The Day it Rained Bananas in Pittsburgh's Strip District

Now a completely changed landscape from what it was once. Pittsburgh's Strip District has surely changed with the times. there was a time when you drove down Smallman Street and you would see lines of trucks loading fresh produce which had just come in by rail and later large 18 wheeled trucks .

But one day things got out of hand when it literally rained bananas down in the strip after an explosion at the  long closed Pittsburgh Banana Company .which was recently torn down to build condos and so another piece of Pittsburgh history to be lost for ever.

http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=CHP19361226.2.118

http://pittarchives.tumblr.com/post/135381482147/the-pittsburgh-banana-company-explosion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P-_eZB4PP0

 It was December 1936 when a lone worker that fateful morning  flipped a switch around 2 am and caused the gas which had built up from the bananas to explode ripping off the roof and destroying much of the building and damaging a near by church .miraculously the employee survived being buried under the bananas

A Forgotten Horrific Train Wreck Behind the old D.L Clark company on Pittsburgh's North side

After all the drama of last weeks Train Derailment in Pittsburgh's Station Square which still is causing repercussions from all the damage it caused and miraculously no one was hurt or killed .

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/video/3912695-precarious-clean-up-continues-after-station-square-train-derailment/

And a  more serious wreck occurred about 30 years before in Bloomfield involving hazardous materials 

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/13/us/derailment-drama-ends-in-pittsburgh.html

 
Pittsburgh has seen its share of rail disasters even including trolleys.

But It brings up memories of a  forgotten Horrific Train Crash which took 8-9 lives in February  1934 on Pittsburgh's North Side behind the D.L. Clark Building which sits behind Heinz Stadium.

Back then the area was bustling with industrial activity and junk and rail yards which included the D.L.Clark Company and its famous Clark (candy ) Bar
 

http://www.gendisasters.com/pennsylvania/9955/pittsburgh-pa-train-wreck-feb-1934?page=0,0

https://www.facebook.com/OddPittsburgh/videos/2178215112422352/ 

Thanks to Odd,Mysterious & Fascinating Pittsburgh Facebook group for the video link

The luxury express train on its way from Akron to New York  was starting to round the slight bend when it went off the tracks and over the steep wall falling approx . 50 ft trapping and killing the Engineer and Fireman  and in total killing 8-9 people one who had just gotten on 30 minutes earlier F.R.Dravo  was head of the then famous Dravo Corporation  whose barges and dredging operations where all over Pittsburgh's rivers till its eventual closing in the 80's after the steel mills closed.

It was thought a frozen switch caused the accident but as far as I can find no official cause was found.

This was not the only such tragedy on Pittsburgh's North Side which has seen horrific deaths, from factory fires and  east  and spring garden valley flooding  there have been many horrific deaths and if you happen to ride behind the D.L Clark company and get a little tingle something happened there now you know why.

In doing research on this article I came upon another train wreck  but date of this video says 1938 which i can find no such accident in Pittsburgh but this may show further down from clark building
so another mystery to solve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqCec6A8pLk

This video may be on the other side of the wall from Clark Building but so much has changed in that area hard to tell but it clearly shows Pittsburg in title when it did not have the H.  but it sure looks like the clark building area wreck.. 

Note: update it has been determined above video was a train wreck on W. Carson street near West End circle . Engineer was killed when stones on track flipped engine over hill side