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From: "David MonteVerde" david AT gvtrail DOT com
Date: Thu, 5 May 2016 02:01:39 -0400
Subject: Reposted from EL Facebook page 1943 Lackawanna Limited Disaster at Wayland NY MP 311
"Wayland_wreck_of_lackawanna_Limited_1943.jpg" - image/jpeg, 640x800 (24bit)

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/local-news/my-ohio/passenger-train-car-from-194
3-crash-haunts-midwest-railway-preservation-society-in-cleveland



Todd Hollritt's original post:

Lackawanna Limited speeding along at 70 MPH to make up twenty minutes of
lost time, sideswiped a switcher freight engine that had not fully cleared
the main line. There were more than 500 passengers aboard the 11-car train.
The track-side signals and cab signals indicated clear. The engineer of the
switcher thought he had time to finish his chores and was moving along the
siding. The engineer of the express noticed the moving switcher on the
siding and assumed it would stop; when he realized it was not, he applied
the emergency brakes, but too late to avoid the ensuring collision. The
Limited's locomotive sliced off the front end of the switcher and split its
boiler, derailing itself and several following cars. Every window in the
express was shattered and scalding water burst from the broken boiler of the
switcher flooded the windowless Nickel plate coach which had stopped by the
switcher. Twenty-six passengers in that car were killed from the scalding
water and steam. Riding in the cab of the Limited was F. H. Meincke, DL&W's
superintendent of locomotives. He jumped from the cab and was killed when
the engine toppled on him; the engineer and fireman was not injured. Two
other passengers died later.
About four months later, an inquest was held which, although declaring
"negligence of employees and failure of officials of the Delaware,
Lackawanna & Western Railroad to provide adequate safety facilities", the
coroner concluded that no useful purpose would be served by recommending
criminal action. Todd Hollritt


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David G Rossiter
Ed Crist . I had read
about the Wayland wreck in the Taber book but this is more comprehensive.
The key conclusion is the systematic disregard for safety rules: "This
accident was the direct result of the long-standing practice of inferior
trains using the main track on the time of superior trains without procuring
authority in the manner prescribed in the bock of operating rules. The rules
had not been rescinded or modified, but practices not provided for or
authorized thereby were commonly followed."


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David J. Monte Verde This view
of #15 the OWL is at the exact location of this disaster. The Owl was a
heavy head end train with one coach, a Hoboken to Buffalo sleeper and a
heavy weight Buffet lounge added for the breakfast crowd at Elmira.


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David J. Monte Verde This 1947
shot of #2 see attached-at Wayland by the 6th car is where the disaster
happened. My Dad told me that they rang the fire alarms in Dansville and
Wayland for assistance, and that the dead passengers had been scalded to
death by super-heated steam from the cylinder head of the local that dumped
the steam into the NKP coach, which of all the cars that were on that train
still exists as a haunted coach. I think it should be brought back to the
B&H at Wayland and release the souls!


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