamanca in the pre-dawn darkness. The 2 steam engines went to the far end of Brooks Avenue yard and nosed onto their caboose, and shoved it through thick fog toward Lincoln Park. A short distance north on the Chili Avenue overpass, a crew member of another train saw the dark shape approaching and mistook it for his own power, and lined a switch into a siding. The road train left the main and collided with a standing cut of cars, totally demolishing the caboose. The conductor and flagman were injured, and two brakemen in the caboose - Walter Veite and Willard Wesch, lost their lives.


Wesch had formerly worked for General Railway Signal but left there to hire out on the B&O. Veite was apparently a young guy (no ages were given), his home was in Anita PA (near Punxsutawney) but he was working in Rochester probably being low in seniority and unable to hold down there. News article said he was living in another caboose (probably a bunk car) while at Rochester.

:( :(
B&O C2643       10-26-46.jpg
B&O C2643 10-26-46.jpg (220.69 KiB) Viewed 502 times