|-|I was looking through an old file of railroad newspaper clippings today and came across a Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times article that brought back memories of when I was in school. On Tuesday, September 26, 1972; my sophomore year of High School was a month old. The first class of the day, English, was located on the third floor of Fayetteville High School. The school building was located up a small hill about 300 yards north of the Frisco bridge overpass crossing over 6th Street (highway 62) in south Fayetteville. It was a great view of the tracks as they curved southward through the hills in town. At that time in my life, the important things were football, Frisco and girls (in that sequence of priority as well). I had started the year in English by selecting a desk in the room strategically facing south so I could look out the window and observe the occasional coming and going of the local Frisco switcher. Two Central Division trains #730 and #731 were nocturnal trains through my hometown. That September, Frisco had put on a good show for me. Train #731, on its way to Ft. Smith, had been late several mornings pulling through Fayetteville during English class. Most of the train consists were a mixture of GP-7's and F-units. The GP-38AC's were on the property, but I had not spotted any on the Ft. Smith Sub-division yet. This particluar day, the consist was all orange f-units. Chaucer was just going to have to wait. Watching those bulldog nosed locomotives ease downgrade through the curve was too much of a distraction. They were pulling an extra long train that day. Five minutes after the engines had passed, the train was still slowly moving and then came to a halt with the caboose positioned north of the overpass bridge. I knew the headend of the train had arrived at Fayette Jct. where they would set out cars for the Fayetteville switcher to handle. I turned my attention back to the literary classics... no telling what I had missed thus far this morning. It must have been about 5 minutes later; I heard loud bang! It was one of those sounds that immediately sends a danger signal to your brain. I looked up quickly from my book and spotted the Fayetteville switcher (what I thought) attached to #731's caboose. A hard couplings would not have made that much noise. English class was over for me. I had to figure out what was going on. Moments later, sirens could be heard as the police, a fire truck and an ambulance arrived close to the tracks. The class bell rang and I "shrugged off" to the other end of the school for my next class out of view of the railroad action. I would have to wait until after football practice, when my father picked me up, to find out what had happened. My father was the drayman agent for the FTC in town with his terminal located adjacent to the railroad depot. Any railroad news would eventually filter to him. On this day, the Fayetteville switcher had left out from the depot area and headed south following #731 to Fayette Jct. to begin switching their cars. To the best of my knowledge, Yard Limit rules were in effect then on the trackage between the depot (MP 352.4) and Fayette Jct. (MP 354.3). The switcher crew was to be moving at restricted speed down the main "being able to stop within 1/2 the range of vision stopping short of train, engine, railroad car, stop signal, derail or switch not properly lined, looking out for broken rail, not exceeding 20 mph"(1984 version of the rule). What the rulebook did not take into consideration was the high nose of the Frisco GP-7 and lunch boxes. [Hersay] Reported to me was that the switcher crew headed south and rounded the curve beyond the Hill Street crossing thinking that #731 had already left the Junction. The engineer was unable to see ahead of the locomotive high short hood (nose) as the track curved to the left. Unfortunately, a lunch box was being "attended to" by whoever was sitting on the left hand side of the cab. #731's caboose was impacted by the locomotive traveling about 10-15 mph. The force was enough to derail the caboose. Both rear-end crew members heard the switcher "blowing" for the Hill St. crossing and saw what was about to happen. Both bailed off the caboose. One gentleman from the switcher crew attempted to flee the engine, but was trapped in the process. The locomotive step well wrapped around one of his legs when the equipment collided. I was told that a liquid numbing agent was found in one of the lunch boxes and administered to the injured man. Moments later, emergency personnel arrived and the long tedious procedure of cutting him out of the thick metal began. The attached newspaper article was photocopied from a microfiche file then scanned and made into a computer file... needless to say, it's not very legible. Steve |-|
