Pictured is the chapter display at the Chocolate Festival in Hamilton Sept. 20.
Re-railing NYO&W FT No. 803-A after wreck in Hamilton in 1955.
By Richard Palmer
(Hamilton, NY – Sept. 2014) The Central New York Chapter was well represented at the sixth annual Great Chocolate Festival in Hamilton Sept. 20. Chapter members assisting with the model railroad display included Albert, Joan and Phil Edwards, Tom Hancock, Tom Leo, Herb and Fran Meinking, Bob McNamara, Gus Nordone and Jeff Paston.
The festival was created to memorialize a unique moment in both local and railroad history. On Sept. 27, 1955 a New York, Ontario & Western freight train ran through an open switch and ran through the Leland Coal Company trestle. No one was injured, but a box car loaded with chocolate products from the Nestle plant in Fulton spilled everywhere. Thereafter, it was remembered as “The Chocolate Wreck.” At the time it was widely publicized.
All the crewmen aboard the train, who became known as “The Flying Diesel Corps” are now deceased. They included engineer Leslie Vidler, fireman Oliver Wrench; Fred Lewis, general road foreman; and Fred Jaycox, head brakeman. In a little less than two years, the much-fabled NYO&W was abandoned.
In conjunction with this year’s festival a historical marker was dedicated near the site of the wreck, under the auspices of the Village of Hamilton Historical Commission. The site was donated by Margaret and William Miller.
Sept. 27, 1955
It was a cold and rainy night in late September when the members of The Flying Diesel Corps rocketed into railroad history. They were riding in the lead unit of FT diesel set 803A-803B, on a train designated as ON-2. The train included steel, lumber, furniture – and Nestle Crunch Bars, Nestles Quik and chocolate chips. The gentle curve at the Lebanon Street crossing kept the locomotive’s headlight from hitting the reflector on the switchstand until the train was nearly abreast of it.
Suddenly the reflector glared an angry red through the gloom. The crew knew they were about to be diverted on to an inclined sidetrack – straight into the Leland Coal & Oil Company’s elevated coal shed. Horrified, engineer Vidler “wiped the clock,” throwing the air brakes into emergency. But the train’s wet wheels slid over the rain-soaked rails as if they’d been greased. Train ON-2 thundered up the incline, its momentum carrying the train through the shed’s door and on through the building in a series of deafening crashes.
After a quick trip through the shed, the locomotive exploded out the back wall. At that moment, The Flying Diesel Corps was born, as 213 tons of locomotives and the crew, went airborne.
They landed in “pieces” in a field about 150 feet from the shed. Semi-permanently coupled 803A-803B parted company when the drawbar snapped. The B-unit landed on its side, the A-unit miraculously bolt upright. Four of five of the cars that had followed them through the shed lay strewn about the field.
Two of the old wooden “reefers” (refrigerator cars) that the ON-2 had picked up at the Nestle Chocolate plant in Fulton, had split open, disgorging their chocolate bounty. Within a brief period of time, the chocolate contents of the cars completely disappeared. Some people even came down with wheelbarrows.
A major clean-up followed, requiring the assistance of two wreck cranes. The cars containing the chocolate items were demolished. One also contained chocolate kisses from the Hersey plant in Oneida. It is said the proprietor of the local candy store went on vacation.