After years of searching, I've finally found an event that was memorialized in a letter my Grandfather (Edward P. Reinert) wrote to his Mother while my Great-Grandfather was serving as a Government Locomotive Inspector at Baldwin Locomotive works during World War 2. They moved to Philadelphia in 1943 and returned to Hammond sometime in 1946. He (Paul R. Reinert) then went back to the Monon as a "Switch Engineer", having been employed by the Monon since 1915. First as a Fireman then promoted to Switch Engineer in 1924. (He also served as a Railroad Fireman in the US Army Transportation Corps in France during WW1. His old contacts from this time in the service were the reason he was offered a job as inspector in the 1930's. He took the required test and passed, was offered the job, but declined at that time. He was later re-offered the job, and decided to "do his part" for the then-current War effort.)
My Grandpa wrote this letter, entirely in prose, advising her of the various happenings back in Hammond which included this small part:
"A boy was killed in the Monon Yard. It happened when he and another young Pard', Were ducking between cars when a cut came in, He was killed in an instant or a moment within."
The event I found in the Hammond Times archives is dated July 13, 1944 and shows the boy on the ground with a cop standing over him. A downright horrific photo, the likes of which were quite common then.
