It's nothing to be nostalgic about, but seventy years ago yesterday was the day that 22 New York Central cars derailed in Elyria, as noted in the headline above from the
Lorain Journal of April 27, 1955.
As the article noted, "A 70 mile an hour, 125 car freight train ripped apart the New York Central's four main tracks in Elyria today. The derailment sent cars flying and snarled the rails. All New York-Chicago rail traffic was blocked or rerouted for 12 hours after the 6 a. m. accident at the Abbe Road crossing.
"No one was injured when 22 of the 125 cars derailed, overturned and spun crazily across the fours tracks. But a crossing watchman in a shack on a 15 foot tower was terrified when a 150,000 pound gondola filled with steel rails skidded towards him, halting only five feet from the base of his tower.
"The train was headed from Toledo to Cleveland's Collinwood yards. It was made up of closed freight cars, tank cars and gondola cars filled with lumber and steel."
Here's the page with the continuation of the front page story.
Note the pages also include the ongoing saga of the Dr. Sam Sheppard case, an item for Don Hilton about Probate Judge Harold Ewing, and the suicide attempt by famed actress
Susan Hayward.
Oh, and an Ohio Edison ad with old pal Reddy.
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I've got to admit, I'm always impressed by the fact that in the old days, a big news event like the NYC derailment could happen in the morning of a given day, and people could read about it in the Journal that night. Incredible. That was the beauty of an evening newspaper with a full staff of reporters, photographers, artists and editors, all working with a tight deadline. Having a news office in the larger, neighboring cities also helped cover stories no matter where they took place.
