1937 Plymouth two-door
Posted on 11/26/2021 1:17:17 PM PST by Fester Chugabrew
What I find interesting about this news article is that it goes into considerable depth. We don't often find this kind of reporting today. Not only is it informative, but entertaining in a way.
In the course of focus on this article I undertook to study the location of the wreck using Google Earth. Also the former home of the individual whose stalled car caused the wreck. Searched out an image of a 1937 Plymouth two-door as well, just to get a better idea of what happened.
How fun would it be to seek out members of the family of John L. Dreves, the train crew, the wreck cleaning crew, and others in order to get a more robust understanding.
The article is from April 2, 1947. The wreck occurred the previous Saturday morning, March 31, at 1:30. That year it was Easter weekend.
I have 8 photos or so showing the wreck, and a photo of the locomotive in its glory days. Only used a few of them if you care to see the "blog."
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little slice of local history in a small town. I also hope those who commented on the original post will return, because their comments were interesting, as it always is with Freepers. If I had any skills in cinematography I'd make something of this slice of history just for fun.
Freight train versus car.
Who won? 🤡
Wow! Can you imagine the movie that could be done with this story? Use a bit of poetic license and add in a murder, a romance, a lonely child, and a puppy and it has all the components of a great one!
Thank you for sharing. I found it enlightening and distressing as well.
Jowhorenalism students begin semi-literate and if they follow leftist guidelines remain so.
Also, I learned to drive in 1972 in that exact model Plymouth with my brother (who owned the car) in the passenger seat for most of the ride. Had a 3-speed column shifter and clutch. Boy what fun. But it was a blast. Especially when he let me drive solo after my third time out.
Never had such a thrill again until I soloed in gliders, then SE light planes (then high-powered aerobatics) decades later.
Thanks for the memories.
April 2, 1945 | Unknown
Which is it? 45 or 47?
Use of the POWs suggests '45, which raises the question as to why a 22 year old guy was joyriding around town playing chicken with trains instead of defending the country.
Didn’t Joe Biden tell the story just the other day? How he was riding on the train when it happened and he saved the engineer a brakeman an little girl and a puppy?
Back when we had great journalists there was no such thing as journalism school. You became a reporter out of high school, back when high schools used to teach or maybe studied some racist subject in College like English literature or [non-woke] history or something.
Oops. 1945 for sure.
I bet C.J. Shelbly told his kids and grandkids about the time a locomotive landed within feet of his digs.
Now that you mention it, yeah. What was he doing tooling around town in 1945? That’s just another angle to the story waiting to be researched and written. If we had the means to find this guy, I bet he could write a good 1500 words about what happened that night. He was less than 1/2 mile from home, and his direction of travel at 1:30 a.m. was *away* from home. A rainy night.
Sixty hours of work today. They must have changed how time works since I lived there.
Thank you for posting this fascinating report. There is nothing like it nowadays.
They worked two and a half times as fast in those days. My dad said so.
Ha! When I posted this last night another FReeper noted the same, as did I when transcribing the article. I thought, “ Is that man hours?” If only the author/editor had the wherewithal to insert the words “as of!”
By all accounts, both lost.
B&O Railroad. They must have named it after the square on the Monopoly board.
Oooh, I hope Jaw Tooth gets some good footage from here.
Oh good grief, I guess this happened long before his time.. Sorry
Any pictures of the lower corner of his windshield? Wonder if he had an A, B, or C ration sticker for that car. Or maybe he had connections for an “X”? Can’d drive far on 3 gallons a week. On the other hand, the elites gave themselves unlimited gasoline with their “X” stickers.
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