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The first locomotive ever built at GMD in London, Ont in 1950 met an untimely death at the hands of a truck that did not stop at the Webber Rd crossing just outside of Welland back on a dark gloomy day in February 1980. I posted an image 6 1/2 years ago on this site; and imagine my surprise when I found a little yellow box in the basement last week that held 5 slides taken at that incident. Here is one of the better images, showing TH&B 71 in its death woes with the TH&B big hook which had arrived on the scene some hours previously. In all my years of railfanning this was probably the saddest sight I happened across. The truck driver was killed, the locomotive scrapped.
Copyright Notice: This image ©A.W.Mooney all rights reserved.



Caption: The first locomotive ever built at GMD in London, Ont in 1950 met an untimely death at the hands of a truck that did not stop at the Webber Rd crossing just outside of Welland back on a dark gloomy day in February 1980. I posted an image 6 1/2 years ago on this site; and imagine my surprise when I found a little yellow box in the basement last week that held 5 slides taken at that incident. Here is one of the better images, showing TH&B 71 in its death woes with the TH&B big hook which had arrived on the scene some hours previously. In all my years of railfanning this was probably the saddest sight I happened across. The truck driver was killed, the locomotive scrapped.

Photographer:
A.W.Mooney [2136] (more) (contact)
Date: 02/13/1980 (search)
Railway: Toronto Hamilton and Buffalo (search)
Reporting Marks: TH&B 71 (search)
Train Symbol: n/a (search)
Subdivision/SNS: TH&B Welland Sub. (search)
City/Town: Fenwick (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
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Photo ID: 36319
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8 Comments
  1. ngineered4u
    May 9, 2019 at 11:39 am

    The sad part of railroading. Hopefully the crew survived.

  2. awmooney
    May 9, 2019 at 11:50 am

    They did.

  3. Snake2
    May 9, 2019 at 4:43 pm

    You need to be more organized :)

  4. hoggerdoug
    May 10, 2019 at 6:45 am

    A miracle that anyone survived the crash and fire. Must have been quite a scramble to get out of the cab.

  5. awmooney
    May 10, 2019 at 7:33 am

    Someone with a good memory will chime in on this. I am thinking this was the second unit rather than the leader, and that the crew escaped okay. It has been a long time and I have forgotten the details. But I don’t think the truck even slowed down.

  6. awmooney
    May 10, 2019 at 7:41 am

    I just did some checking on the ‘net and #71 was the leader……so it was miraculous escape for the crew !!

  7. hoggerdoug
    May 10, 2019 at 8:55 am

    Looks like the truck hit behind the loco cab, would have been a different outcome if the truck hit the cab area broadside.

  8. Paul O'Shell
    May 10, 2019 at 10:32 am

    The wrecking crane is TH&B X-766 an Industrial Brownhoist 250 ton, serial number 12190, built in 1954. It later became CP 414651 and after that went to the Northern Plains Railroad in Fordville, ND.
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