"L" train wreck pictures on Ebay

[BusHunter]

I found some pictures on ebay of wrecked CTA "L' cars from the past. http://ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=m570.l3201&_nkw=cta+train&_sacat=0 (link not working just put cta train in the ebay search engine and it will take you to the page) If you pan through the pictures to the bottom of each article there is a small clipping describing some of the story behind the picture. Among the pictures is a picture of the wrecked #6000 at Addison/Blue line from 1976. What a wreck!! I didn't know there were people trapped on there. I was wondering how the car could've sustained so much damage. (I just remembered Addison was an A station and they did say the #6000 train was stopped) So I'm assuming the train was hit almost at full speed. I hate to see what #2308, the striker looked like. Maybe that's why I can't find any pictures of it.

Among other pictures is a picture of the Montrose/Blue line collision again between a #6000 and #2200's train. I know more about that one. There was supposed to have been a fatality where the #6000 crumpled. I didn't know that #6000 train was #6647-48. The #2200's in that accident were barely damaged. According to the article the motorman claimed he did try to pull the brakes in three different places. (although that was the story at the time) Don't know if that was true or not.

That just some of the pictures. Enjoy them while you can.

[Busjack]

What is interesting there is that they do have newsclips describing the nature of the accident. They are upside down for some reason, but one can right click on the news stories, save them to the desktop, and then open them in a paint program and rotate them.

However, in the Addison case, while it explains that a silver train whacked a green one, it doesn't explain how this could have happened in an area that was always cab signal territory.

chicago-l.org doesn't shed any light on it either. Also, it points out that the Addison accident was before the Wabash-Lake one, but I don't recall the former; maybe it was because I was living on the south side at the time.

[BusHunter]

Some of those pictures, like the 40th/wabash picture is on chicago-l.org but he doesn't have interior shots of one of the cars that sustained heavy damage. As far as the Addison/Blue line accident the official story was that the sun shined in the #2200's operators eyes and he couldn't see the train ahead. As far as the cab signals as we all know those can be turned off by calling control.

[andrethebusman]

The Addison wreck was the result of running with cab signals on bypass. This was a common occurrence in the 1970's. In this particular case, the 2308's ATC failed at Jeff Park, MM went on bypass, and approaching Addison was allegedly blinded by the morning sun, and rammed the 6000 at speed.

Montrose was totally different. The 6000 train had a control failure and stalled leaving Montrose, almost at the top of the hill. MM went back to try cutting out a car with a blue light (blown circuit breaker), and while he was out of the cab, the parking brakes could not hold the train on the hill and it started rolling backwards. MM tried pulling emergency brake "cherry", but since that only activates parking brakes, it did no good. Following train stopped just past Montrose station when he saw the 6000 stopped in front of him, but the 6000 rammed him as there was no practical way to stop it once it had started rolling. The fatality was in the 3rd car from the rear, where a man was crushed between two seats when the end of the car collapsed on impact.

[BusHunter]

The Addison wreck was the result of running with cab signals on bypass. This was a common occurrence in the 1970's. In this particular case, the 2308's ATC failed at Jeff Park, MM went on bypass, and approaching Addison was allegedly blinded by the morning sun, and rammed the 6000 at speed.

Montrose was totally different. The 6000 train had a control failure and stalled leaving Montrose, almost at the top of the hill. MM went back to try cutting out a car with a blue light (blown circuit breaker), and while he was out of the cab, the parking brakes could not hold the train on the hill and it started rolling backwards. MM tried pulling emergency brake "cherry", but since that only activates parking brakes, it did no good. Following train stopped just past Montrose station when he saw the 6000 stopped in front of him, but the 6000 rammed him as there was no practical way to stop it once it had started rolling. The fatality was in the 3rd car from the rear, where a man was crushed between two seats when the end of the car collapsed on impact.

Yeah Addison was a "A" station back then. Obviously the #2308 was a "B" train. If the #6000 has all that much damage I hate to see what #2308 looked like, but there seems to be no pictures of it. CTA probably got rid of it in a hurry. The second one I remember well, fatality was in #6647-48. I didn't know the cherry was pulled.