Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

Train accident, Junction Station, 1917

Description

"An engine engaged in shifting empty p[passenger cars on the Salem Branch crashed head-on into an outbound Georgetown line freight engine just below the signal tower at the Junction Station on August 2, 1917. A fireman on the freight train was killed in the accident which occurred shortly after 10:30 p.m. According to news reports, the Salem Branch engine had just passed the crossover to the main line and the freight train was traveling at a 'good rate of speed' when the 'mammoth' engines crashed. The collision sent the freight engine hurtling from the tracks, sending it sideways, and pitching it onto its side beside the inward bound track. It was reported to be 'smashed in half' and 'knocked at right angles'. The box car and the coal cars were also damaged with iron from one of the engines imbedded in the Georgetown box freight cars. The passenger cars on the shifting (Salem Branch) engine remained on the tracks, although the forward car next to the engine was destroyed. The Salem crew jumped to safety before the impact. An Otis Street youth, Harold Anderson, walking home from a dance in Melrose, was among the first rescuers on the scene. Work continued into the next day, with railroad officials moving the debris so other trains could pass through the busy station. The rails below the signal tower where the engines collides were 'twisted like paper' and new iron was laid in the morning. Scores of local residents remained at the scene throughout the day."

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2014

Photo courtesy of JC Marketing Associates

Contributor

Institution: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (Wakefield, Mass.)

D'Onofrio, Jayne M.

Coverage

Massachusetts--Middlesex (county)--Wakefield

Date

08-02-1917

Format

image/jpeg

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Railroads

Railroad stations

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture: b & w

Extent

30 x 17 cm.