But the front page of the Lorain Times Herald of May 13, 1905 is different. It tells the tale of a Lake Shore Electric accident in which an interurban car was teetering over the edge of the Rocky River bridge.
The article notes, “Hanging on the edge of the Rocky River bridge, and gazing at a sheer fall of 100 feet is the predicament a car load of passengers on the Lake Shore Electric found themselves in at Rocky River this morning. It was the most remarkable accident in respect to the possibilities of horror without doing any serious harm ever heard of in the history of electric railroading. Had the car gone a few inches farther it would have toppled over the edge of the bridge. Indeed, even after it was stopped, nothing seemed to prevent its falling, and why it did not fall is one of the mysteries of life.”
How did it happen?
As noted in the article, “Car No. 64 was running as the second section of the Limited and reached the Rocky River bridge at 7:30. Motorman Beebe was running the car and President Bicknell stood beside him in the vestibule. Hawkins was the conductor.
"After the conductor got his orders from the dispatcher the car started across the bridge as usual. It could not have gained much speed for it had only proceeded onto the bridge about 75 feet when the left hand wheels of the front truck jumped out of the flange groove. The car ran this way about its length until it forced the right hand wheels off the track and the trucks gave a sudden twist towards the edge of the bridge.
"The car ran some distance along the edge of the bridge, all the time crashing against the iron fence and getting closer and closer to the edge. Finally it brought up against an iron lamp-post and stopped.
“The experience to all the passengers was like a horrible nightmare.”
“President Bicknell at once took charge of the wreck and was the coolest man in the party.”
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| Willis Leiter photograph of the wreck (Courtesy of Dennis Lamont) |
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| Car #64 teetering over the edge of the Rocky River Bridge (Courtesy of the Cleveland Memory Project) |
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To read more about this story, be sure to visit Drew Penfield’s Lake Shore Rail Maps website, the online home of all things related to the Lake Shore Electric.
4 comments:
In this newspaper photo I see a photo of The Church of The Redeemer that you did a post on once. A commenter wondered what happened to that ornate round window, and I was just looking up photos of that church and just saw a postcard of it on eBay from the 1924 tornado and in it, the whole left side of the church, including the round window, had been destroyed. That’s too bad. I bet it was really beautiful.
It's interesting that the paper ran a photo of Bicknell rather than the wreck, although I suppose back then photography was not so simple as taking a phone out of your pocket. Today we would have video of the whole thing that would demonstrate whether or not Bicknell was the coolest man in the party.
HI DAN, re The Church of The Redeemer window. The round one was destroyed in the tornado. A Replacement window was then installed and lasted until early 1960's. The current window was installed about 1963-64.When church was enlarged and remodeled . That new window was a gift. IT is a more modern design and is magnificent in color and theme.. to me it is one of the last artistic objects left in Lorain.See it from inside and photograph it for all to enjoy. Harrison
Miles Beebe and Kirby Hawkins, the motorman and conductor, had previously been involved in the horrific accident at Wells Corner near Norwalk the previous year. As I recall Beebe was also involved in another head-on collision near Norwalk some years later (no fault of his own in every case.) They certainly had some courage to keep doing what they did after experiencing a few of these accidents.
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