[PRCo] Re: The LVT Accident

[Fred Schneider]

I'm copying this to the resident expert on the LVT.  Unfortunately its been 52 years since the Liberty Bell Route shut down.  Gerhard Soloman might just be the only person left who rode the line could provide reliable information on the signal system.
You're going to make me find copies of the Allentown and Norristown newspapers for July 9th 1942 and later.  I've been told by my old college buddy Rich Allman (to whom this is forwarded) that the Allentown Call Chronicle was somewhat less than objective in its portrayal of the transit company after the accident.   If you have any comments, Rich, I'll cut and paste them to another note to this group of Pittsburgh fanatics.

My only notes show that 1003 was the second section of a northbound schedule that left Norristown about 5 PM on July 8th.  I have three pictures of the accident.  The car was so badly demolished that there is no way of knowing if the second section did or did not have flags.   The higher box motor simply ran over the passenger car and wiped out the first three rows of seats.

It is interesting to note how heavy traffic was in World War II ... this was a second section and it contained at least 41 people a mile or so north of the Norristown limits ... 11 were killed and 30 others were injured.

"Nothing to do with signals per se"    If there was a second section in the block, the signals should not have cleared at Acorn Siding to allow the freight motor's crew to proceed.   And if the passenger car was too far behind schedule, he should have gotten a block occupied signal at Brush siding.  Now what happens if two cars enter the block simultaneously?   I don't know what protection was built in to their signal system, but the accident happened much closer to Brush than Acorn telling me that there was no way both cars could have entered the
block simultaneously. The box motor had to enter the block long before the northbound passenger car.  It had to run a mile or two farther than the passenger car to the point of impact.   I suspect that the signals were working and that there was a lapse of mind here.  Anything from a brain seizure to a man not even bothering to look because he never before passed a car here.  Without researching it, I would assume that the second section was probably a regular deal at this time of the day (after all, it had a full load) and that the express car
might be the interloper into an otherwise normal day.

Rich:   What sort of documentation do you have on the accident findings?

Interesting that the car had a similar accident.  Apparently it was shortly after delivery to enable Cincinnati Car Company to rebuild the car.   That too is an assumption.

fws

rogertrolley.1 at juno.com wrote: