Evidence left of the accident
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Is there any physical evidence remaining of the wreck? According to
Mr. Richard Schmal, Lowell Historian, the marks made by the broken wheel
still exist. To check for myself, I visited my hometown February 25, 2000
and shot these pictures.
If you look close enough, on the third tie from the steel plate, there
is an indentation in the tie. According to Mr. Schmal this is the impact
point where the broken wheel first jumped. The section of track lies approximately
50 yards north of the Main
Street crossing, Lowell, IN.
Picture 2 is the same scene, taken from the west side of the track.
The gouge is slightly more pronounced.
Picture 3 is looking south from the steel plate. If you look close
enough there are visible marks along the ties. Could these marks be made
by the broken wheel bouncing, or dragging along the way? Mr. Schmal believes
they are. I walked south from the impact site to the Washington Street crossing,
then to the Oakley Street crossing. There was a pattern to these marks.
They stopped at the crossing, about the location of the old siding turnout,
where it is believed cars started derailing. There are no such marks north
of the impact site either.
Same view. Some people may argue that these marks are common, however,
after walking close to 100 yards north of the impact site and south to the
Oakley Street crossing, these are the only marks I found on the ties. Pretty
convincing evidence.
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