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Caption: So I am standing on the Waterdown Rd bridge, quite a ways west of where I can dimly make out an approaching headlight. The sun is close to setting, I am losing light very quickly but figure before I go home I will wait this out and see what it is. Probably a passenger. As I watch the headlight coming at me, all of a sudden it appears to do a 'dipsy-doodle' and disappears. My scanner back then is still an under-dash Patrolman, fixed in the car, so I have no idea what is going on. So I go over to King Rd for a drive. There is the unit, CN 3102 laying on its' side. Passenger cars are fine, power has gone AWOL. The racket has attracted a small group of onlookers already, milling around like this was a flea market and someone was looking for perhaps a used chair. Remarkable, the lax security. Another age, another era. I wandered around for about 10 minutes, shooting pictures, most of them poor, as I had to hand-hold at 15th sec due to rapid loss of sunset light. This photo I picked up a board to use as a monopod. Not great, but it recorded the scene. No one hurt, as far as I know; and I never did find out what caused the unit to flip as it passed over King Rd grade crossing.
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I took a picture of 3102 at PSc shop Montreal on Ap 13,76,i had never known where it had happened….
i am amazed someone saw a derailment happen live. a once in a lifetime experience and potentially horrifing at that.
I dont want to see one!
I often thought, Steve, of the consequences if I had been at King crossing instead of Waterdown. We used to hang around at nearby Howard Rd, which dead-ended at the tracks. That spot was lost when the extra track for GO went in a few years back.
This site certainly brings some of us together, Pierre, as not only you recall shooting this engine and now solve a bit of a puzzle, another group member wrote to tell me he actually worked on the clean up at this spot so many years ago. Count ‘em, 40!!!
Nowadays they throw you in jail for that or issue you a ticket. I love the flea market description and was going to ask where the chair came from.
Going by a rather fuzzy memory, I remember a small MoW building on location, a volkswagen parked alongside and the chair I think was one of two out front. Don’t know why the chair wandered off, but I do remember the pale green/blue volks taking a hit from all this. Not wiped out, just the hood bashed in.
The date for this is March 30, /76. It is train 155 and they struck a keg of railway spikes that were obviously placed on the crossing as a result of vandalism.
The steam generator car was 15477 and it plus the baggage car were also derailed.
The small shack was the base for the Car Checker, who at such time was named George (last name now escapes me), he was the father of a classmate of mine in high school. It was a European name, perhaps German or Austrian.
Thanks, BEM’r !!!
Funny how things suddenly pop back into the conciousness – George Lochner
Oh you mean like out behind Dundas Station ???
Not BEHIND the station, inside it !!
Seeing this photo again….have to ask, did anyone buy that chair? Looks to be in decent shape LOL
Todd: You have to wonder where the heck it came from. Nice old wooden “Captain’s Chair” as used to call them. Heck, I could have gotten $20 for that back then.
) It was so out of place it was the highlight of the image.