"What I remember most about the wreck was the noise. When
train usually came through Lowell they normally made the ground rumble
and shake. Living that close to the tracks, we were pretty use to it. They
usually made the whole house shake.
That morning I was home with my Grandmother and was upstairs sleeping.
The rumbling and noise of the train woke me up and there was something
different about the way this train sounded coming into town. They grew
louder and soon the rumbling was replaced with what I thought were explosions.
I can't remember exactly how many there were, but they seemed to gone on
for quite some time. When I looked out my upstairs bedroom window, I remember
seeing a huge fireball from the street. At first I thought Hardings had
caught fire, but when I got downstairs and outside, I could see it was
down at the railroad crossing.
The whole street was on fire. The crossing I mean. There was a
pile of freight cars where the depot was and everything was burning. I
remember two tank cars in the crossing and there were flames maybe 40 feet
high. The heat was so intense we had to move up the street by the hotel.
I seem to remember the heat causing the windows in Hardings and the Mobile
station to crack, or break. Anyway, it was pretty hot in our front yard.
Standing in the driveway between the Hepp's house and ours was pretty much
impossible for a while. Grandma and I moved up Commercial by where Ruby
had the hotel and watched from there. It took forever to get the fires
under control I seem to remember. Most of the Lowell firemen were caught
on the east side of town. I remember hearing someone say that the whole
downtown might be on fire, but it didn't turn out that way. Once the other
fire departments showed up and started controlling the fire we were able
to get a little closer.
I seem to remember walking down to the crossing in the morning
and boy, what a mess. There were still some small fires, but the sight
of all the wrecked freight cars on top of one another was pretty impressive.
There were cans of Vienna Sausage all over the place. Did I pick any up?
Contrary to other people may have told you, yes I may have picked up a
can or two. It's so hard for me to remember back that far. I do remember
the town stinking for many weeks after that because of all the spoiled
meat which was I believe dumped over by where the Post Office is now. That
field over behind the elevator. Boy did it stink over there."
-Robert Hall...March 26, 2000-
