[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=31562.94

South Shore train hits dump truck

Joseph Malan
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - A South Shore commuter train side-swiped a commercial vehicle Thursday, resulting in damage to the vehicle.

According to a police report, at about 4:57 p.m. Trever R. Taylor was driving east on West 11th Street from Buffalo Street in a Ford F-800 dump truck when he observed a South Shore train coming from the east.

The man pulled onto the shoulder, while the train conductor braked in an attempt to avoid a collision.

According to the report, the left front handle rail on one of the cars hit the mirror on the man's vehicle, knocking it out of place and shattering the driver's side window.

Several passengers were in the four cars at the time of the accident, but no injuries were reported.

When Michigan City police examined the driver's license of the man who was driving the dump truck, they discovered he had an operator's license, but not a commercial license for the dump truck.

Additionally, according to a Michigan City ordinance, large vehicles such as the dump truck are prohibited from travelling on 11th Street. Taylor, 23, 5111 W. Schultz Road, La Porte, was given citations.

[joe.black]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=31562.94

This bothers me enough to actually want to correct it - the conductor does not operate the train, the engineer does...it's a common error throughout the news, and I'm not sure why that's the case.

[Ang]

Hey Joe Black, speaking of engineers....

I don't know how long you've been with the SS, but my grandpa used to drive the train. Bill Lochmaier. Know him? He retired in the 70's.

[joe.black]

Hey Joe Black, speaking of engineers....

I don't know how long you've been with the SS, but my grandpa used to drive the train. Bill Lochmaier. Know him? He retired in the 70's.

Hi Ang -

I've been here for a year now. I don't remember Bill, but if he's anything like the "old timers" we still have out here, I'm sure he was a character. Were they still wearing the white motorman's caps back then?

[Ang]

Nope, gramps wore the old style pinstripe coveralls and matching cap.

I remember when I was about 5 or 6, Mom would take me to the 11th st station and I would get on Gramps train and ride up front with him all the way to Chicago and back. (I don't believe OSHA was an entity then ) I got to do that once a week for the whole summer.

In high school we took a field trip to Chicago and rode the train. The conductor that day asked me if I was Angie (gramps was passed by then) and if I was Bill's granddaughter. He remembered me from riding the train when I was little. He comp'ed my ticket and I didn't have to pay that day. Pretty cool I thought.

[Southsider2k12]

Small world, my grandpa was an electrician for the South Shore until about the middle 80's. We made many of the same trips into Chicago as a kid. Let me tell you it was a lot more fun like that versus doing it every single day for work!

[Ang]

Small world, my grandpa was an electrician for the South Shore until about the middle 80's. We made many of the same trips into Chicago as a kid. Let me tell you it was a lot more fun like that versus doing it every single day for work!

I bet.

I'm sure our grandpa's knew each other. Is yours still alive?

[Southsider2k12]

I bet.

I'm sure our grandpa's knew each other. Is yours still alive?

He actually retired then because he got lung cancer. He died a few months after, in 86 I believe. If your gramp remembers him it would be as "Swede". Henning Lind was his name.

[Ang]

My gramps is gone too. He died from throat cancer in '82.