Gibsonville Garden Railroad fence signs

On September 10, 1950 at about 245 AM the eastbound Southern Railroad freight train #252 derailed as it passed through Gibsonville on its way from Spencer to Selma. The freight train engineer Plez Alexander Transou  and his fireman Arnold Jackson were both killed, while the conductor EW Stone  was injured. An earlier Eastbound Southern Railroad passenger train damaged the switch to the Minneola Mill siding which caused the steam engine (Mikado #4847) to jump the tracks and fall over on its left side just beyond the Springwood Avenue crossing. There were 6o freight cars and the first 20 of them were thrown off the tracks as well. 

Residents were awakened by an explosion as the oil tanker behind the engine tender ruptured and ignited. The resulting fire destroyed ten box cars containing new automobiles, meat, general cargo and coal. Eyewitnesses said it looked like all of downtown Gibsonville was on fire and that the light from the flames lit up the night sky. 

Within 24 hours the tracks were cleared and rail traffic resumed.  As seen in the photo above there were two steam powered heavy cranes working to clear the wreckage after the flames were extinquished. It was reported that people came from far and wide to look at this disaster with estimated crows exceeding 30,000.