Dayton OH Washington St Calamity

On October 3, 1969, a serious accident occurred at the Washington Street grade crossing of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in which Dayton City Transit Company's trolley bus 621 (ex-Kansas City 2521-a 1947 Marmon-Herrington TC-44) was hit broadside by a coal train being pushed southward backwards through the crossing. As you will be see from the photos, there was a clearcut winner in this bout.

Prior to 1912 there was no railroad at this location. The newly constructed Dayton, Lebanon, & Cincinnati Railroad (DL&C) entered downtown Dayton via a new standard-gauge line built through Kettering, East Oakwood, and the National Cash Register Company (NCR) property. As the line approached the Dayton Union Station tracks used by the B&O, NYC, and PRR steam railroads, the DL&C needed to climb up a grade to get to these tracks.

In order to get up the grade, in 1912 the DL&C constructed a new steel overpass and station at Washington Street, between Longworth and the Great Miami River, going over the People's Street Railway Company's electric streetcar trunklines to both the Cincinnati and Lakeview routes in west Dayton. This was the first railroad overpass of this kind in Dayton. People's Railway converted the last of these streetcar lines on Washington St to ETB by 1940, and then in 1945 sold their entire Dayton transit business to the bigger City Railway Co., which eventually became City Transit Co. in 1955. The DL&C was folded into the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railroad (CL&N) by 1914, which eventually became part of the PRR, which itself later became Penn Central, and finally Conrail. Conrail abandoned this portion of the line in the mid-1980s. The land immediately to the south of this area is now used by the Greater Dayton RTA for outside storage.

By 1966 the passenger station had long been demolished, the last passenger train out of the Washington Street Station was on March 31, 1928, and until 1966, the DL&C used the 1912 overpass. When the US 35 elevated expressway was being built, running parallel to Washington Street approximately 50 yards to the south, the PRR had to be lowered to ground level in order to get under the expressway. Thus, for a short time in 1966, ETB's running on Washington Street crossed both under the viaduct and over a grade crossing. By late 1966 the viaduct was gone and the grade crossing was fully operational, setting the stage for the 1969 ETB calamity.

Although the crossing was protected by overhead flashing lights cantilevered over the street, evidently Mr. Ewing, the ETB operator, either ignored the lights, or thought he could get across before the slow-moving cut of coal cars entered the crossing. You can see the result. Miraculously, 621, on a Route 9 Cincinnati St run heading west, had no passengers aboard, and Mr. Ewing escaped serious injury. Needless to say, he was fired on the spot, ending a long employment by City Transit Company, and prior to that, the People's Railway Company.

If not for a steel trolley support pole at the southeast quadrant of the crossing, installed after the grade crossing had been completed (the former support was the viaduct itself), 621 would not have suffered so much damage. The train shoved 621 sideways after the initial impact, and then 621 became caught between C&O coal car 48205 and the pole. As the train slowly continued on, the pole nearly sliced 621 in half.

After the mortally wounded trolley was hauled away to the nearby Bolander garage, it remained there outside for several months awaiting insurance settlement. And ultimately, scrapping.

All of the October 1969 wreck site pix are from my collection. The photos taken from the US-35 elevated roadway look to the north. The former Dayton Union Station is in the far right side background of these pix.

The 1912 pix of the new overpass is from the Souvenir booklet published by the DL&C RR and Terminal Co. Note the elevated DL&C passenger station at the left (North) side of the pix. The 1966 color pix is courtesy Ed O'Meara, and the 1966 black and white pix are courtesy Cliff Scholes. All of these 1966 pix of the overpass site are looking east.