Fertile, ND Train Wreck, Sept 1905

Railroads

An N. P. Wreck

Freight Ditched By Broken Sand Bar On Car

Passenger Train from St. Paul Delayed – Section Men Called Out at an Early Hour in the Morning to Clear Away the Debris – Quarter of a Mile of Track Ripped Up.

A bad wreck at Fertile, 25 miles east of Crookston, yesterday morning on the Northern Pacific, delayed the morning passenger for four hours and occasioned a heavy loss to the railroad from broken cars and equipment. A sandbar on one of the heavily loaded cars broke, dropping the car down on the track as it was moving rapidly east of Fertile. The result was a pile up and a ripping of a quarter of a mile of track or there-abouts. (sic)

At 2 a. m. all of the section hands and bosses along the line from Winnipeg Junction to East Grand Forks were called out by the special wrecking train and the scene of the accident was a busy one during the entire forenoon. A defective sandbar was the cause of the accident. A sandbar is the steel support upon which the car journal rests and its demolishment by the strain toppled the cars affected down onto the roadbed.

Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, ND 20 Sept 1905

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Transcribed by Lori Hedges. Thank you, Lori!