The Fallen Flags web site (www.dnaco.net/~gelwood) has some SCL photos I have questions about. (1) There are several shots of wrecked E units at Waycross in Sept. 1968-- what wreck are these from? (2) There is a photo of a small interlocking cabin at a crossing at Baldwin. It's not the SAL mainline crossing, so it must be where the ex-ACL Jax-Burnetts Lake line crossed. If so, is this with the SAL Tallahassee line or Callahan line? Thanks for any help. This site has a number of interesting photos of ACL, SAL, and SCL.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), November 20, 1998

Answers

Unable to raise the FALLEN FLAGS web site, so I can't verify engine numbers. The head-ender at Winter Haven occurred on August 5, 1968. The dispatcher had planned to have No. 57 Engs 527-668B-528 hold the main track. No. 58 Engs 507-571-564-529 was to enter the south siding switch. However, before the south siding switch could be reversed, the traffic control system went down from Noxon to Winter Haven. The traffic control system was designed so that signals previously cleared would display proceed aspects; those not cleared would display proceed provided that blocks ahead were unoccupied. No. 58's fireman had left the control compartment to attend to an overheated engine. No. 58 passed the distant signal for the south end Winter Haven, which was apparently displaying APPROACH, passed the signal at the south siding switch displaying STOP, and collided with No. 57 at 45-55 MPH. No. 58's engineer stated that the distant signal had displayed APPROACH MEDIUM and that the signal at the south siding switch was improperly focused causing him to believe it displayed APPROACH. It is interesting to note that five days before the traffic control system failed, the dispatcher had notified the signal maintainer that he was experiencing trouble. The maintainer found the code line open at Auburndale and corrected the trouble by replacing a half- mile of damaged cable with temporary cable laid along one side the main track. Two hours after the collision, the maintainer found the temporary cable had been cut, apparently by being run over by No. 57. It was concluded that prior to being severed by No. 57, the cable was placed on top of the east rail by one or more unknown persons resulting in the dispatcher losing control of the Noxon-Winter Haven portion.

-- Harry Bundy (y6b@aol.com), February 14, 2000.

Boy, do I remember the head on wreck of the the Meteors. My family and I were enroute from Dallas to Miami for the SCL employees golf assn. tournement that year and had taken the former ACL train from Atlanta to JAX thece to Miami. When I arrived at the Atlanta Union Station, I saw the head-lines in the paper about the wreck. had it been one day later we would have been on the train. I remember the detour we took the next day through the outback of central Florida with overgrown tracks moving very slow. Where we went and the route we used is beyond me even to this day.

-- Dave Rogers (daveandgailrogers@prodigy.net), February 12, 2000.

After careful research, I agree with Gary.This is the only place it could be.The site has the location wrong.

-- Joseph Oates (jlosal@gte.net), November 25, 1998.

Larry:

IF the location is Baldwin, FL, and IF the overhead bridge is I-10, then the only possible location is the north yard throat to Baldwin Yard, which seems unlikely. My guess is that the location is Drifton, FL, just south of Monticello, FL, and the overhead bridges are US 19. The two lines are the Seaboard's Baldwin-Chattahoochee main and the Coast Line's Perry Cutoff.

Gary

-- Gary Bechdol (gbechdol@rwhitehead.com), November 24, 1998.

In the same week that the Republican convention was going on in Miami in August 1968 the northbound and the southbound "Silver Meteors" had a head on at the south end of the Winter Haven,Fl. pass track.Some where in my files I have photos,newspapers and the ICC accident report on this accident.The E units that were shown on the site were probably from this wreck.

-- Joseph Oates (jlosal@gte.net), November 23, 1998.

These units has to be from the Elouise,Fl.wreck in Aug.1968 The "Armstrong" plant at Baldwin has blown my mind! I'm trying to figure it out.

-- Joseph Oates (jlosal@gte.net), November 22, 1998.