Pere marquette August 17 1913 wreck...

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Hi,

Anyone have any info to share on the August 17, 1913 train wreck in Waterford, MI?

2

Waterford is not on the PM, unless there are more than one.

Here is a list of significant Michigan wrecks from MichiganRailroads.com

http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Wrecks/WrecksMenu.htm

There is no significant wreck listed for that date.

3

Oops yes sorry, there were two Waterfords back then. I am talking about the small settlement of Waterford, Mi (which no longer exists), about equal distant between Northville and Plymouth, mi. The settlement was along & divided by the Rouge River.

The PM Historical Society has no info on this wreck?

4

Here is a website that has a collection of train wrecks reported by the ICC. There are a few PM ones too but the collection is far from complete. If you print off the PDF version, it will be more accurate as the HTML version has a habbit of causing misprints. I did not see the wreck you are refering too. The reports make for an interesting read as loco and train numbers are included including references to signaling, train control, infrastructure etc. Some reports of photos or maps. Again the data base is far from complete but there are plenty.

http://ntl1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_railroads

5

Thanks Wabash I checked it out very interesting.

Was it common back then, if no one was hurt in a train wreck, for PM to not report train wrecks to the ICC?

6

I don’t know what the pararmeters were but we do know there are a lof of serious train wrecks with fatalities not in the online data base, I think they have added some since I first found out about this link some years. Again, there are many that are just not there including some ICC reports that I have from other sources. I have nothing on the PM though.

7

I have a vintage postcard that includes a photograph of a train wreck and wonder if it’s the same one you are referring to. The postcard reads:

“Wreck on the Pere Marquette R.R., August 19, 1913, 22 miles west of Detroit, Mich. Caused by air brakes letting train run down hill, hitting Engine 225. Engine was reduced to scrap iron and seven cars of live stock killed and mangled. All shopmen out.”

8

HistoricalLens - Welcome to trains.com! [C):-)]

9

One resource that can be very entertaining and interesting is Google News has an archive feature where you can search very old news papers for particular topics. Searching the name of my hometown came up with all manner of obscure stuff going right back to before WWI

Dave Nelson