Published April 16, 2012, 06:15 AM
It was a warm, sunny day on Aug. 9, 1945, when 20-year-old Marian Pederson and her parents boarded the Great Northern Railway’s Empire Builder in Grand Forks. The Pedersons’ train never made it to their destination. A mechanical problem — an overheated journal or bearing — forced it to make an unscheduled stop on the west side of Michigan, N.D. The second train couldn’t grind to a halt in time. They collided at about 7:20 p.m., the engine of the trailing train slamming into the back of the first, shearing the luxurious Pullman observation deck car and thrusting it over the top of the engine.
Remembering N.D.’s worst train crash
Eyewitness vividly recalls the dead and dyingIt was a warm, sunny day on Aug. 9, 1945, when 20-year-old Marian Pederson and her parents boarded the Great Northern Railway’s Empire Builder in Grand Forks. The Pedersons’ train never made it to their destination. A mechanical problem — an overheated journal or bearing — forced it to make an unscheduled stop on the west side of Michigan, N.D. The second train couldn’t grind to a halt in time. They collided at about 7:20 p.m., the engine of the trailing train slamming into the back of the first, shearing the luxurious Pullman observation deck car and thrusting it over the top of the engine.
By: Kevin Bonham, Grand Forks Herald
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