Nostalgia & History > Suicide on the Railroad by Railroaders

I just got off the phone with my Wabash railroader friend who is going on 97 with an uncanny memory. Anyway, we were discussing Chapter Seven "Cornfield Meets,Derailments and Other Accidents" in my upcoming Wabash Fourth District book. I discovered that a photo of a particular engine with his dad on board was involved in a derailment in 1917 that killed the engineer and fireman. I'll cut to the chase.

Anyway, he mentioned that the son of one of the two also worked on the railroad but ended up killing himself near Montpelier, Ohio. It seems the guy just sat down on the track and allowed a passenger train to run him over. I am aware of other Wabash railroaders that committed suicide but not on the railroad.

I also recall him telling me of a tower operator at North Liberty, Indiana that hung himself in the tower. The story was that he had got an underage girl pregnant that hung around the tower. He was a New York Central man. This was back in the 40s. Neither of these incidents are in my book.

And I know of perhaps one other suicide on the railroad and that was the high speed derailment at Monon, Indiana in which the Monon engineer purposely overran the speed limit at the junction and fought off the fireman who tried to stop him. It seems the old-timer was distraught over a death in the family.

Are you aware of any railroaders that committed suicide on the job? There is no need to mention names.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/12 20:06 by wabash2800.

The executive director of Metra, the Chicago area train commuter system, stepped in front of one of his trains. His embezzlement was coming to light. In his pocket there was an Operation Lifesaver brochure. That's the most egregious example I know of.
Clarence

In 1992 our SP Roadmaster waited mid-day in his hi-rail pickup truck out in rural Bahia (that's a couple of miles east of the massive Suisun bridge some 36 miles from Oakland) on a very cold winter Sunday. Just as Amtrak train #6 approached around 70 mph, he pulled out in front of it on a dirt crossing and stopped where he was broadsided and killed about 2 seconds later. With the heavy hi-rail equipment on that vehicle, it could have derailed the passenger train, but did not, only delaying it for a few hours.

After several hours investigating this death, the Division Superintendent, Special Agent and I went to the Roadmaster's residence to notify his wife. There we learned they were separated and once we determined where she resided, headed there. The coroner was just a few minutes ahead of us and had the same problem. He telephoned the wife and rather than state who he was, stated he was with the sheriff's office and needed her address to speak with her in person regarding her husband. I still remember her exact words "Why? Did my husband kill himself?". She later denied having said this. The Roadmaster had been despondent with good cause: his wife had been having an affair with her employer. And everyone on the SP thought they were a happily married couple...

I am an airline pilot and I flew with a guy that worked for a railroad during college. This probably would have been around the early70's. He worked throwing switches in a hump yard at night. He said that the one big goal of the career guys was to get a leg cut off to get a pension. He said that sooner or later one of the guys would decide to do it. I don't know if this is true and it's not suicide but kind of in the same category.

One I know of was not on the job, but very soon after retirement. He ended it by stepping in front of SP Train 13, the Amtrak
Coast Starlight, at Santa Margarita. Engineer said he stepped in front of the train and bent over so the coupler took him right
on top of his head. He wound up under the last car on the train; that day it was business car SP 140, the "Stanford." There
was no official aboard, only the cook.

The lowest-seniority trainman was supposed to crawl under the "Stanford" once the train had been secured against movement,
to verify the death. I decided the visibly caved-in skull was sufficient proof, so I didn't.

While we waited in the "Stanford" for the coroner to finish doing his work (and as the cook fed us with leftover roast beef), my
conductor told me this was a man whose whole existence was the railroad. No family, no friends outside of work. It was as though
his life had actually come to an end already, with only the physical body remaining. Sad...

Westbound Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In 1992 our SP Roadmaster waited mid-day in his
> hi-rail pickup truck out in rural Bahia (that's a
> couple of miles east of the massive Suisun bridge
> some 36 miles from Oakland) on a very cold winter
> Sunday. Just as Amtrak train #6 approached around
> 70 mph, he pulled out in front of it on a dirt
> crossing and stopped where he was broadsided and
> killed about 2 seconds later. With the heavy
> hi-rail equipment on that vehicle, it could have
> derailed the passenger train, but did not, only
> delaying it for a few hours.
>
> After several hours investigating this death, the
> Division Superintendent, Special Agent and I went
> to the Roadmaster's residence to notify his wife.
> There we learned they were separated and once we
> determined where she resided, headed there. The
> coroner was just a few minutes ahead of us and had
> the same problem. He telephoned the wife and
> rather than state who he was, stated he was with
> the sheriff's office and needed her address to
> speak with her in person regarding her husband. I
> still remember her exact words "Why? Did my
> husband kill himself?". She later denied having
> said this. The Roadmaster had been despondent with
> good cause: his wife had been having an affair
> with her employer. And everyone on the SP thought
> they were a happily married couple...

I remember this case well as I was a new safety officer at the time and called the Amtrak engineer who was running #6 that day (he later went on to become a fairly high official at Oakland) and asked him how he was doing. I remember that he didn't really want to talk about it which was understandable, but I did some fact finding later. This Roadmaster was seen putting the hy-rail in park at the last minute by our engineer which corroborates the suicide intent. Others testified that the truck was hard to get in gear, and that he may have had a bad track-car line-up (all 251 territory at that time) and that he was really trying to reverse and get out of the way, but from the engrs testimony, it appeared otherwise. Also, another friend of mine was riding #6 and held out there for 3 hours as they pulled the body out, got the hy-rail removed and cleaned up the mess (gas spilled everywhere and the whole train reeked of it--luckily, there was no fire.)


The story that I heard was that the roadmaster's wife was having an affair (and impregnated!) by their marriage counselor--great counseling, huh?!? In any case, the right course would've been to set her out at the first available siding, and for Mr Roadmaster to proceed and highball w/ his life. Instead, Mr. Roadmaster gave our Amtrak engine crew nightmares for the rest of their lives (one of the engineers actually died a couple of years later of a heart attack) by killing himself in front of them and endangering one of our passenger trains... game over, indeed.

4 railroaders i know took their own lives one hung other 3 shot ... not on railroad property

one of my best friend's son was killed a few years ago ... the look in his eye was scary when we were working ... he would stand so close to the track with passenger trains whizzin by ... i didnt know what he was thinking i couldn't imagine what he was feeling ... even tho we worked on different jobs but on the same shift i shadowed him for a cpl months until i felt comfortable he wasn't going to do any harm to himself ... my boss was ok with it ... they were childhood friends



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/12 18:15 by Out_Of_Service.

There was a Caltrain engineer who hit and killed a small child, back in the mid-late '90's and later committed suicide. He was featured in a San Jose Mercury article about the effects of these tragic incidents on the operating personnel.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

Just west on Wainright AB on the CN (former GTP) main line , there is a huge trestle over the Battle River.

This is somewhat of a railroader legend, but I have heard it from enough sources that it probably has some background in truth.

An engine crew (engineer and fireman) had been working together for some time on CN's transcontinental passenger train, the "Super Continental" and had developed a friendship. In time however, the engineer became less talkative and withdrew into himself.

Finally, as the passenger train was crossing the big trestle, the engineer talked to his friend . "I learned I have terminal cancer and I do not have long to live, I really can't stand waiting around to die". At that he jumped out of the seat of the F unit he was driving, opened the cabside door and jumped to his death.

While not exactly a suicide, the death of the chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway in England was tragic.

Mr.Churchward was responsible for the design of many of the signature steam locomotives that operated on the Great Western Railway, and supervised their construction at the Swindon shops. He lived to a ripe old age in retirement. For many years, it was his habit to visit the works on a daily basis, crossing the busy main line. Because he was so respected, the GWR employees took no acception to his daily walk across the tracks. They knew he was slowing down and getting confused in his later years, but still he cut across the main lines on his way to visit his old workplace. Finally, he was struck and killed crossing the mains. The ultimate irony was that he was killed by a locomotive he had designed and helped build.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/12 18:59 by eminence_grise.

IC_2024 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Westbound Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> I remember this case well as I was a new safety
> officer at the time and called the Amtrak engineer
> who was running #6 that day (he later went on to
> become a fairly high official at Oakland) and
> asked him how he was doing. I remember that he
> didn't really want to talk about it which was
> understandable, but I did some fact finding later.
> This Roadmaster was seen putting the hy-rail in
> park at the last minute by our engineer which
> corroborates the suicide intent. Others testified
> that the truck was hard to get in gear, and that
> he may have had a bad track-car line-up (all 251
> territory at that time) and that he was really
> trying to reverse and get out of the way, but from
> the engrs testimony, it appeared otherwise. Also,



Mark,

Thanks for the inside "dope" on that accident. Too bad the individual had to impact others' lives when he decided to check out.











>

CarolVoss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was a Caltrain engineer who hit and killed a
> small child, back in the mid-late '90's and later
> committed suicide. He was featured in a San Jose
> Mercury article about the effects of these tragic
> incidents on the operating personnel.
> C.

Actually that fellow Caltrain engineer's death was not a suicide. He was deeply disturbed by the incident but he died of a heart attack while out boating. His death was definitely premature as he was only in his mid 40's but as far as we know it was not related to that tragic event.

That excellent San Jose Mercury article on the effect of fatal incidents on Caltrain engineers is reprinted in a post by Carol in this Trainorders thread:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1294511

In my 34 years of railroad service for SP and Amtrak I frankly can't remember of any rails of my acquaintance or that I even heard about who took their own lives for any reason.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/12 16:50 by johnw.

johnw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CarolVoss Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There was a Caltrain engineer who hit and killed
> a
> > small child, back in the mid-late '90's and
> later
> > committed suicide. He was featured in a San
> Jose
> > Mercury article about the effects of these
> tragic
> > incidents on the operating personnel.
> > C.
>
> Actually that fellow Caltrain engineer's death was
> not a suicide. He was deeply disturbed by the
> incident but he died of a heart attack while out
> boating. His death was definitely premature as he
> was only in his mid 40's but as far as we know it
> was not related to that tragic event.
>
> That excellent San Jose Mercury article on the
> effect of fatal incidents on Caltrain engineers is
> reprinted in a post by Carol in this Trainorders
> thread:
>
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1
> 294511
>
> In my 34 years of railroad service for SP and
> Amtrak I frankly can't remember of any rails of my
> acquaintance or that I even heard about who took
> their own lives for any reason.


Thanks for the verification/correction. Maybe I am thinking of another incident on another railroad.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

I know of an attempt. Newhire conductor who was a quiet kid, sheltered his whole life by his family and religious view. He had a rude awakening working with a bunch of stubborn old heads that belittled him so much to drive him to suicide. He parked his truck on the crossing in Wabasha, MN. CPs hotshot 199 had just met a train at Midland siding. They were just starting to get back up to speed when tey saw the truck and tried to stop the train. From what I was told the train made impact at 19mph. He was sent to the hospital and recovered from his injuries. Needless to say he no longer works on the railroad.

One I heard about was a switchman in BNSF's Northtown yard laid his neck on the rail as they pushed a cut of cars over the hump.

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