1979 train derailment Grass Lake Michigan

[Scooterb]

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index ... cart_river

With pictures

GRASS LAKE, MI – Whether you believe in superstition or not, Friday the 13th offered up a dose of bad luck to the village of Grass Lake in July 1979.

A Conrail freight train traveling from Detroit to Elkhart, Ind. made an unscheduled afternoon stop there when 21 cars derailed at the east end of town.

“There was a rumble just about like an earthquake,” said Jack Campbell, now 89 and still living in Grass Lake. “When we looked out, there were train cars thrown in every direction.”

Campbell and his wife Lillian owned Campbell Oil Co., 126 N. Lake Road, a bulk storage facility. They offer up what likely is the one bit of good luck that resulted from the wreck – one of the train’s cars missed by just about 40 feet one of their overhead tanks containing about 10,000 gallons of oil.

“That was a little too close,” Campbell said. “But it sure could have been a lot worse. That was quite an experience. I’ll never forget it.”
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The 116-car train entered Grass Lake heading toward Jackson at about 3:15 p.m. Reports said that sometime after the train passed through the center of town, the freight cars broke apart.

Cars were scattered from the Brown Street crossing east for nearly a third of a mile toward the Mount Hope Road crossing. Some landed as far as 60 feet from the rails.

Of the 21 cars, 13 were carrying new automobiles from Detroit. One of the vehicles landed in the driveway of the home of U.V. O’Connor at 131 Brown St.

“He lived there all his live, and I remember him saying he wanted a new car, but he didn’t want it like that,” Campbell said. “He was sitting on his front porch and heard the same rumble like all of us. He said he just started running north as fast as he could.”

One of the derailed train cars landed within 30 feet of O’Connor’s garage, reports said.

Sandy Wolfinger-Bromley, now 61, was a 28-year-old Grass Lake High School English teacher then. She spent summers working with her parents, Wayne and Jean Wolfinger, in the family hardware store on Main Street.

“I was in the back of the store doing stock and you could feel the whole building moving,” she said. “We knew something major was going on.”

About 1,300 feet of track buckled from the force of the cars. At the Brown Street crossing, one car crashed into a utility pole, downing wires.

It took the entire night to clean up the debris. The brunt of the operation was done by what the Citizen Patriot called “a rough-and-ready crew of train-wreck troubleshooters” from Hulcher Emergency Services of Virden, Ill.

The wrecked cars were pulled by train engines to the Jackson roundhouse on Elm Avenue for repair. Workers estimated all but two or three were probably going to be able to be repaired and put back into service.

Conrail police officers, who were on the scene, though, were forbidden by company officials to talk about the cost of the wreck or its cause, the Citizen Patriot reported.

But witnesses told the newspaper they saw the freight’s wheels leave the track moments before the derailment. And Engineer Douglas Evert of Clark Lake said he felt the train “lunge” forward at the moment of the accident.

Tidbits

• Four Conrail employees were on the train that derailed in Grass Lake on Friday, July 13, 1979. Two, who were riding in the caboose, were treated for minor injuries at Jackson’s Foote Hospital, now Allegiance Health. No one on the ground sustained any injuries.

• Many of the derailed train cars carried new Ford four-wheel drive trucks and Grenadas. A few Buicks and Chevrolets were also on board.

• Emergency officials from Grass Lake, Napoleon, Leoni Township, and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office stayed on the scene of the derailment until Conrail police arrived and assumed jurisdiction.

• Cleanup of the derailment began at 6:30 p.m. and workers spent the entire night removing debris from the tracks. Kugler’s Dairy Bar stayed open to provide food and drink to the workers.

• Hundreds of people also came to Grass Lake throughout the afternoon and evening to see the derailment. Police had trouble controlling them, many of whom came with their cameras.

[A No.1]

Scooter, Your back LoL

[DonHarding]

My friend, Nick Gadbury, a teacher at Grass Lake Elementary School, often spoke of seeing this wreck in his early twenties. Must have been one heck of a derailment!

[Buster Manning]

I see the Leoni Twp. emergency officials have practice with derailments

[Scooterb]

A NO.1 Never left, life and work gets in the way.

Buster that was back when Leoni had a Department, not contracted with Blackman Twp. as they are now.

I work with Doug, him in the fire dept. me in the DPW he is supposed to bring me pictures of the derailment he was at the throttle when this happened. Cause was a wheel failure on a brand new Conrail box car.

[Saturnalia]

Sounds like quite the mess. What was the power/consist?

Cause was a wheel failure on a brand new Conrail box car.

So much for "Conrail Quality"

[CAT345C]

Wasn't there a batch of bad wheels that got out back during that era? I thought I either read or saw a video about some wheels from American Car and Foundry that were prematurely fracturing at certain speeds and basically shattering.

[SD80MAC]

Sounds like quite the mess. What was the power/consist?

Cause was a wheel failure on a brand new Conrail box car.

So much for "Conrail Quality"

No worries, "Conrail Quality" didn't exist in 1979.

[ns8401]

Sounds like quite the mess. What was the power/consist?

Cause was a wheel failure on a brand new Conrail box car.

So much for "Conrail Quality"

No worries, "Conrail Quality" didn't exist in 1979.

Conrail was still picking up the pieces in 79, really it's amazing they got it stabilized by 83 or 84 with how much or a mess they were left and the double dip recession that hit them hard between 80 and 82.

[Fred]

I just checked my slide collection and the train was DJEL-3 which originated at Junction Yard's Train Yard in Dearborn

[ns8401]

I just checked my slide collection and the train was DJEL-3 which originated at Junction Yard's Train Yard in Dearborn

This would have been maybe a year or two or three before junction was downgraded I think? Folks who were along the line have told me 1979 was the last real busy year and then the slide began with the Canada Southern sold in 79, the Air Line torn out in 82 and Junction Yard downgraded (WB departure ripped out) and the traffic mostly sent to the south thru Toledo. Eventually the road freight switched from DJEL to DWEL moving from a Junction yard origination to Wayne as it is today although even that goes south except the trip to Jackson. From 25-30 freights a day going west to none. Quite sad.

[Hogger1225]

I think Doug's dad Ned was the Chief Dispatcher at the time.

[Scooterb]

Yes he was Hogger1225.