The Great Train Derailment of 1967, Dearborn County, Indiana

Back in 1967 on Sunday, October 1st around 9:00 in the evening, a train headed to Cincinnati from Indianapolis derailed halfway betwen Weisburg and Bonnell, Indiana. One engine and 38 cars spilled over the hillside and into the creek below. By 4:00 am Monday the railroad company already had people on site to clear the wreckage. The salvage crew recovered all but about 4 or 5 of the train cars leaving them at the bottom of the hillside.

One of the damaged cars was loaded with wine and headed for Seagrams in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Another car was loaded with alcohol with a value of about $100,000.00. In all it’s estimated that there was over 1 million dollars in damage to the train cars and track.

I was talking to a local resident years ago who said when he was a kid, after the train derailment, he and his buddies came down here to one of the cars that was carrying bumper jacks for automobiles. These kids had the idea that they were going to snatch up these bumper jacks and sell them. So they took as many as they could carry but as he said, they really didn’t sell anything. They just ended up with a bunch of bumper jacks in the garage.

No one was injured in the wreck. However the day after the accident, a bulldozer operator nearly got killed when his dozer almost went over the embankment on the south side of the tracks as he neared the derailment.

A passenger train called the James Whitcomb Riley bound from Chicago to Cincinnati had to be rerouted because of the derailment.

GPS Location: 39º11’37.6″N 85º00’19.6″

Video Release Date: February 26, 2023