www.TroopTrain.com
1,000 new Army recruits (many just boys) were traveling South on the L&N Railroad when tragedy struck.
This wreck was believed to be the second WORST Stateside Military Disaster of World War-II.
I would like photos of and information about these heroic veterans (and their rescuers).
Please send information, stories, pictures, etc... to me at:
Phil Lea
868 Benton Station Road
Benton TN 37307
423-506-4000 cell
Email
me
(If your computer won't let you
click on the link above, open your email program and type-in:
|
|
|
Click |
|
|
|
Click
|
|
Photos Wanted
of the Soldiers who survived the troop train wreck as well as those who died as a result of the
07-06-44 Troop Train Wreck near Jellico Tennessee:
|
|
|
|
|
| Russell J. Alquist
(24) 1920 North 13th St. Paducah, Kentucky (husband of Della Alquist) (son of Florence Alquist of 1630 S. 6th St.) (died July 6, 1944) Click HERE to read a 02-13-2006 email to me from his Great-Nephew
|
Pvt. Robert H. Baird
(25) 902 Terrace Rd. NW Canton, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Leonard J. Bettag Evansville, Indiana (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Charles B. Boswell
(24)
2608 Kentucky Ave Paducah, Kentucky (husband of Mary Boswell) (son of Mr & Mrs Ben Boswell of RFD 2 Hinkleville Rd) (died July 6, 1944) |
Charles Britzke Charles Britzkw ? RFD 1, Box 154 La Porte, Indiana (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pvt.
Jack C. Brown
(25) RFD 1 Louisville, Ohio
(died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
James W. Buchanan RFD 1 Huttonsville, West Virginia (or Buttonsville, W.V. ?) (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
William Ralph Cathey
Paducah, Kentucky (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Charles T. Clapp (24)
634 Terrell Paducah, Kentucky (son of Mr & Mrs Elvis Clapp) (died July 6, 1944) |
Pvt.
Donald J. Clark (24)
414 McKinley Ave. North Canton, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
James Edward (Buddy) Clark (also Listed as: James N. Clark ?) Apt 36 Thomas Jefferson Place Paducah, Kentucky (husband of Frances Givens Clark) (son of Mr & Mrs Lex Clark of 229 Clark St.) (died as a result of the troop train wreck) Click HERE to see a 2007 letter from his grandson |
Wayne E. Clemmens
RFD 2 Warren, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Robert C. Clingerman (alt. spelling: Robert C. Clingeman) 929 S. Davis Ave. Elkins, West Virginia (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Raymond Cole
Box 140 Brazil, Indiana (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
George E. Eaves
Orwell, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
|
|
|
|||
|
William N. Gorey RFD 3, Pataskala, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck)
|
*
Don P. Hasline
444 N. Main St. N. Canton, Ohio * NOTE: This man's name was in the July 9, 1944 edition of the Paducah Ky paper as "dead", but I had never heard of him. (I think his name was actually Masline, but misspelled)- Phil |
|||
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Donald E. Hill
Canton, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Eugene L. Hilton
303 Logan St. Menett, Missouri (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Pvt.
Raymond B. Kiesling
54th St. at NW Canton, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Raymond B. Lillie
433 Barth Place Warren, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Pvt.
Donald P. Masline (25) 444 N. Main St. North Canton, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck)
|
Dale Mattix, Jr.
18 RFD 10 Sandy Beach Trailer Park Akron, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
William E. McChesney
(25)
RFD 3, East Akron, Ohio Krumroy Rd (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Richard W. Miller
1823 Krieger Dr. Toledo, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Ray W. Parker,
Jr. (Billy Parker) Stark Moreland addition near Waco (Canton, Ohio area) (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Austin E. Paumier
Louisville, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck)
|
Herbert Reichle
Bedford, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Hargis
Salyer
Salyersville, Kentucky Click HERE for his story (died as a result of the troop train wreck)
|
Pvt.
Joseph G. Shipbaugh (24)
2240 Dover Ave., N.E. Canton, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John R. Wickline
RFD 1, Orient, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
John R. Wiseberger
Akron, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck) |
Ray
Wood, Jr. (or Roy Wood, Jr.) Rt 3 Kevil, Kentucky McCracken County (son of Mr & Mrs R T Wood) (died July 6, 1944)
|
Pvt. Clarence
M. Wright (22) 312 S. Market St. Minerva, Ohio (died as a result of the troop train wreck)
|
Raymond Lewis Yopp
(alt spelling: Raymond W. Yapp) (son of Mrs. Clara Yopp) McCracken County, Kentucky (died July 6, 1944)
|
Click
HERE to see a list of the Survivors.
This is an image of the Highcliff Narrows |
||||
Here is an image of the Highcliff TN L&N Depot from that era. |
SHE JUMPED THE TRACKS BOOK FOR SALE
The book:
SHE JUMPED THE TRACKS.
Click the "Buy Now" button above and you can pay with your credit card or PayPal account.
Phil Lea (I would like to thank John Ascher for writing this book. It has been a great reference for my website.) The Louisville & Nashville Railroad train had picked up speed through the mountains but wasn't running as smoothly as it had in flatter country. The men, sleeping or preparing for bed, knew the train was behind schedule. But they still thought it was going too fast. That's when they heard the crack. And seconds later, the train was ripped in half. The engine, tender and four cars plunged 50 feet below. Twelve died instantly. Many more died in the next few days. It was the troop train wreck of July 6, 1944, the nation's second worse train disaster during World War II. Think of the absolute worst place in the world for a train wreck, and you'll have a picture of the Jellico Narrows in Campbell County, Tennessee. (It looks like something out of a model train layout.) The gorge cuts down 50 feet to the Clear Fork River, a rocky and shallow current capped in white. Limestone, peppered with trees and scrub and mud, line the descent. A road follows the gorge up above on one side, with the train tracks on the other side. The tracks occasionally dart through tunnels or veer off away from the gorge. But where the wreck occurred, the tracks are right on top of the gorge. It is reported that 1,006 fresh recruits were on the train headed to "points South" the destination was classified because of the war. The recruits, having finished basic training, were on their way to their first assignment to an Army unit at Fort Benning in Georgia. The train stopped in Corbin, Ky. before starting through the mountains at Jellico, near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The relief engineer was supposed to take over at Corbin, but he never showed up. The first engineer, Lyle Rollins, was reportedly angry about having to continue with the train. "He was very mad and possibly under the influence of alcohol," a witness was quoted. In addition to the engineer's condition, a steep grade before the Narrows gave trains a boost of speed. Thanks to the engineer and the grade, the train was speeding by the time it reached the Narrows first sharp curve. Dave Harkness, then principal of Jellico High School, recalled that a soldier told him, "One of the fellows on the train said we could never make it, then we just went off and the cars piled up." The river was a jumble of twisted metal, smoke, flames, steam and bodies. When the locomotive plunged over the side of the gorge, it took with it its tender and four cars. The kitchen and baggage cars burned, and two coach cars turned over and burned at the gorges brink. The engineer and others died because they were pinned underwater. Others burned to death from the steam. Some bodies were trapped under the cars, other bodies laid-out over the flat rocks. Some survivors had to cross the river barefoot and stood there shivering. Those pinned were screaming. "When we got there it was just an awful mess," a local resident recalled years later. Leo Lobertini was one of the first on the scene. He and his brother took their truck to the wreck, picking up as many miners as would fit in the truck. Dr. Ned C. Watts didn't know the wreck had occurred until "a young man wearing only underwear briefs who was shouting" flagged him down. Watts hospital had only one phone, so staff went to neighboring houses to call other doctors only to discover that Watts was the only doctor available. He spent several hours as the lone doctor at the wreck. The rescue effort was a shoestring affair. Hundreds of Campbell County residents flocked to the scene to help. They made the first rescues, using block and tackle slings to hoist the wounded up the side of the gorge to the road. It often took up to ten men to hoist a body up to the road. Some brought welding torches to free the trapped soldiers. A trucker who was passing through stopped to take a load of injured soldiers to the hospital. He came back and took several more loads. Volunteers continued to comb the river for dead and wounded. Later in the night, doctors from nearby towns Corbin, Lafollette, Middlesboro and Williamsburg joined Watts. They went from car to car giving morphine injections to the trapped men. One soldier received plasma transfusions. Many soldiers, their faces bleeding and dirty, waited for their more seriously injured comrades to be taken away before they received care themselves. The ambulances joined the rescue effort two hours after the train derailed. They waited at the road for the injured and took them to hospitals in five nearby towns. Early the next morning, an Army major arrived to take over leading the rescue effort. But the county's work was just beginning. Most of the injured had been rescued by midnight, but there were still dead to be recovered and wounded to look after. That morning, more organized efforts were put in place. Boy Scouts went door to door collecting shoes, clothes and sheets for the soldiers. Red Cross units served food on the Jellico hospitals lawn. A local restaurant closed in order to assist in preparing the food. Assembly lines were set up to make sandwiches, and local volunteers transported the food to the rescue site. Local groceries were emptied of bread. Some help was not as organized. Many residents took in soldiers for the night, giving them food, a place to bathe and a place to sleep. The volunteers who had worked all night carrying the bodies out of the gorge eventually built a makeshift dam to lower the water level to retrieve bodies. They continued to work through the next three days. In all, 34 men died in the wreck and 75 were injured (some survivors went on to fight in North Africa, according to Watts). The wreck received scant national press at the time (the New York Times, for instance, ran three short stories). There used to be a historical marker at the wreck's site, but that has been stolen. In 1993, Jellico area residents paid for a monument in downtown Jellico. The unobtrusive granite block lists the names of all those who died in the wreck, along with Jellico's other losses from war. But the people who really remember the wreck are those who saw it and heard it. Jim Tidwell, chairman of the organization that built the monument and a participant in the rescue effort, wrote a letter to the editor of the Jellico newspaper in which he described what he would remember when he thinks of the wreck: "I will see the troop train casualties stretched out on the rocks in the Clear Fork River and hear the ambulances once again as they wailed out screams, carrying the injured to the Jellico Hospital. I will see the engineer who was pinned under water with his hair waving at the surface. I will see a soldier who was finally freed from the wreck after several hours, sit down on a rock in the river, ask for a cigarette and then die. I will see the doctors working from coach to coach injecting morphine to ease the pain of those trapped." (Tidwell has since passed away.) Others who were personally involved in the wreck are dying, their memories dying with them. I want to tell their stories before they are all gone!
KNOXVILLE JOURNAL SUNDAY,
JULY 9, 1944
Army Releases Jellico Casualty List Jellico Troop Train Accident July 6, 1944 NAME
HOME OF RECORD
WAR DEPT. FILES INFO ALQUIST, Russell J. of Paducah, Kentucky - ID: 35844994, Branch of Service: U.S. Army, Status: DNB
Engineer, John C. (Lyle)
Rollins
Brakeman, John Wm.
Tummins
[NOTE: Are there any more pics of any of these
brave, young men out there??????]
There is one book on this incident: She jumped the tracks: America's tragic stateside 20th century military disaster. by: John P. Ascher, N.p., M.J.A., 1994. 220 pp.
World War II Memorial Website: http://www.wwiimemorial.com Want to visit the area?
DRIVING DIRECTIONS:
NOTE: If you want a SCENIC DRIVE, get on 25W as soon as you can!
(NOTE: If you're driving from South of the Kentucky/Tennessee line, Go North on I-75 and then follow directions #3 - 6 above)
Click HERE for online driving directions to Jellico. (fill in your address)
Monument in Jellico Tennessee to those who died in the Troop Train Wreck.
(There were almost 1,000 Survivors and I would like the names and photos of each one.)
Webmaster................
Phil Lea Phil Lea 868 Benton Station Road Benton TN 37307 423-338-2310 home 423-506-4000 cell (If your computer won't let you click on the link above, open your email program and type-in:
)
Check out my
MyLostToys.com website
that features toys from my childhood
Check out my Dr. Shock website:
Check out my tribute to Cleveland TN
Click HERE to see my Tribute To Bob Brandy |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Keywords:
Photos Wanted for Russell J. Alquist
Photos Wanted for Robert H. Baird
Photos Wanted for Leonard J. Bettag
Photos Wanted for Charles B. Boswell
Photos Wanted for Charles Britzke
Photos Wanted for Jack C. Brown
Photos Wanted for James Buchanan
Photos Wanted for William R. Cathey
Photos Wanted for Charles .T Clapp
Photos Wanted for Donald J. Clark
Photos Wanted for James N. Clark
Photos Wanted for Wayne E. Clemmens
Photos Wanted for Robert C Clingerman
Photos Wanted for Raymond Cole
Photos Wanted for George E. Eaves
Photos Wanted for William N. Gorey
Photos Wanted for Donald E. Hill
Photos Wanted for Eugene L. Hilton
Photos Wanted for Raymond B. Kiesling
Photos Wanted for Raymond B. Lillie
Photos Wanted for Don P. Masline
Photos Wanted for Dale Mattix, Jr.
Photos Wanted for William E. McChesney
Photos Wanted for Richard W. Miller
Photos Wanted for Ray W. Parker
Photos Wanted for (Billy Parker)
Photos Wanted for Austin E. Paumier
Photos Wanted for Herbert Reichle
Photos Wanted for Joseph G. Shipbaugh
Photos Wanted for John R. Wickline
Photos Wanted for John R. Wiseberger
Photos Wanted for Raymond W. Yapp
GOD
BLESS
AMERICA
Click 
