This topic is all about the Train Wrecks of the PRR .

The Woodbridge wreck happened on a shoo-fly constructed to allow for highway work. (Don't know if its the Garden State or the Turnpike, I haven't driven down that way in years.) The train was especially crowded because the CNJ was on strike and lots of NYLB commuters shifted to PRR operated Jersey Coast trains. The train (the Broker) lurched into the shoo-fly way above the limit, derailed and toppled down the embankment. Find Robert Shaw's DOWN BRAKES and there is a very good account of the wreck. It describes how the various roads, NYLB and PRR notified crews of speed restrictions - Bulletin and/or signs, etc. Remarkably, elsewhere in DOWN BRAKES, you'll read of at least one commuter who survived both Woodbridge and the CNJ's Newark Bay Bridge disaster in 1958.

I'm not sure where this happened but I'm hoping someone can fill in the details. One of our local TV stations does flashback news segments and they showed a wreck that occurred in the the fall of 1964. One of the units was clearly a Pennsy F unit and the reporter said the wreck was a collision that occurred near Geneva, so I'm assuming the Elmira Branch had to be involved. It's hard to tall where from the picture I saw on TV. Considering the number of times that the Elmira Branch crossed both NYC and LV near Geneva, the possibilities are numerous. Anyone know more?

It looks like this is the USDOT report about the accident in question.

http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.ne ... rn=3842%22

The report puts the location of the accident as Orleans, NY, rather than Geneva, but that would still be on the Elmira branch.

An archive of accident reports from 1911 to 1993 can be found here:

http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.ne ... _railroads

The Broker derailment in Woodbridge was at a temporary bridge installed to bypass permanent bridge construction over the new but not yet opened New Jersey Turnpike.

My father rode that train home to the shore every night. A previous post mentioned a CNJ strike that resulted in overcrowding of the PRR North Jersey Coast Line trains. I was not aware of that fact until now; but I do remember my father telling me he was late getting to Newark Penn Station that evening and that he was near the rear of the crowd getting on the train. By the time he boarded, he walked through a couple of cars and there were no seats left, so he decided to get off and wait for the next train....

...thank God for me, because he usually rode in the cars where most of the deaths occurred, and I wasn't scheduled to be born for another year....

I suspect that the 1953 Washington wreck of the "Federal" may be the most famous of the PRR wrecks. This is somewhat ironic in that the cause of the brake failure was a design flaw in the New Haven RR passenger cars which made up the consist of the train. The angle cock on the third passenger car, which controlled air access through the train lines to the brakes on the trailing ten cars, was knocked shut when it made contact with one of the structural members of the car effectively shutting off the air supply to the brakes on the ten trailing cars. This had happened earlier in the trip and had delayed the train in Rhode Island. The crew got the cock opened and continued on to New Haven. They did not, however, report the problem to the crew of the electric locomotive which took over the train at New Haven, and it was not reported to the PRR crew which took over at NYP. On the PRR, the train, now being hauled by GG1 No. 4876 made normal stops all the way to Baltimore, but when the engineer made his initial brake application as the train approached DC, he found that the brakes were not holding. The train slammed into the platform at Union Station, ran into the concourse-waiting area and No. 4876 fell into the basement baggage room when the floor of the concourse collapsed. In actuality, the brakes on the GG1 and the first three cars actually held, and the train skidded into the station being pushed by the ten trailing cars. Because this was only a few days before the inaguration of President Eisenhower, a temporary floor was built over the wrecked GG1 which was later cut into pieces, removed from its resting place, and re-assembled at Altoona. The re-assembled 4876 is now at the B&O Museum in Baltimore ( in a deteriorating condition).

orangeline wrote:Today I watched a video of old North Jersey railroading scenes. The tape ended with a 5 or so minute "newsreel"-type summary of the Woodbridge, NJ wreck of the Broker in 1951. Man, what a sad thing to see! The cameramen were not shy about filming priests and other religious leaders giving last rites to the dead and dying and the rescue squads collecting pieces of bodies for removal! The locomotive was number 2445. I couldn't make out the wheel arrangement, but assume that by 1951 only K-4s powered that train. I also assume it originated its run at the Jersey City Terminal.

I saw that in Train wrecks and Disasters it had a GG1 I believe. The Train was 733 with over 1,000 Passengers.

My uncle Lou was a PRR New York Division engineer.I became a fireman on the Penn Central with his assistance, anyway I had never heard of this wreck until he mentioned it to me one time. He said the engineer on the Broker recieved a train order at his initial terminal Exchange Place in Jersey city and had simply forgot in the intervening time about the 10 mile per hour temporary speed restriction over the NJ turnpike construction area shoo fly. He was doing 65 mph, track speed for passenger trains on the old Perth Amboy and Woodbridge branch, threw the train into emergency but it was to late. The fireman was found crushed under the tender but the engineer survived. IIRC his name was Kelly.

In the late 1950's and early 1960's, the PRR used to operate Bowie Race Course specials out of NY's Penn Station during the winter off-season for racing in NY. I recall taking one just a week or two after an accident involving fatalities on the Bowie spur during a heavy snowstorm. The horseplayers joked that the only thing the survivors worried about was getting their daily double bets in! I believe the accident was basically a derailment, which left cars on their sides in the snowbank hundreds of yards from the track. Can anyone shed some light on my foggy recollections of some 45 years ago?

eddiebear wrote:The Woodbridge wreck happened on a shoo-fly constructed to allow for highway work. (Don't know if its the Garden State or the Turnpike, I haven't driven down that way in years.) The train was especially crowded because the CNJ was on strike and lots of NYLB commuters shifted to PRR operated Jersey Coast trains. The train (the Broker) lurched into the shoo-fly way above the limit, derailed and toppled down the embankment. Find Robert Shaw's DOWN BRAKES and there is a very good account of the wreck. It describes how the various roads, NYLB and PRR notified crews of speed restrictions - Bulletin and/or signs, etc. Remarkably, elsewhere in DOWN BRAKES, you'll read of at least one commuter who survived both Woodbridge and the CNJ's Newark Bay Bridge disaster in 1958.

This accident happened on Feb. 6, 1951 when the PRR 'Broker', an express commuter run, powered by K4s No. 2445, went past Woodbridge station (not a scheduled stop) at about 65mph. A slow order had been in effect for 8 days specifying 25mph for a 25 degree shoofly overpass over the NJ Turnpike, then being constructed.

The engine went down over the embankment, along with several cars, killing the fireman and 84 passengers. The engineer and the locomotive, which was returned to service, survived.

I ride this line every day, and in the early 1990's I watched while the Turnpike was widened to 14 lanes. This time, they built temporary steel abutments on both sides, one (NE) at the new width, and one to the SW at the old width.

They constructed a new track structure on the new width abutments.

They then dug out beneath the active railway and built permanent concrete abutments at the new width.

One weekend, the used cables to pull the old track structure out of the way and winched the new track into place.

Voila, no shoofly.

Oops, that should be a 5 degree curve.

And all the period data came from 'The Unique New York and Long Branch', by Don Wood, Sep., 1985.

Three trains colided on the Panhandle Columbus to Chicago main west of Bradford OH on 5/21/39. In a nutshell, one eastbound stopped account fire started by transients. After investigating and making a water stop, it was rear ended by a second eastbound in the heavy fog.

A third eastbound which had already passed the last tower at Union City OH/IN was unaware of the wreck, and thought the flagman of the second train was flagging his own track. The third eastbound then struck the wreckage, resulting in death to several crew members and significant track and equipment damage.

A full report is posted on the ICC Accident Reports website, part of the DOT Library Special Collections under the year 1939.

On the Main Line, the Red Arrow ran into the back of the Pittsburgh Night Express near Bryn Mawr PA early morning mid May 1951. Eight passengers were killed and 63 injured. The Pittsburgh Night Express, which was running late, was stopped by a dragging equipment detector; the Red Arrow did stop at a stop and proceed signal, but instead of adhering to the restricted speed limit, the train accelerated above the limit. The engineer of the Red Arrow, who survived the crash, was found to have cataracts and was legally blind in one eye

My grandfather was a cop for the Lower Merion Police Department and was one of the first to respond to scene as he was on Lincoln Highway heading to get something to eat while off duty. He heard the wreck happen and instantly headed to the tracks. Later, he told me that when he arrived, there were still feathers floating in the air. The scene was not pretty and he recalled that one of the major problems at the sight was such a large crowed gathered which hindered the movement of emergency equipment/personnel. Also he told me that someone who lived along the tracks, filed a complaint holding the PRR responsible for all the damage his yard incurred from all the sightseers walking over the property to get a closer look of the wreck

Here is a video clip of the wreck in Frick Locks Chester County, Pa. along Schuylkill Valley branch, in 1941.

Enjoy,
Len.
http://www.dailymotion.com/Conrail6370/ ... eck-1941/1

eddiebear wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:40 am The Woodbridge wreck happened on a shoo-fly constructed to allow for highway work. (Don't know if its the Garden State or the Turnpike, I haven't driven down that way in years.) The train was especially crowded because the CNJ was on strike and lots of NYLB commuters shifted to PRR operated Jersey Coast trains. The train (the Broker) lurched into the shoo-fly way above the limit, derailed and toppled down the embankment. Find Robert Shaw's DOWN BRAKES and there is a very good account of the wreck.

Here is a 60min video production regarding this fatal derailment incident first noted by Mr. Orangeliine on the previous page and which draws from the noted Shaw work:

https://youtu.be/jqKndUXSRdI?si=0sOmypOj9KVhjc9D

The highway project noted by Mr. Bear was the NJ Turnpike.

I watched it last night. VERY well done and highly informative. I had only previously heard of it in a History Channel special on train disasters (featured in between the PRR’s “Red Arrow” and “Federal Express” crashes). The GCI (?) animation of the K4s + P70 coaches is incredible.