NYOW derailment in Clinton - 1955

The Following was included in Frank Tomaino's [u]This Week In History Column[/u], published in Utica OD's 1/9/05 Sunday Paper:

[i]1955/50 years ago

Train jumps rails

A 15-car freight train on the Ontario & Western line derails in Clinton, stopping railroad traffic between Norwich and Rome. No one is injured, but automobile traffic at the Dwight Avenue crossing in the village is blocked for hours.

The southbound train was carrying radio parts to Griffiss Air Force Base.[/i]

Crazy question - does anyone have any pictures? Any additional info on this or other O+W mishaps ( barring the Flying Diesel Corps)?

There are listings in the New York State EPA hazmat sites with loads of info on varyed derailments across NY going as far back as the late 1930's. I know the epa was not around at the time but there are listings on there site in full detail of the varyed accdents chemicals and impact studys on the environment as well. Its a vary intresting thing to read up on. The railroads that I can rember seeing listed were:
Rutland, Conrail, PRR, Penn Central, B&O, RO&W, NYO&W, NYS&W, LV, NYC, CN, CPR, and the D&H. There are several outhers listed but I can't rember them all. If you look up the info on the EPAs Hazmat site I think New York is covered in Zone 4 if I rember it correctley.

...try the Clinton, NY or Onieda Co. NY libraries or historical societies. I remember seeing some pictures up that way but it may have been at Hamilton. Also look for O&W pages on net including NRHS chapter.

What is the URL to this EPA site?

Charles

sorry about that the web page is:

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/radon/zonemap/newyork.htm

just type in the name of the railroad in which you want to know about in the little search box on there page and the files will pop up.

To do a state by state serch click on the where to live link on the epa page and do a state by state search as well.

This seems to be a search on Radon related only.

try this link for the epa http://www.epa.gov/

use the little serch box on there site type in the name of the railroad you want to find and the listings will come up.

humm I tryed to see if the NTSB Listings were still posted the links are there but blocked I rember that anyone could go into the site in the public recoreds and read everything from the cause to the impact study there the listings went from 1920 to 1990.

There may be a newspaper article clipping of it at the Chenango County Museum in one of their railroad scrapbooks. Seems like it was a northbound with either the 125 or 127, if I have the correct derailment.
The article included a photo.

As I recall, the locomotive hit ice on the crossing. Freights were said to have run up the DL&W side for a day...or so said that article.

humm I seem to have head about that accdent from somewhere but don't rember where. It seems like I read something about it in the Trains Magazine in the late 90's I don't recall the year it was thow.

jgwise quote;

"The southbound train was carrying radio parts to Griffiss Air Force Base"

Uh not to nit pick but , It would be southbound FROM GAFB or NORTHbound to GAFB. Hey, anybody can goof.

STEAM ON
/--OOO-;--oo--oo-

Well, I am surprised at the number of comments posted on this issue.

BTW I was unable to find info on the EPA site and can not make a trip to local libraries as I currently reside in California.

Regarding 0-6-0 post of 1/12, interesting point - south bound northbound to/from GAFB depends on which side of the "Y" formed by Utica and Rome O+W branches the trip originates. In this instance I'm guessing the radio parts shipment might have originated somewhere on O+W line in Utica and went south to (town of ) Clinton prior to going north to Rome. And to think the destination was 15 miles or so to the north west of Utica - why not ship on the central.

This would be logical if the shipment oiginated on Broad Street - I know GE made radio equipment in Utica on Broad Street . Given O+W handled this shipment perhaps these radio parts were made at GE plant on French Road ( actually I think they made radars) - which is adjacent to O+W line - that would make sense ....

Thanks for all of your responses...

I think the newspaper account that the freight was southbound may be incorrect . I believe the O&W's crossing on Dwight Avenue in Clinton was well south of where the Rome branch line's tracks left the Utica Main. However, perhaps the freight had some cars for GAFB but may have been heading to Oriskany Falls (approx 5 miles south) to do some work at the quarry & didn't set those cars out beforehand. I'm sure you could obtain a copy of the O-D article if you contact the Utica Public Library.

As far as "radio parts" versus "radars"; this was the Cold War still. Things were "disguised" for security reasons. While the mission of that plant was "light military electronics", some of their products were heavy enough to warrent rail transportation.

French Road General Electric seems to have been served by both O&W and NYC West Shore (with DL&W cross-over nearby). A shipment could have gone Southbound (mile marker approximately 272) to the Rome Branch Junction in Clinton (mile marker 266.84).

For more on the O&W in the 50's see:
http://www.rosshorwood.com/RailSiteLink ... stern.html

From Cactus Jack..................

The Dwight Avenue crossing was south of the village proper and south of Rome Branch Junction, which was on the north end of the village.

I tend to think still that this was actually a northbound train, perhaps it did have radio parts. Note the article claims that railroad traffic was blocked between Norwich & Rome, not Utica and Rome, which would have been correct if the incident did indeed occur at Dwight Avenue. It actually would have blocked Norwich-Utica trains, and I think that is where the next days local went via DL&W to get to Utica, and may have also accessed Rome until the mess was cleaned up.

I will check my sources of traffic movement into Rome and see if I can determine anything about radio parts.

Cactus Jack

GE manufactured radar and radar components at both their Broad Street and French Road locations. Radios and components were manufactured at their Radio Receiver Plant on the corner of Bleeker Street and Culver Ave.

The West Shore served all three of these locations, and I believe the siding is still intact at the back of the French Road location (now ConMed).

It is possible that these 'radio parts' were manufactured elsewhere besides Utica. I'm curious to find out.