According to Donald Riddering's "The Great Salem Train Wreck," among the holdings in the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library, word of the eastbound train's route, stops, and times was passed along to the conductor, engineer, fireman and brakeman of a westbound work train via a hand-written memo. That memo and its interpretation by the crew of Train #71 are blamed by some for the accident. Written on unlined paper, the column with the names of the stations the excursion train would pass and the times for each passing in another column didn't line up on the page.