1912 train wreck: January, 1912
"Shortly before 11 o'clock, Sunday night, a milk train of wooden construction crashed into a steel car standing at the end of the track, telescoping the 1st wooden car about 20 feet, carried the bumper away and fence fronting the track, continuing across the street into the front porch of a building, reduced a taxicab to junk, also a telephone pole.  The conductor (of the milk train), Henry Timerman of Woodhaven was instantly killed.  Trainman John May of Woodhaven died on the morning of January 11, 1912.  Motorman Henry Webber was operating the train from the opposite end and was not injured.  No passengers involved." 

If there was a motorman operating the milk train, then said train was being run by another steel MU car at the other end of the train.  The article says the milk train was of wooden construction.  THAT would have been something to have a photograph of: A train of wooden milk cars being operated by an MP41 electric motor!!!!!

In the early days of LIRR electrification, it was not unusual to see a steel motor on each end of a passenger train, with wooden trailers sandwiched between.  So . . . . why not on something as ordinary as a "milk run?"    Only this was deadly and, judging by the force needed to crush the end of the MP41 and send it through the bumper and across the street that milk train was moving!

I have two similar views in my archive, but they're taken a little further away and do not show the crushed end of the car facing the depot building.  My one shot shows it burrowed into the building across Fulton Street.  My other shot shows it as its being pulled out of the building, displaying THAT crushed end . . . . .

Dave

Long Island Collection Hempstead Public Library Jan 1912