Derailment and a Connection to My Circus Pony Lovin' Grandfather

Yesterday afternoon a freight train going over the downtown bridge from West Lafayette to Lafayette derailed and three cars fell off and into the Wabash River. (All derailment photos from Dave Bangert.)

The cars were carrying scrap metal so fortunately there were no people or hazardous materials aboard.

The weight of the cars was so great that the derailment literally twisted and pulled the tracks off the bridge.

Cranes are going to be needed to lift the cars and tracks up, and then there will have to be a clean up to get the scrap metal out of the river.

Train traffic will need to be rerouted for a long time and I would not be surprised if they decide to replace the bridge - it's well over 100 years old.

As I looked at the damage, I thought about my Grandpa Martin, the one who bought circus pony O'Boy for my father. He was a railroad conductor and once had a terrible accident on one of the bridges over the Mississippi River in St. Louis. 

A new engineer misread his lantern signals and started the train. My grandfather ran to catch up, grabbed the railing to the caboose stairs, and tried to swing aboard. Grandpa slipped and fell, got caught on something, and ended up being dragged by the train all the way across the bridge. Needless to say, he was badly injured. 

I got chills as I looked at those pictures of the train derailment yesterday. Our bridge is a lot less high and much shorter than the one Grandpa was dragged over. What a terrifying ordeal that must've been!

One of Grandpa's conductor's lanterns that is kept on a table in my living room.

I love trains and have taken Amtrak cross country many times to visit our kids in Colorado and Utah. I've crossed many rivers (including the Mississippi) on bridges just like the one here over the Wabash that are high and have no railings. 

Having this derailment in my hometown is a sobering reminder that accidents happen.