This is a first in a series of 6 Articles about the old TV show “Rescue 911”
Who does not remember the show “Rescue 911?” The show was one of my favorites growing up in the 1990’s, usually 3 segments per 30 minute episode. Hosted by William Shatner, the show focused mainly on Emergency personal rescuing people from dangerous situations, and also normal everyday people doing the same thing. The show ran from April, 1989 to August 1996, with 7 seasons, 182 episodes and 2 specials. Currently, the only place to view the episode segments is on YouTube, since no channel is currently airing the show. The following is from 5 segments that were ran in different episodes.
Season 1, Episode 2, Segment 3 “Conrail Train”
In Ramsey, New Jersey, the Prichard family lives in a Cul-de-Sac, 300 yards away from the active Conrail/NJT mainline. 3 year old Tod, and 1.5 year old Scott had just come back from the store with their mother, and being the trustworthy parent she was, she let the older child watch his younger brother play outside. Knowing they were not allowed anywhere near the tracks, today, for some reason, the children made their way down through the woods and started to play on the right-of-way. While playing on the tracks, a train appeared. The engineer of the Conrail Freight (In this episode, portrayed by Morristown and Erie #18), noticed something moving on the tracks. The Engineer applied the brakes when he noticed it was the children. At this time, the conductor, Anthony Folsom, ran out of the cab and climbed down the step, trying to wave the children off the tracks. With the Horn blaring, the mother, inside putting away groceries, heard the commotion and had a bad feeling, and immediately ran outside. With the train slowing, the children were not noticing the train fast approaching. When the train was nearly upon hitting the children, the conductor jumped down and forced them down to avoid being hit.
Morristown and Erie C424 #18 portrayed the engine in the re-construction
When the train passed over the children, the 1.5 year old Scott was hit in the head by the pilot of the Locomotive, necessitating medical treatment. When the train finally came to a stop, the engineer jumped off the locomotive and ran back to see if everyone was ok. the conductor, told him to call the dispatcher and get an ambulance out there right away. The mother arrived shortly after, and when she saw the injury, she too ran back to her house to call 911. After 6 stitches on the head and 7 on the chin, the boys were released without a trip to the hospital. Neither of the boys sustained serious injury due to the incident….
The locomotive used in the reconstruction of these events was Morriston and Eastern ALCo C424 #18. The locomotive was built in September 1964 by the American Locomotive Works in New York. She was outshopped for the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad as #800. The Locomotive worked for the “Tip-Up” until the railroad was bought outright by the Santa Fe Railway in the early 1980’s. After the merger with the Santa Fe, the Locomotive was sold to the Morriston and Erie railroad, and she has been in active service with the M&E ever since.
Here is a photo of the unit when she was still working for the TP&W: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1700635
Here is a photo of the Unit as she looks today on the M&E: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=512207
The CineTrains Project - Trains in the Cinema and TV 