In the spring of 1881, an eastbound freight train on the main line approaching the Menomonie Junction station suddenly — and violently — was redirected off the main line and onto a side track. It was an action that resulted in a collision with a parked freight train standing on the rails.
I found 50 pages of train wreck descriptions, and something written among the hundreds of stories stands out,
there were a lot of wrecks caused by "some malicious, hell scorched reprobate, a quite plausible theory is that tramps may have done the deed for the purpose of robbing dead and
disabled passengers - expecting, of course, a complete smash-up of the entire train, and the killing and wounding of
nearly all on board."
Albion New Era August 3, 1887
Menomonie Jct is located on the north side of Menomonie, Wisconsin, built by the Menonomie Railroad during the dark ages, giving mainline traffic access to downtown Menomonie. Present maps show a ‘wye’ still there, meaning both westward and eastward trains could get in and out of town with relative ease. As well, the map shows a small siding there, the apparent location of the wreck. As one of the links pointed out, a crew member of the parked train probably didn’t line a siding switch back for the main. Even today The General Code of Operating Rules requires all main line switches to be left lined and locked for the main. There is an exception to that if the train dispatcher (with the help of computer assisted track warrant control) relieves a crew of that responsibility and assumes the burden themselves of notifying any approaching train the switch at location X will be lined against them. After an incident (in Virginia?) a number of years ago like the one here, the FRA (Federal Rail Administration) mandated that a train crew could not relinquish their main line authority until they communicated in specific language that all main line switches they used were lined and locked for the main. After I retired I would occasionally have dreams about the office and wake up in a sweat wondering if I had properly informed a train about a switch being ‘wrong.’ But that was 15 years ago. Now I dream about all the ‘Beautiful Women’ featured on the Car Guy sidebar. Thanks Jesse...
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