ONE OF THE worst train wrecks in Wakefield history occurred at 10:30 on the night of Aug. 2, 1917. The head-on crash at Wakefield Junction involved a freight train locomotive and a shifting engine. (A shifting engine was a smaller locomotive that was used to move rail cars short distances within a railroad yard.) A fireman on the freight train was killed when the locomotive fell on top of him. He left a wife and a two-week old baby. The engineer on the freight train suffered serious burns but survived. Several other crew members escaped injury by jumping to safety just before impact. According to the Aug. 3, 1917 Wakefield Daily Item, “The outward-bound freight train was traveling at good rate of speed and there was a heavy impact when the mammoth engines crashed headlong into each other.” The sound of the crash could be heard as far away as the center of town. Several tons of coal spilled when the train fell over. Traffic in the area was reportedly shut down all night and the first cars to pass were at 8 o’clock on the morning after the crash. Thousands of people were attracted to the scene and several hundred remained throughout the night to watch the removal operation.