A night to remember
" The richness of life lies in the memories we have forgotten"
~Cesare Pavese~
Most of my experiences with trains has been positive throughout my life, however this particular night wasn't per say a bad experience for me but a interesting one to say the least.
It was on Sunday February 26th 1989 a night that certainly would remain in my memory for years to come. It began with a evening at Quaker square, I don't remember the details other than we ate at the restaurant and I wasn't supposed to go but I was pardoned at the last minute I don't remember by whom but I remember the joy of getting to go. As my mom drove us home I remember it was getting dark out and we were on our way home. About the same time the crew of the D812 local left Warwick after setting off 11 cars and picking up 5 (4 cars and a second caboose) with 4 locomotives, 49 cars and, 2 cabooses. (and yes I am old enough they still used cabooses on locals) The D812 Lead by CSXT-6124 a ex -Chessie System leader ( the one I remember vividly) Headed for Akron Junction Yard on the joint CSX/Conrail line through Akron. As we got home about 6:45pm I was busy telling my dad about our trip and dinner. As fate would have it around 7:25 pm our life would forever be changed by the series of events that would take place over the next few hours. As D812 passed by the Bridge 16 signal and over a set of crossovers a Wisconsin Southern hopper (WSOR) with a bad wheel would find a bad spot in the track and derail taking 19 cars along with it. Some of the cars that came off with the errant hopper were tankers that were filled with Butane and the wreck caused the cars to explode and catch fire.
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| A picture of the front page of Monday's Newspaper |
Now all I remember of the initial derailment was hearing some big boom much like fireworks going off and my dad making the comment that it sounded like someone dropped the diamond out of their ring. As we went to the back door to see what happened, when we saw through the trees the night sky it glowing a eerie orange-ish white color. Wondering what happened we got dressed grabbed the dog and set out on one of our evening walks about a half hour early once we reached the intersection of Kenmore Blvd. and Ira (our street) we could see droves of firetrucks making the way behind Karder Machine. We decided not to go that way and walked up to the tracks about two blocks up and saw the locomotives setting on the track near the South Main street bridge. What we saw looked like the B.F. Goodrich plant had caught fire about a mile down the track, but little did we know that part of the train we saw setting parked had derailed right next to the building.
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| A Diagram of how close they were to the building |
On our way back an Akron cop stopped my dad and said we had to leave the area and that evacuations was under way. Now for a 8 year old it is pretty scary that you might not have your world to come back home too, add in the fact of my cigarette smoking mom adding drama that we are not leaving and that she did not care if we blew up or not, it is amazing that I still like trains till today. Well after 2 police officers, my dad and one fire person managed to convince her to leave we packed up some clothes and went to stay with friends over in East Akron.
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| Homeward bound two days after |
Now the derailment afforded me two days off from school which I thoroughly enjoyed and hearing the news we could go home was great news to me as I could go back to my Legos and toy trains at home. However the drama would be far from over. On the day we went to go home we were told we couldn't get through downtown Akron as a second derailment happened. With a shortage of proper sized flat cars they thought it to be a good idea to use wood blocks, and chains, to pull the cars the 4 miles to the original destination at Akron Yard, after the chains breaking twice and coming loose one of the cars (4 were chained together) decided it did not want to go any further and flopped onto the ground between the tracks.
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| The car that decided to lay back down |
Once the errant car was put back on the tracks it made it to the yard where it's fate is still unknown but if it were a good guess on my part they were scrapped. Once we returned home and the smell of the fire left out of the house,the derailment only became a memory one that still to this day I remember somewhat vividly. While the tracks have been repaired, my mom and dad have gone on, there are a few things that haven't changed, Still to this day if you get the chance you can still see the marks on the B.F. Goodrich building and the turnout that started it all. Also the area where the second derailment occurred is not changed much other than the cleared the former Erie right of way for a new bike trail. (The Erie can be visible to the right of the dozers in the last picture. The event taught me at a early age to respect the power of trains a respect that still is with me today. As I close you know I cannot leave you without some words of wisdom, in our railfan community sometimes we can lose sight of respect for trains or someone, and we often times are never taught to respect these things. I encourage you today if you are lacking in respect for a person or railroad property take time to learn how to before you are taught it the hard way, you could lose friendships, relationships, or even your life and cause irrevocable pain and suffering that sometimes cannot be fixed. Until next time take care and remember God is still in control.
I would like to take the time out to thank Craig and Julie Martin for providing me pictures of the newspaper articles saved by her late brother (and my friend Ed Gredick) and also to a good friend who is a retired CSX employee which wishes to remain anonymous for providing me the 102 page accident report and pictures to help me piece together this blog post
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