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Show i j, - , . i ' " ; ' .-' . . ' viw-w, i ' kx 4i : V.;. s' 2 ' yf , " " I pot Project ;Loe Train Cars, Fotod Deried. Near Frogpector The . Park City Depot Development suffered ; a r major setback Tuesday . afternoon af-ternoon cwhen seven of the vintage railroad cars' being . . restored ?for , the project got ; away, from workmen; rolling almost a mile and a half at , speeds reaching 30mph be-'. fore jumping the track south , of Olpin Mortuary. . The undercarriages of. several of the 75-ton cars were reported to have been substantially damaged as was a good portion of the track owned by Union Pacific Railroad; The damaged track is used for shipments into Anderson Lumber's Park City r yard and understandably understand-ably i Anderson's Manager Willy Gurski .is anxious to have it repaired as rapidly as possible. . ;. '. A spokesman for .Union -Pacific ..said that if it were their responsibility, the'ears could be moved and the track . repaired .within , a day, but ; since the damage was caused by the : Depot Project, the. work, will have to be contracted from an outside . .source and repairs could take much longer. ; ;The cars , got away at . approximately 2:45 in' the ' afternoon when three of the carriages- were 'prematurely V unhooked from an anchor car during the process of moving them - a ' short distance . up along side the Depot building. build-ing. . Workmen at the site said they thought that the breaks - had been loosened on the three cars but were cttll ; secured bv four-by-four planks bracing the wheels. Workmen were preparing to move the cars with a tow-truck' tow-truck' and back-Hoe, when . almost simultaneously the-three the-three cars 'came ' uncoupled with the lead car ; and ' the brake handle broken off the car next in ' line. Instantly, the three' cars began slowly . rolling, : snapping the' 4x4 chalking like match sticks. ' Workers desperately tried to stop the moving cars by throwing debris on the track but it J was useless. ' There was no stopping them once they got moving,' said one workman. As the frustrated workmen stared in horror at what was happening, they, were relieved reliev-ed at the four newer Amtrak cars which sat on the track a block down from where the j three restored carriages had broken loose. Surely," they thought, the Amtrak cars will - stop the run-away train. : However, by the time the three icars 'reached Amtrak, . they had gathered enough momentum that their weight broke loose the other four cars ' and Jas the helpless workmen stared on, - the : outward bdund now';seven cars long;, - slowly made its way out of the yard to points unknown. Past Mawhinney Motors, past the Park and on towards Mt. Air Market, it rolled with the"' silver -Amtrak cars flashing bright in the afternoon after-noon sun. Gaining speed all -the time, the train on its unscheduled journey, headed head-ed for the curve behind the Monroe Plant north of town. Spectators said that there was a . deafening scream of steel on steel when the train rounded, the curve, with sparks'; flying but from the wheels, as it; made its way towards the open road. Finally, the cars hit a piece of track which had been partially removed : by. Union Pacific to prevent just .such an accident and one by one the cars flew helter skelter off the road bed tearing up a quarter mile of the railroad's good track before finally coming to a stop. Luckily no one was injured. injur-ed. News spread rapidly of the train wreck in Park City with spectators arriving in droves to witness the scene. ;;' The Alamo Saloon quickly organized or-ganized a 'memorial service' ser-vice' ' for the cars on s the following . day, and while some expressed sympathy for the Depot Developers, others remarked: ' 'Well, we finally got those old things out :of town.' : Still others spent the evening thinking up', new words to- the 'Chatanooga oooo. " Some of the new verses go like tWs: pardon me Wally; were those your cars that', chewed the track up," . or . Pardon V me boys, is that your train down behind Olpin's? It's off of the track, don't cut me no slack. It pulled out of the Depot 'bout a quarter to three, passing by the park and it's pickin' up speed. Look out for the Market, why can't someone park it, even all the dogs know it's nothing to bark at." |