Train wrecks, 1831-1968 (PLEASE STICKY)

[luke]

That is why block signals were invented right there. Even a simple form of TWC and the concept of "track and time" authority could have prevented that accident. Say the dispatcher hands you your orders at the station: "Don't leave siding X until you see train Y pass at or near time Z" etc.

Yep.

Disobeying dispatcher's orders & bad time judgment were very common causes of early accidents.

For example, a post earlier in this thread talked about a head-on collision on the Portsmouth & Roanoke railway in 1837.
That collision was the result of disobeying orders.

It's a shame that so many of the accidents from 1853 to 1900 were preventable.

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Also, another factor in the Valley Falls collision was that the excursion was a special not in the regular timetable schedule.

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BTW, what is TWC?

[luke]

Now, a grade crossing collision:

August 29, 1855: Burlington, NJ on the Camden & Amboy

On the morning of the 29th, Dr. John T. Hannigan, a doctor who'd been deaf for a number of years, got on his horse drawn surrey and went to make a house call in Burlington.

As he approached the grade crossing on the edge of town, he failed to see a passenger train coming toward the crossing.
He, of course couldn't hear it.

He also didn't see the crossing attendant, Mrs. Mary Cook, waving & jumping frantically.

The train was temporarily running in a primitive push configuration, with the rear brakeman giving signals to the head-end brakeman, then to the engine crew.

When Hannigan was 20 ft. from the crossing, he finally saw the train and tried to stop his surrey, but the horses panicked and bolted ahead. The last car struck & killed the horses.

Unfortunately, one of the corpses got caught underneath the platform, and it derailed the last 4 cars.

The crossing is out of shot on the left side of illustration.

1855-8-29.jpg (140.05 KiB) Viewed 11589 times

2 horses & 23 people were killed, and 73 injured.

No one was in error here; it was just a tragic combination of events.

[AndyWS]

BTW, what is TWC?

Track warrant control. Basically what I described, it's a form of "paper" dispatching where each train crew is given authority to occupy a stretch of track for a limited period of time, during which other trains are restricted from entering the same section. It's a lot easier to execute now with radio communication, but it still would have worked at the time of the Valley Falls accident.

[luke]

BTW, what is TWC?

Track warrant control. Basically what I described, it's a form of "paper" dispatching where each train crew is given authority to occupy a stretch of track for a limited period of time, during which other trains are restricted from entering the same section. It's a lot easier to execute now with radio communication, but it still would have worked at the time of the Valley Falls accident.

Yea, it would have worked a lot better than the rigid timetable system that required every train to stay on time.

With a timetable system, if a train was delayed by weather, a breakdown, or any other kind of unscheduled stop, an accident could result where the train that had been delayed met a train that was on time.

[luke]

And now, the horror era begins:

July 17, 1856
Camp Hill/Fort Washington, PA
Head-on collision


This,which was called the the Camp Hill disaster by some, and the picnic train tragedy by others, was the first of the Great Rail Horrors.

An excursion train was contracted by the St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church to take their Sunday school children on a picnic in Shaeff's Woods, a grove near Wissahickon. The train was to travel on the North Pennsylvania railroad, a short line built to serve farmers & a couple of coal mines.


There were two segments of the excursion, and the first one was to depart Cohocksink at 4:47 AM.

However, there were delays due to loading all the children, and the 1st segment departed at 5:10, with at least 10 coaches, & at least 1,100 people aboard.

The locomotive, the NPRR's Shakamaxon, had a low boiler pressure rating, and it lost steam quickly, so they had to make periodic stops to allow the pressure to come back up enough to continue.

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Meanwhile, a 2-coach 'commuter' train with 20 passengers was waiting at Wissahickon for the excursion to arrive so they could go.

They hadn't used the telegraph to contact Cohocksink, and had no idea when the excursion had left.
The company policy stated that regularly scheduled trains, had to wait 15 minutes, but the picnic excursion was a special, and that only confused things further.

So, at 6:15, the commuter train started out.

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The engineer of the excursion was confident they could make up for the lost time, and he figured the trains could pass each other at the Edge hill siding.

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The excursion approached a blind curve just north of the Camp Hill station, going slightly downgrade;
at the same time, the commuter train was approaching the curve, going upgrade.

The excursion blew the whistle almost continuously, but the Doppler effect wasn't widely understood at the time, and neither train knew where the other was.

By the time they caught sight of each other, it was too late.
The trains collided at 6:18 AM.

1856-7-17.jpg (161.02 KiB) Viewed 11555 times

The collision was heard up to 5 miles away, due to the boilers exploding.

The first 3 coaches of the excursion were destroyed, and they rapidly caught fire.


At least 66 people were killed, and many more injured.

Two days later, The New York Times published a scathing editorial with the lede:
RAILROAD BUTCHERY


It was the worst land transportation disaster up to that time in the entire world, and possibly the saddest, too.
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The track where this happened was recently abandoned by NS.

[wigwags4ever]

And now, the horror era begins:

July 17, 1856
Camp Hill/Fort Washington, PA
Head-on collision

That's a lot like the Armagh disaster of 1889 in Ireland.
A sunday school excursion got stuck on a steep hill. It was therefore decided to uncouple the rear half of the train. This then ranaway down the hill, and crashed into the train behind. 78 were killed, with 260 injured. Ireland's worst crash.

[luke]

... the Armagh disaster of 1889 in Ireland.
A Sunday school excursion got stuck on a steep hill. It was therefore decided to uncouple the rear half of the train. This then ran away down the hill, and crashed into the train behind. 78 were killed, with 260 injured. Ireland's worst crash.

Yea; I read about that one once.

It proved to be the end of the vacuum brake.

[luke]

Now, a bridge collapse.

May 4, 1858
Utica, NY
On what is now CSX trackage:

The old wooden span over Sanuquoit Creek collapsed on the morning of May 4.

Unfortunately, the double-track bridge had 2 trains on it at the time:
a westbound freight, and the eastbound Cincinnati Express.

Cars of both fell into the shallow stream and broke apart like cheap furniture.

9 were killed and 50 injured.

An editorial in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper concluded that the bridge was "more like punk than wood."

[freebrickproductions]

Locked and de-stickied at OP's request.