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- - It is suspected that Fred and his wife died in a train accident that killed 50 people in Ogden, Utah...
"A Tragic Train Wreck
In the early morning of December 31, 1944, a fast-moving express and mail train crashed into the rear of a passenger train, the Pacific Limited from Ogden, at Bagley, 17 miles west of Ogden on the Lucin Cutoff track. The crash killed 48 people and injured 79. Local sheriff's officers, National Guard troops, and medical personnel came to the Union Station to meet the rescue trains. The first casualties arrived at 10:45 a.m. Some 15 to 30 ambulances lined the track to receive the dead and injured. This was the worst accident in which the Ogden depot played a part." <http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/from_war_to_war/howtrainshelpedwinawar.html>
"The fiery Dec. 31, 1944, wreck left veteran railroad men in tears as they described what they called the worst wreck they had seen in all their days on the tracks.
"It was awful -- it all seemed to happen so fast," J.W. Welch, the conductor of the ill-fated train, told the Deseret News at the time. Welch was one of the few who escaped the crash with little to no injuries.
The Pacific Limited was on its way from Ogden to California. Thick fog filled the air as the first whistle sounded about 3 a.m. The train usually traveled in one long section, but on this day the train was split in two sections, the passenger car and the mail express train.
Somehow in the midst of the fog hovering above the Great Salt Lake, the driver of the second engine plowed into the back of the passenger train at Bagley, 17 miles west of Ogden on the Lucin cutoff track. The passenger train was moving at 18 mph, while the freight train was chugging along much faster.
Several train cars plummeted into the cold Great Salt Lake. In total, 81 other people were injured in the tangled mass of wreckage strewn for more than a half mile along the tracks. Three special trains were dispatched from Ogden to carry bodies and the injured away from the wreckage." <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20050101/ai_n11499015>
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