Railroad trestle collapses, 9 cars in lake From the Winsted
Journal, Thursday, Oct. 29, 1953
Plans to re-build old right-of-way abandoned
All available help at work building new road on south side of
bay
Excitement was at high pitch here Saturday afternoon when the
alarm came in that the timber trestle supporting about 600 feet of
track on the Minnesota Western railroad about one mile east of
Winsted across the south bay of Winsted Lake, formerly known as
Lake Eleanor, collapsed in the center and nine cars loaded with
corn and oats went into the water.
It was a train load of 34 cars, six cars and the locomotive had
gone over the break, the next nine cars went down, and the 19 cars
in the rear remained on the track. Cause for the collapse has not
been determined.
Immediate action was taken to fill up on both sides of the
trestle so that repair work could be started as soon as possible.
The work continued for two days with the fresh dirt sinking in the
mud as fast as it could be hauled. Finally the road officials came
to the conclusion that to repair the damaged road was too great a
task and it was abandoned and a decision was made to build the
right-of-way around the south side of the bay.
