The wreck test: two railroads, 120 years of crossings, and no wreck on this ground

1869–1993 · the ICC / FRA accident record and the Tribune wreck file, tested for both lines

The test, stated: Transportation carries both of Granger's railroads whole — the Peninsular / Grand Trunk line of 1869–73 and the Big Four's Granger–Niles line of 1882–1993, with its passenger course, crossings and freight — and carries no wreck. The checklist's transport-wreck item asks for the night the railroad killed its passengers: casualties, inquiry, aftermath. The test was run against the Interstate Commerce Commission's accident-investigation record (the federal investigations index, 1911–1993, held by the National Transportation Library), the Federal Railroad Administration's accident record for the lines' later years, and the South Bend Tribune's wreck file.

The result: No wreck — no fatal accident, no passenger catastrophe, no investigated derailment — is recorded on either line within Clay or Harris township in any of the three records. The lines' Granger course was a rural one of grade crossings and way freight, and the federal file, which investigated accidents by the hundreds across Indiana, holds no Granger entry. The negative is printed as the finding: this ground's railroad history has crossings and close calls in the local record, but it has no wreck night, and none is manufactured for it here.

The line's county catastrophe, at boundary size: The Grand Trunk Western's investigated wreck in this county is South Bend's, and it is pointed to, not absorbed: the ICC's report of June 7, 1932 covers the derailment of April 28, 1932, at about 4:15 a.m., when westbound passenger Train No. 5, engine 6037, took a 7-degree curve at High Street in South Bend at excessive speed on joint track; cars fell from the viaduct at Marietta Street, the engineman and fireman were killed, and two express messengers and two residents of the adjacent dwelling were injured. It is the nearest thing to a Granger-line wreck the record holds, and it happened in the city the line was running to. The county's other named wreck — the Springbrook disaster of 1859 — is Mishawaka's ground and Mishawaka's file, as the audit itself notes.

Sources:

1. Interstate Commerce Commission accident investigations index, 1911–1993 (ROSAP / National Transportation Library) — searched for both Granger lines within Clay and Harris townships; nil yield.
2. ICC report, June 7, 1932 — derailment of Grand Trunk Western Train No. 5 at South Bend, April 28, 1932: excessive speed on the High Street curve; engineman and fireman killed; four injured (boundary).
3. Federal Railroad Administration accident record for the lines' later years; South Bend Tribune wreck file — no Granger-ground wreck in either.
4. Transportation (banked) — both railroads' whole course, cross-referenced; the 1859 Springbrook wreck is Mishawaka's, per the audit register.