Tweet
The historic Kendal train crash site revisited
published: Saturday | September 1, 2007
Robert Lalah, Assistant Editor-Features
'Miss Edna' reflects on the horrors of the night of the train crash.
As midnight drew near on Sunday, September 1, 1957, a double-engine diesel train with 12 wooden coaches sped around a bend on a track near the sleepy town of Kendal, Manchester. The train was on its way back to Kingston,where it had left that morning for a church excursion to Montego Bay.
There were nearly 1,600 souls on that train that night as it approached Kendal. Many were members of the St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church. Others were known hooligans, who had hopped on-board for a free ride into town. Residents of Kendal say that as the train approached their community, they heard three shrill whistle blasts, then a deafening rumble.
The train had derailed at top speed and plummeted over a precipice. Some of the coaches fell on to others packed with passengers, crushing them instantly. Nearly 200 lives were lost that night and more than 700 persons were injured.
News of the train crash, which is the worst in Jamaica's history and was the second worst, in the world at that time, spread quickly. Throughout that night and into the following day, hundreds of persons flocked to the scene to see the carnage. Reports from that time indicate that there were several dozen body parts strewn along the tracks and the bodies of the nearly 200 dead passengers were packed on each other in large heaps. It undoubtedly was a horrific scene, and even today, 50 years on, many residents of Kendal are still reluctant to talk about the events of that tragic night.
50th anniversary
Some cups that were recovered from the site about 40 years after the crash.
A few days before the 50th anniversary of the train crash, photographer Norman Grindley and I visited Kendal where we met Paul DeClou, a farmer who runs the property next to the crash site. He's a towering man with massive arms who knows the area well. He was born in Kendal and even though he wasn't around for the actual event, fancies himself quite an expert on the historic train crash.
"I went and studied all I could about the crash and I spoke with all the elderly people in the area to find out all that I could. Since I run the property, I needed to ensure that when people ask me about the Kendalcrash, I can tell them," he said.
We wanted to see the site for ourselves, so we walked for a while in Paul's footsteps through shoulder high bushes and a path made of jagged rocks. Finally, we came up to a steep hill. Once we got to the top, Paul let out a sigh. "This is it. It all happened right here."
Derailed
Most of the track is now covered with bushes. This is the spot where the train derailed 50 years ago.
"We were on the track at the very spot that the ill-fated train derailed and went over the embankment 50 years earlier. There aren't many signs left of what happened that night. The line is brown with rust and almost completely covered with bushes and there's nothing to mark the location of the mass grave that was dug on-site to bury the detached body parts that were collected.
"Come over here," said Paul, walking over to some large rocks nearby. "This is where the mass grave is supposed to be. If I didn't ask the older folks, I wouldn't have known. Back in those days, they used to put rocks on top of the graves. If you look all along here, you will see the rocks under the bushes. If you stamp on the area with your feet, you will hear that it's hollow," he said.
Paul explained that there are many persons in Kendal who were at the scene of the accident that night, who have never returned to the site. "They just cannot deal with it, so they just stay away and don't even like to talk about it," he said.
But not everyone is so hesitant to talk about what happened that night. Paul told us about a woman called Miss Edna. She's 87 years old and was one of many Kendal residents who rushed to the crash site 50 years ago to help the victims.
He took us to her home which is on a hill near the town square.
"It was a terrible time. I don't like to remember it," said Miss Edna, shaking her head. She was standing on the balcony of her home and kept rubbing her palms together. It took a while for her to warm up, but once she did, it was like she recalled every detail of that night.
"Once we heard that the train had crashed, we got some towels and boiled some water and ran up there. When we got there it was horrible. You had so many dead. Everywhere you looked you saw another dead body or some body parts. Those who survived had to be walking on top of the dead just to get out of the train. Sometimes the people they were walking on were their own friends and family. We were there using the hot water and towels to attend to the wounds of those who survived, but it was so many of them. We had to keep going back and forth to boil more water," Miss Edna said.
Four of her cousins were on the train when it crashed. Only two survived.
"It was like we all lost someone that night. It seemed like everyone knew someone or was related to someone who was killed on the train," she said.
Thieves
A chain hook that was attached to the train before it crashed.
Miss Edna frowned as she explained that in the midst of the tragedy, many thieves flocked to the crash site to rob the dead of their valuables.
"They were going around stealing people's watches and money. There is a story that a thief was taking a watch off a man's hand when the man got up and said; "wait man, mi nuh dead yet. Wait until mi dead," Miss Edna said with a slight chuckle.
"Because of the thieves, so many items from the site were never recovered."
Luckily, some items were recovered. Paul told us that about 10 years ago, he found a silver spoon at the site of the crash and decided to search for more. His efforts achieved what he considers great success. He took us to his home about a mile down the road to show us what he found.
"I found these coffee cups and these spoons which are solid silver. They don't make them like that anymore," he said, holding the items in front of him.
Theories
A cigarette ash traythat Paul DeClou recovered from the crash site about 10 years ago. - Photos by Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
Paul also produced a cigarette ash tray. "Someone was smoking on that church trip," he quipped. He showed us some drinking glasses and a golden broach. "All of these were found in one place, so perhaps they belonged to one person," he said.
Paul also saved a piece of the train. It's piece of a rust covered chain that he said was used to hold the coaches together.
"This is very important to me," he noted.
Over the years, many theories have been put forward to explain what happened that fateful night. There seems to be no general consensus on what caused the crash. One theory is that because the train was seriously overcrowded (carrying up to 150 persons per coach when they were designed to carry a maximum of 80 persons each) it was unbalanced, so when it took a sharp turn, it fell on its side, over the precipice. Others say that some of the hooligans who hopped aboard for the free ride had tampered with the train mechanisms, causing it to derail. Whatever the cause, the Kendal train crash has left a permanent imprint on the people of this quiet community and even as they shy away from speaking about it, they will carry with them, the haunting memories of the events of September 1,1957 forever.
published: Saturday | September 1, 2007
Robert Lalah, Assistant Editor-Features
'Miss Edna' reflects on the horrors of the night of the train crash.
As midnight drew near on Sunday, September 1, 1957, a double-engine diesel train with 12 wooden coaches sped around a bend on a track near the sleepy town of Kendal, Manchester. The train was on its way back to Kingston,where it had left that morning for a church excursion to Montego Bay.
There were nearly 1,600 souls on that train that night as it approached Kendal. Many were members of the St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church. Others were known hooligans, who had hopped on-board for a free ride into town. Residents of Kendal say that as the train approached their community, they heard three shrill whistle blasts, then a deafening rumble.
The train had derailed at top speed and plummeted over a precipice. Some of the coaches fell on to others packed with passengers, crushing them instantly. Nearly 200 lives were lost that night and more than 700 persons were injured.
News of the train crash, which is the worst in Jamaica's history and was the second worst, in the world at that time, spread quickly. Throughout that night and into the following day, hundreds of persons flocked to the scene to see the carnage. Reports from that time indicate that there were several dozen body parts strewn along the tracks and the bodies of the nearly 200 dead passengers were packed on each other in large heaps. It undoubtedly was a horrific scene, and even today, 50 years on, many residents of Kendal are still reluctant to talk about the events of that tragic night.
50th anniversary
Some cups that were recovered from the site about 40 years after the crash.
A few days before the 50th anniversary of the train crash, photographer Norman Grindley and I visited Kendal where we met Paul DeClou, a farmer who runs the property next to the crash site. He's a towering man with massive arms who knows the area well. He was born in Kendal and even though he wasn't around for the actual event, fancies himself quite an expert on the historic train crash.
"I went and studied all I could about the crash and I spoke with all the elderly people in the area to find out all that I could. Since I run the property, I needed to ensure that when people ask me about the Kendalcrash, I can tell them," he said.
We wanted to see the site for ourselves, so we walked for a while in Paul's footsteps through shoulder high bushes and a path made of jagged rocks. Finally, we came up to a steep hill. Once we got to the top, Paul let out a sigh. "This is it. It all happened right here."
Derailed
Most of the track is now covered with bushes. This is the spot where the train derailed 50 years ago.
"We were on the track at the very spot that the ill-fated train derailed and went over the embankment 50 years earlier. There aren't many signs left of what happened that night. The line is brown with rust and almost completely covered with bushes and there's nothing to mark the location of the mass grave that was dug on-site to bury the detached body parts that were collected.
"Come over here," said Paul, walking over to some large rocks nearby. "This is where the mass grave is supposed to be. If I didn't ask the older folks, I wouldn't have known. Back in those days, they used to put rocks on top of the graves. If you look all along here, you will see the rocks under the bushes. If you stamp on the area with your feet, you will hear that it's hollow," he said.
Paul explained that there are many persons in Kendal who were at the scene of the accident that night, who have never returned to the site. "They just cannot deal with it, so they just stay away and don't even like to talk about it," he said.
But not everyone is so hesitant to talk about what happened that night. Paul told us about a woman called Miss Edna. She's 87 years old and was one of many Kendal residents who rushed to the crash site 50 years ago to help the victims.
He took us to her home which is on a hill near the town square.
"It was a terrible time. I don't like to remember it," said Miss Edna, shaking her head. She was standing on the balcony of her home and kept rubbing her palms together. It took a while for her to warm up, but once she did, it was like she recalled every detail of that night.
"Once we heard that the train had crashed, we got some towels and boiled some water and ran up there. When we got there it was horrible. You had so many dead. Everywhere you looked you saw another dead body or some body parts. Those who survived had to be walking on top of the dead just to get out of the train. Sometimes the people they were walking on were their own friends and family. We were there using the hot water and towels to attend to the wounds of those who survived, but it was so many of them. We had to keep going back and forth to boil more water," Miss Edna said.
Four of her cousins were on the train when it crashed. Only two survived.
"It was like we all lost someone that night. It seemed like everyone knew someone or was related to someone who was killed on the train," she said.
Thieves
A chain hook that was attached to the train before it crashed.
Miss Edna frowned as she explained that in the midst of the tragedy, many thieves flocked to the crash site to rob the dead of their valuables.
"They were going around stealing people's watches and money. There is a story that a thief was taking a watch off a man's hand when the man got up and said; "wait man, mi nuh dead yet. Wait until mi dead," Miss Edna said with a slight chuckle.
"Because of the thieves, so many items from the site were never recovered."
Luckily, some items were recovered. Paul told us that about 10 years ago, he found a silver spoon at the site of the crash and decided to search for more. His efforts achieved what he considers great success. He took us to his home about a mile down the road to show us what he found.
"I found these coffee cups and these spoons which are solid silver. They don't make them like that anymore," he said, holding the items in front of him.
Theories
A cigarette ash traythat Paul DeClou recovered from the crash site about 10 years ago. - Photos by Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
Paul also produced a cigarette ash tray. "Someone was smoking on that church trip," he quipped. He showed us some drinking glasses and a golden broach. "All of these were found in one place, so perhaps they belonged to one person," he said.
Paul also saved a piece of the train. It's piece of a rust covered chain that he said was used to hold the coaches together.
"This is very important to me," he noted.
Over the years, many theories have been put forward to explain what happened that fateful night. There seems to be no general consensus on what caused the crash. One theory is that because the train was seriously overcrowded (carrying up to 150 persons per coach when they were designed to carry a maximum of 80 persons each) it was unbalanced, so when it took a sharp turn, it fell on its side, over the precipice. Others say that some of the hooligans who hopped aboard for the free ride had tampered with the train mechanisms, causing it to derail. Whatever the cause, the Kendal train crash has left a permanent imprint on the people of this quiet community and even as they shy away from speaking about it, they will carry with them, the haunting memories of the events of September 1,1957 forever.
dem just interesting AND fun~~ 
Comment