Hurricane of 9/21/38

I just saw an interesting documentary on PBS about the devastating hurricane that swept across Long Island and New England on 9/21/38, taking nearly 700 lives. There was a brief newsreel shot of a passenger train laying on its side, but it was unclear whether it was a NH train or, less likely, a LIRR train. Two questions for the historically-inclined on here:

1. Were there any fatalities on the NH directly attributable to the storm? Were any passenger trains affected directly?

2. Judging by the pictures of this storm, the damage done to coastal and even interior New England was extensive. How long did it take before the various NH lines got back to normal?

The New Haven train on its side was in Stonington, CT on its way to Boston. My cousin was on that train on her way school in Massachusetts. My father, an avid RR fan and author, left from out home in Milford, with another man, to try to find her, or her body. They visited several makeshift morgues but thankfully found her safe. I do not know if anyone on the train died. I do not recall the other details about which you ask, as I was only 7 at the time. My cousin is still alive at age 88, living in Maine.

The train at Stonington was the Bostonian. It was stopped by an interlocking signal and conductor had to wade through water (some accounts say waist deep) to the tower to get permission by the stop. By the time he got back to engine, the rear of the train was off the rails due to wave action. All passengers were herded into the two coaches behind tender, onto tender and engine cab and then the engine, tender and two lead cars moved to higher ground. Shore Line was closed for quite some time first for repairs; biggest obstacle was a lighthouse tender across the mainline at New London. This resisted all efforts to move it for quite some time. Boston & Albany had at least one major washout between Worcester and Springfield. First route open to New York was via Franklin-Blackstone-Putnam-Willimantic-Hartford. There was a major washout at Buzzards Bay on the Cape line; I think the place is called Cohasset Narrows. Extensive damage and loss of life in Providence as a tidal surge came up the bay right during afternoon rush hour. The 1938 Hurricane also wiped out electric operation on the East Hartford to South Glastonbury route of the Connecticut Co. NYN H & H put out a booklet on this: Restoring New England's Lifeline. It has gray and blue covers and shows up at train and paper shows from time to time. Expect to pay about $25 if you it. Maybe one will show up at Amherst Ry Society train show this weekend. There are also several books on the 1938 Hurricane and I think the History Channel has a program on it which is shown from time to time.

BTW. There were no fatalities on the Bostonian when stranded at Stonington.

Thanks for that info, eddie. I was amazed to see the damage in downtown Providence; water 14 feet high in some places, and big problem with looters. The documentary pointed out that the depression was still full-blown in 1938.

eddiebehr wrote:BTW. There were no fatalities on the Bostonian when stranded at Stonington.

AFAIK there were actually two fatalities: one female passenger drowned, as did a crewmember (a dining car steward, I think) who dove in to save her. This happened as they were evacuating the passengers from rear coaches and Pullmans onto the baggage car, the tender and the locomotive cab.

Also, it was the engineer that waded up to the tower to get clearance to proceed, not the conductor; the conductor, though, had to stand neck-deep with breakers pounding over him to uncouple the rest of the train from the baggage car. By the time they got a clear signal, the water was several feet deep over the tracks, and the locomotive collided with a boat and a house before reaching higher ground in the borough. The engineer later wrote that a scared old lady was standing at his elbow saying "please, mister, make it go!" as he opened the throttle.

If not for the action of the crew a lot more passengers would probably have died...

Several articles have been written about the Bostonian wreck over the years in everything from rail industry magazines to The New Yorker. I'll see if I can dig up a few when I get a chance.

Excellent book about the hurricane of '38 and the Bostonian wreck here: (with photo)
http://books.google.com/books?id=g6cK4e ... &q&f=false