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| URN | ns3739 |
|---|---|
| Work Type | Photograph |
| Title | C & E Railroad Bridge Catastrophe |
| Creator | no creator given |
| Subject | Trains, Wrecks, C & E Railroad, Batavia, Ohio |
| Work Date | Copied 19300830 |
| Material | Black & White |
| Current Site | CD: NS022 |
| Style/Period/Group/Movement | 18841017 |
| Notes | Negative #14479-A, Batavia, Ohio, John A. Kline, Photographer 2/4/02 information from Mr. Ray State: The Cincinnati and Eastern had a short independent life. Constructed in 1876 as a 3ft narrow gauge line it was absorbed by the Norfolk and Western in 1887. Before that it had this spectacular wreck on the 17th October 1884 shortly after it was converted to standard gauge. From the picture there is some indication that the old narrow gauge trestle has been used to cross the Miami River and widened by extending the cross timbers to take the wider track. It is likely that this trestle was not stable or strong enough to take the weight of a standard gauge locomotive. The following information received from Jim Cochran 3/18/02: Gary Rolh writes: These two photos are of a trestle collapse on the Cincinnati & Eastern at Batavia, Ohio on October 17 , 1884. NS3738 is taken from the west bank of the East fork of the Little Miami River looking east northeast. NS3739 is taken from the east bank and is looking northwest into Hulick's Hill. The Batavia station stood behind the trestle at the base of this hill westbound from the trestle roughly a half mile. At the date of this photo the C&E was regauging back to narrow gauge due to lack of money to completely convert their track to standard gauge. The C&E attempted many times to convert and went back and forth as well as running some of its track as narrow and some as standard. The complete story of the changes requires too much space and is tedious at any rate. This wreck cost the lives of some of the crew and passengers(I don't have my references handy) The coach was speared by a rail which prevented its falling into the river. The primary cause of the tresle was poor condition of the wood in the main Howe truss section. There are a few other photos of this wreck that are not part of the N&W Ry Collection.This wreck also has been decribed in other books using etchings for illustrations. See Abdill's TRAIN WRECKS book. From David McGrann: For what it's worth, I posted a link to the picture on another chat board frequent, and got a response from someone that they thought it might be the C&E bridge over the Little Miami River in Batavia, Ohio |
| Format | image/jpeg |
| Date | 19970829 |
| Owner | dla |
| Copyright | dla |
| Source | Norfolk & Western Historical Photograph Collection |
