SHATTERED CARS PILED 40 FEET DEEP
IN VALLEY OF CATTARAUGUS CREEK64 Leave Track, Rip Out Two Trestles Of Bridge;
Debris Is Strewn for Quarter of a MileBy Jack West
Buffalo Evening News Staff Reporter
GOWANDA, Oct. 12 – The valley of Cattaraugus Creek was filled 40 feet deep with shattered freight cars in the spectacular wreck of an Erie Railroad freight train about 12:30 o’clock this morning.
Two trestles were ripped out by the hurtling cars. Most of the 64 heavily-loaded cars that left the tracks were hurled into the creek bed. Wreckage was strewn over a quarter-mile-long area stretching northward from the creek bed into the village.
None of the train crew, which included three Buffalo men, were injured.
Damages to railroad facilities, loss of equipment and merchandise and expenses in clearing the wreck are expected to exceed $250,000. The total may be much higher.
Danger of Fire Fades
A 15-man crew and the Erie Railroad’s wrecking car, which mounts a 100-ton derrick, rumbled out of the Buffalo yards at 2:30 o’clock to begin clearing the jumbled mass of cars. A second wrecking crew is tackling the derailment from the Salamanca side.
The danger of fire receded today from two loaded gasoline tank cars which dropped into the creek bed. Sgt. John C. Callinan of the Gowanda police summoned volunteer firemen to stand by all night as a precautionary measure. Portable searchlights illuminated the wreckage, which drew hundreds of spectators.
The cause of the wreck has not been determined. D.A. Logan, Erie Division superintendent, denied reports that the four-span structural steel bridge over Cattaraugus Creek collapsed under the train.
En Route to Buffalo
He explained that as the derailed cars plummeted from the bridge into the creek bed they “knocked out the stone supporting pier, allowing two of the four spans to collapse.”
A smaller trestle also collapsed into a dry raceway formerly used to run a feed mill.
The train was No. 98, en route from Meadville, Pa., to Buffalo. The four-unit diesel engine was pulling 105 loaded and 15 empty cars.
Gordon C. Becker, 56, of 190 South Shore Blvd., Buffalo, the train engineer, estimated his speed at “about 35 miles an hour” as he approached the Cattaraugus Creek trestle, which is about 200 feet long and about 50 feet high.
Thought Line Had Broken
“The speed was about normal for that point,” he declared. “We had just come down off a hill about 5 miles long. There’s a level area about a mile long containing the creek trestle and the raceway trestle before you begin climbing another hill.
“The engine was well past the creek trestle when the air went on, setting the emergency brakes along the entire train. I hadn’t heard any noise from the engine cab. I just thought an air line had broken.
“We stopped within about a minute, more or less. I sent the two brakemen walking back from the cab. In a few minutes, they came running back shouting we’d had a derailment. It was my first wreck in 38 years on the railroads and I hadn’t even known it was happening.”
2 in Rear of Train
With Mr. Becker in the cab were Henry A. Brundt of 14 Winkler Rd., Cheektowaga, fireman; Harry Johnson of Jamestown, head brakeman, and Elmer J. Steen of 126 Gilbert Ave., Buffalo, second brakeman.
The conductor, Walter R. Theon of Gowanda, and another unidentified crew member were in the rear of the train.
Division Supt. Logan said the derailment “evidently occurred in cars just as they approached the bridge.” Between 35 and 40 were hurled into the creek bed before the brakes halted the train, which stretched more than a mile long.
The engine and eight cars got across the raceway trestle safely before it gave way. Ten wrecked cars are scattered northeast between the bridge and Erie St. [Avenue] on both sides of the track. The last 48 cars of the train were halted before they were hurled into the creek bed.
Scattered Along Tracks
A mass of wrecked cars and twisted steel is piled about 60 feet high from the creek bed up alongside the embankment at the southwest end of the bridge. One lone Baltimore & Ohio coal hopper remains standing on the undestroyed portion of the structure.
Freight scattered along the tracks included lumber, washing machines, food stuffs, coal, dried milk and general merchandise.
The train had completed 100 miles of its 125-mile run at the time of the wreck. Approximately on time, it was due in Buffalo at 12:45 o’clock this morning.
On Way to Buffalo
The engine and head end of the train, containing eight cars, arrived here at 3 o’clock this morning. The rear end of the train, containing 48 cars, backed off and went to Hornell. It is being brought to Buffalo this afternoon.
The Erie Railroad has no passenger service over the wrecked line. It normally sends two freight trains over the line from Buffalo daily and receives two freights from other points. Until the wreckage is cleared, the trains will detour via River Junction to Salamanca, adding about two hours to the running time.
Source: Buffalo Evening News, Buffalo, NY. October 12, 1955. Provided by Phil Palen