GP 35 #723 post wreck

Thanks Bill, glad you enjoyed it.

 

Keith thanks for posting and checking it out!! I will let you know if the "celebrity" status has any perks but I have my doubts!! HAHHAHA Thanks again.

 

The sad thing about the Olustee wreck was that all four, I think it was four, were killed. All of the crew were riding in the lead unit at the time. Some kids had released handbrakes on some loaded grain hoppers which rolled out, knocked the derail off, ran through the mainline switch, and sat on the main for several hours. Since it was dark territory, there was no warning to the crew. No one reported these cars to the railroad which if done would have prevented this tragedy. Two of those killed were part time workers which the Frisco would hire in the summer back then. I was in the army in Lawton and remember the wreck. I hired out in June of 1971 and talked to diesel shop workers who saw the lead unit (912, I think), and they told me the toilet was still sitting in place even though the nose had been sheared off. The engineer's glove was still on the brake valve. Terry

 

The GP 35 got a little air time on Ken Patterson's " what's neat" too.

 

Tom, I don't. I was in Lawton from Aug. '68 through May '71, and I tend to believe it was probably toward the end of my time there. The SD45 that I think was the 912 had been rebuilt and was in service when I saw it sometime after I hired out in June of 1971.
Terry