The upper level of my two-level layout is all narrow gauge, depicting a portion of the former Denver & Rio Grande Western’s Fourth Division line in southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
Train Wreck at Newark NY!
A large train wreck on the New York Central at Newark, NY was on the news in December, 1965. Newark, a town about 30 miles east of Rochester, is on the NYC main line. Not being old enough to have a driver’s license, I talked Mom into taking me and my camera there for part of a day.
A train wreck on a double-track main created quite a traffic jam. By the time we arrived, the wrecker had cleared the main of broken freight cars, and the track crews were very busy rebuilding the tracks. As you’ll see in the photos, a “shoo-fly”, or detour track around the wreck scene, had been put in place so some traffic could move through the area – sort of like driving on the shoulder when the highway is blocked by a jackknifed tractor trailer, except worse. I’m still surprised how close I got to the action – I think the crews were too busy to notice that some kid with a camera was standing nearby and crossing the tracks with so much rail activity going on.