Train derailed in Holley 100 years ago, killing 1 while others narrowly escaped

Photographs courtesy of the Holley Depot Museum – Scene of the Holley train crash, Sept. 24, 1926.

By Catherine Cooper, Orleans County Historian

“Illuminating Orleans” – Volume 6, No. 26

HOLLEY – On a Friday afternoon, September 24, 1926, a fast moving east-bound freight train crashed head-on into a switch-engine on the Falls branch of the New York Central Railroad a short distance east of Holley.

The train was coming from a stone quarry, some two miles east. The local switch engine traveled daily from Rochester to deliver freight to the local office.

The engineers of both trains took evasive action to avoid the crash, but it was too late.

F.J. Maloney, of Suspension Bridge, a fireman on the freight train was scalded to death in the impact. The engineers of both trains jumped to safety.

As the engine crashed, the train buckled and several cars derailed. One car crashed into the baggage room of the station and tore a corner off the building. Another car struck the freight house with such force that the entire building was moved from its foundation. Freight agents had a narrow escape.

Spectators quickly flocked to the scene of the Holley train crash.

Following an inquest immediately following the accident, Coroner Ogden of Holley concluded that “misinterpreted signals” caused the accident. Both the train and the switch engine were traveling on main westbound track. The engineer of the fast freight train testified that the automatic signal had shown a green light and that he did not see any flagman from the switch engine, while others testified that they had seen the flagman unfurl his flag.

The October 14, 1926 issue of the Holley-Standard followed up with a report stating that the evidence indicated that the switch engine must have entered the block after the fast train had passed the automatic signal and that there was no criminal neglect on behalf of the railroad employees

A later inquest conducted by the Interstate Commerce Commission concluded that the brakeman on the express train failed to protect his train properly.

The most severe railroad accident in Orleans County occurred on July 27, 1883. Seventeen people were killed in the Carlyon/Ashwood accident when a passenger train collided with a loose freight car that had drifted onto the track.