History: Green Bay and Western Wreck (1968)
Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Complete Article/with more photos

1968 Train Wreck

Green Bay and Western Wreck

‘We Were Lucky,’ Says Engineer as Merrillan Bridge Collapses   Nine Freight Cars are Dumped into 30-Foot Chasm   “I’m going to get right down on my knees and thank the Lord when I get home tonight.”

That was the comment, with appropriate vocal punctuation, of Engineer Rudolph Pflanzer. His Green Bay and Western freight engine had just dropped nine loaded freight cars in Halls creek at Merrillan. They were cars immediately following the three-engine train numbering 111 cars, bound from Winona, Minn., to Wisconsin Rapids.

The mishap occurred when a 60-foot railroad bridge over Halls creek, on the northeast edge of Merrillan, collapsed. Nine cars dropped approximately 30 feet into the creek in a pile like jackstraws.

But Pflanzer and three others in the lead engine had escaped unhurt.

Green Bay and Western, Merrillan, Rudolph Pflanzer, Halls Creek, Winona, Minn., MN, Minnesota, Pflanzer