Everyone: I found a LI Newsday article about this wreck in donated ephemera at RMLI recently.
The caption was "Two Trains Collide in Illinois; 32 Hurt" along with one photo.
The text reads:
"An Amtrak locomotive lies upside down below an overpass after it collided with a Burlington
Northern freight train late Saturday as it traveled over a section of the Indiana Harbor Belt RR
at LaGrange,IL. About 12 freight cars were piled up by the collision, but none of the passenger
cars on the California-bound Amtrak train left the tracks. Twenty four of the 192 passengers and
8 Amtrak employees were treated in area hospitals and released." (Source: UPI)
The photo shows two Amtrak SDP40F locomotives (584,587) derailed along with multiple freight
cars piled up on the ground along with some remains of the collapsed bridge. This looked to be
familiar to me - I remembered that this happened in the Chicago area.
The trouble that I had was that this newspaper article was not dated. The internet search that
I further describe led me to this topic as part of the information that I was able to find.
I then entered as many search items as I had to come up with the date: August 27, 1977 and
the location: LaGrange, IL on the BN mainline at the bridge crossing over the IHB. I looked at a
copy of the Standard Oil Chicago street map (1977) that I have and found the location.
The wreck cause was traced to a defective freight car on an eastbound train which derailed and
blocked all three tracks. The westbound Amtrak #5 San Francisco Zephyr hit the wreckage with
the two SDP40F units derailing at the bridge - all that sheer weight contributing to the collapse.
A group of very interesting color photographs can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36106399@N ... otostream/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Flickr pictures describe well how bad this wreck was - some of which I have never seen
previously. The three pictures that Tadman posted to begin this topic were later during the
cleanup which looked to be a time-consuming process overall.
The wreck was a mess with numerous derailed freight cars and the two Amtrak locomotives that
had to be removed before the bridge could be rebuilt and the line reopened. Thankfully only the
head-end cars of the SFZ were also directly involved and there was nothing moving by under the
bridge at the time of the wreck.
I noticed that when the bridge was rebuilt that it was wider then the old bridge for a roadway to
go underneath alongside the IHB tracks. The map - and an overview of the area - shows just how
close Ogden Avenue paralleling the line on bridges in that location was to the wreck site and that
nothing made physical contact with those overpasses which was definitely a close call there.
Hard to believe that this was almost 41 years ago. A good - and safe - 4th of July 2018 to all
MACTRAXX
EXPRESS TRAIN TO NEW YORK PENN STATION-NO JAMAICA ON THIS TRAIN-PLEASE STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING TRAIN DOORS
