(erielack) Rundel Curve Wreck

[Terry Dean <tjdean_@_frontiernet.net>]

John,
Could you elaborate on the controversy surrounding the cause of the wreck?

Terry
>
>
> From: "John Adams" <jadamserie5_@_nycap.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: (erielack) Earle Gil EL photos, group 4
>
> Spike kegs was my first reaction also. The only other thing it might be 
> would be goods that spilled out from the loaded box cars and hadn't been 
> cleaned up yet. The pictures brings back at lot of memories. This was the 99 
> wreck at Rundel's curve just East of Black Rock cut. My father worked for 
> the EL police dept. I was 16 at the time. He was on duty that night and the 
> engineer was able to radio the Yard B office that they were going on the 
> ground and then there was silence. My father entered the right-of-way at was 
> known as Tri-State's in Port Jervis (which was East of the Neversink River 
> bridge and the overpass for Horn road) and drove East on the service road 
> until he encountered the derailment.  The derailment involved 4 units and 
> something on the order of 75 cars on the ground. His first response was to 
> determine the fate of the crew. The head end crew consisted of the engineer, 
> fireman and head brakeman. The conductor and flag were in the caboose. The 
> head end crew was pretty banged up but with assistance from my father they 
> were able to walk to and enter the police car. He then proceeded back West 
> to Port Jervis and the hospital but was not able to contact Yard B or PO on 
> the car radio until he cleared Black Rock cut. He told them of the 
> derailment, its extent as best he could determine in the dark, that they 
> needed to contact the fire dept. because some of the locomotives were on 
> fire and he was proceeding to the hospital. The next day he took me with him 
> up to the site. The sight still sticks in my mind. At the time it was 
> described as the most expensive wreck in the history of either the Erie or 
> Lackawanna and had a lot of controversy involved in its cause and rumors 
> surrounding some of the loads involved.
>
>
>   


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