TWO KILLED IN LOVEJOY TRAIN WRECK OCT. 30, 1919

 By Dale Welch
Hilltop Express
dawelch@charter.net
dale@hilltopexpress.net
  A permanent display about the Train Wreck at Lovejoy on Oct. 30, 1919 will be located at the Monterey Central Railway Museum (Monterey Depot) when it opens sometime in January, 2012.
  Two men perished in the rainy early morning hours of Oct. 30, 1919, as the result of a train derailment on the railroad bridge at Lovejoy, Tenn., a community about eight miles from Monterey, on the Crawford Branch.Who got the blame for the accident?
  The Crawford Branch of the Eastern Division of the Tennessee Central Railroad ran from Monterey out on the branch 21.3 miles. Bridge 7.83 consisted of 57 bents between abutments, ranging from one to three panels, resting on mud blocking and was well maintained. The track was laid with 60-pound rails, 30-ft in length, single -spiked with an average of 17 oak ties to the rail.
  The wreck report of the day said that “considering it is a branch line, the maintenance is fair, except that on the curve were the derailment occurred, the outer raise were badly curve worn.”
  The train was being operated as a double header work extra and consisted of 20 cars of coal and a caboose, Engines 16 and 32 were at the lead. IN charged of the train was Conductor McDonald and Engineers Cage Haley and Ed Collins.
  Westbound, toward Monterey, the train left from Highland Junction about 2 a.m.that rainy morning with 10 loaded coal cars. At Crawford, 5. 2 miles from its start, it picked up 10 more cars. The train proceed onto Green Pond, a distance of 4.9 miles, where it made a stop because of a time table rule. There, they turned up retainers before beginning the descent of the grade which began there.
  The train stopped at Lovejoy, 2.2 miles from Green Pond, about 1,000-ft. east from where the derailment happened, to turn down the retainers.
  Leaving Lovejoy, the train was permitted to drift on the descending grade toward the bridge and at about 4.14 a.m., while moving at a speed estimated from 12 to 15 miles an hour, the front pair of driving wheels of Engine32 were derailed on the curve approaching the bridge.
  The train proceeded with drivers derailed until about halfway across the bridge,when all the wheels of the engine and tender except the engine truck dropped off the rails upon the ties. The train then, parted and both engines remained coupled together, continued safely across the bridge and came to a stop a few feet beyond its western end with only slight damage to Engine 32, which was the lead engine.
  The first two cars fell from the bridge on the left side at a point about 90 feet from its western end. The following 11 cars fell from the bridge at a point about 175 feet from its western end. The  14th car came to a rest projecting partially over the gap, the bottom of the car resting upon the bridge and the rear end jammed against the next car. The six rear cars and caboose of the train remained on the bridge, the rear end  coming to a stop on the bridge about 140ft. from its eastern end.
  Two brakemen, Grover  Houston Gill and Willie W. Wright were riding on the cars in the middle of the train, and were killed in the wreck.
  The late Bethel Ford once remembered hearing the train at Lovejoy that morning. His dad and mom, Sam A. and Lora Phillips Ford ran the store at Lovejoy. Dr. Benny Ford, an uncle of Sam A., was at the Ford residence because Lora was about to give birth to another child, Beecher Ford, who was born about a month later.
  Bethel remembered that Dr. Ford was called to the wreck to help. Brakeman Gill was killed when hit by a timber. Brakeman Wright was covered by the rail cars and coal. Bethel said that he hollered back at rescuers for some time,but then, died.
  Federal investigators looking into the wreck discovered that on the day before, Oct. 29 around 4:45 p.m. Engine 32 was hauling passengers on Train No. 24 back to the Davidson area.
  The leading driving wheels derailed on the curve within a few feet of the point where the same engine was derailed at the time of the Oct. 30 accident. The engine stopped within its own length. Conductor Smith and Engineer Fidler, who were in charge of Train No. 24 made no report of the derailment until after the derailment of the work extra giving as the  reason that in their own judgement, there was no defect or damage to track or train.
  At Crawford, that evening, Conductor Smith told investigators that he met an opposing train and advised that crew of the derailment. He did not notify the section foreman and admitted that he failed to observe the rule requiring telegraphic reports to be made of accidents. On the return trip, he said that he noticed no rough riding over that part of the railroad.
  In the federal report, it was cited that the wreck was caused by the track  being out of gauge, together with the narrow gauge of the driving wheels of the engine 32 and the curve-worn conditions of the rails.
  “Although the wide gauge probably was the most important factor in the derailment of this train, the chief responsibility for its occurrence rest upon Conductor Smith of Train No. 24.
  'Had Conductor Smith made the proper report of the derailment of his train, the attention of persons in authority would have been directed to the matter and it is probable that inspection of the engine and track would have resulted in the discovery of the conditions responsible for the derailment of that train, which undoubtedly were the same as those which caused the accident here under investigation.”