Train wreck happened 50 years ago in Gowanda

     This Wednesday, Oct. 12, marks the 50th anniversary of a spectacular train wreck in Gowanda that destroyed half the trestle over Cattaraugus Creek and left a 60-foot-high pile of shattered freight cars strewn along the creek bed. Sixty-four cars derailed, spreading wreckage for more than a quarter mile, with damage estimated at $500,000.

     The wreck ocurred about 12:30 a.m. as Erie Railroad train No. 98 en route from Meadville, Pennsylvania to Buffalo, descending the five-mile long hill from Dayton, passed through Gowanda at a speed estimated by the engineer at about 35 miles per hour. The four-unit diesel engine was pulling 105 loaded freight cars and 15 empty cars. An eyewitness reported that the train had passed the Palmer Street grade crossing before the crossing arms came down, and the train’s wheels were throwing up sparks along its entire length and glowing cherry red from the heat.

     According to the engineer, Gordon C. Becker of Buffalo, the engine was well past the trestle when the air brakes came on along the entire train. He was so far ahead of the derailment that he didn’t hear any noise from it. Becker brought the train to a halt and sent two brakemen back to see what happened. They ran back shouting that there had been a derailment. Between 35 and 40 cars hurtled into the creek bed before the train came to a complete stop. As they plummeted off the bridge, some cars knocked out the stone supporting piers, causing two of the four bridge spans to collapse.

     A total of 64 cars derailed, with 49 cars destroyed, They contained a variety of products including powdered milk, coal, baled cotton, lumber, washing machines, potatoes, steel, empty beer bottles, and other products. Total weight of the wrecked cars and their contents exceeded seven million pounds, or more than 3,500 tons.

     Also destroyed was a smaller wooden trestle between the creek and Erie Avenue, its deck ripped off as the front end of the train, with its brakes set, dragged wrecked cars across it. That trestle spanned a dry raceway or canal that used to run a feed mill and generate electricity for Gowanda. The dam that channeled water into the race had been dynamited two years earlier.

     The engine and eight cars got safely over the raceway trestle before it collapsed. They continued on into Buffalo. Ten wrecked cars were scattered between the creek and Erie Avenue, with a boxcar landing in the yard at 114 Erie. More wrecked cars littered the tracks between Palmer Street and the creek. The last 48 cars stopped before they could derail. Those cars were backed off and taken to Hornell to resume the trip to Buffalo on another Erie line.

     Two hours after the wreck, the Erie sent a 15-man crew and their wrecking car with a 100-ton derrick to start clearing the wreckage from the northern side of the creek. Two more wreckers from Meadville and Salamanca began the task on the southern end. Volunteer firemen stood by after a report that two gasoline tankers had fallen into the creek. They turned out to be loaded with propane and lubricating oil.

     More than 150 men worked around the clock for several days to clear the debris and begin reconstruction of the bridge. Policemen from various jurisdictions were on duty to control the crowd of spectators that had formed.

     The derailment disrupted traffic on the Erie for about 10 days with trains rerouted through Salamanca and Hornell on the Erie mainline. The Erie regularly ran two freight trains daily from Buffalo to Gowanda, and received two freight trains from other points. The detour added about two hours to the running time.