by BR&P
Saturday March 5, 1994 was a bad day for Ontario Midland Railroad, as RS36 #40 derailed a few miles west of North Rose. The loco rolled onto its side and went part way down a high embankment. The crew suffered non-life threatening injures. The cause was ice and snow packed down by snowmobile traffic.
Winters Rigging rerailed the engine, but part of the fill had to be temporarily lowered to facilitate getting the Alco back upright and onto the track again. The unit was repaired, renumbered back to its original 408, and remains on OMID today.
OMID at the time was under interim operational management, bridging the gap between the original leadership of the first 14 years, and the current management which has done such a fine job of keeping OMID healthy and now past the 40-year mark of its history. Ironically, while earlier that winter the line's flanger was operated after heavy snowfalls to prevent such an issue, those trips were considered unnecessary and were eliminated. That was the first train operating on the east end in about a month, and had already experienced several lesser derailments before this incident.
This was the second time engine 40 wound up on its side. When OMID was less than 5 months old, (February 20, 1980) an eastbound freight derailed at Lawville Road, between Wolcott and Red Creek. The crew escaped with nothing worse than a bad scare, but the rerailing required sidewinders from Fischer in Syracuse to pick the unit up.
Winters Rigging rerailed the engine, but part of the fill had to be temporarily lowered to facilitate getting the Alco back upright and onto the track again. The unit was repaired, renumbered back to its original 408, and remains on OMID today.
OMID at the time was under interim operational management, bridging the gap between the original leadership of the first 14 years, and the current management which has done such a fine job of keeping OMID healthy and now past the 40-year mark of its history. Ironically, while earlier that winter the line's flanger was operated after heavy snowfalls to prevent such an issue, those trips were considered unnecessary and were eliminated. That was the first train operating on the east end in about a month, and had already experienced several lesser derailments before this incident.
This was the second time engine 40 wound up on its side. When OMID was less than 5 months old, (February 20, 1980) an eastbound freight derailed at Lawville Road, between Wolcott and Red Creek. The crew escaped with nothing worse than a bad scare, but the rerailing required sidewinders from Fischer in Syracuse to pick the unit up.