Post by URR566 on Jun 17, 2014 1:06:40 GMT -5
Meharg Collision 10-8-73
Posted by Nate Clark on October 7, 2013, 5:07 am
71.182.243.221
At 2:20 a.m. on October 8, 1973 at Meharg (south of Butler), a northbound from North Bessemer violated the interlocking and returned to single track, immediately striking a southbound. Two-year-old SD38AC #864 was northbound, followed by SD9s #835 & 827. The southbound engines from Albion were: SD18 #857 leading SD9 #825 and SD18 #856. The 835 was cut up for scrap on the spot and left Meharg in pieces via gondola, while SD18s #856 & 857 and SD9s 825 & 827 were sent to Greenville for repair.
Of the two leaders, B&LE sent #864 to be rebuilt by the Illinois Central Gulf at Paducah, KY, while the 857 was rebuilt at Greenville. Ironically, though both leaders that morning (#857 & 864) were rebuilt, they also were both destroyed in subsequent collisions. The 864 ended its B&LE career just south of Furnace Road crossing on the Hogback in September of 1974, when it became a 'bumping post' that intercepted a cut of runaway coal hoppers that had gotten loose from B Yard in Cranesville. She'd just returned to B&LE rails from her Paducah rebuilding in August, 1974, and thus had only been back on the property a matter of weeks when the runaway hoppers did her in. SD18 #857 was totaled and scrapped as a result of the head-on at Sherwin in 1982 (see below). The 864 & 857 had the dubious 'co-distinction' on the Bessemer, then, of each having been the lead units in TWO terrible collisions, the second of which also, for each, spelled the demise of the engine. The 857 was further noteworthy for also being one of the leaders in BOTH of the Bessemer's two locomotive-to-locomotive head-ons, once facing each direction. After Meharg, SD18s #856 & 857 were rebuilt with SD38-style nose class lights vs. the GP20-style 'bug eye' class lights with which the '18s arrived from EMD in 1962.
(Click HERE to view a couple photos of the incident, you'll have to scroll down a bit to find them)