Railway accident at Frankford Junction

The railroad accident at Frankford Junction was caused by a heated axle box of a passenger car of Congressional Limited , the "flagship" of the Pennsylvania Railroad , on September 6, 1943 at Frankford Junction in the borough of Kensington (Philadelphia) of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . 79 people died and over 117 were injured, some seriously.

Starting position

The Congressional Limited drove the route between Washington DC and New York several times a day at the very high average speed of 110 km / h for the time. Since it was the weekend extended around Labor Day , the train was driven with a set of 16 cars due to the rush of travelers . It left Washington Union Station with 541 passengers at 4 p.m. The train from a pulled electric locomotive of the series GG1 . The regular stop in Newark , New Jersey , was to be canceled on this particular train and the train should pass through to New York Pennsylvania Station .

the accident

As the train passed through the North Philadelphia station , the train ran slightly ahead of schedule and the inspector saw nothing out of the ordinary. Workers at a depot , which the train passed shortly afterwards, noticed flames breaking out of an axle box, a hot runner . They called the nearest block post, Frankford Junction. But it was seconds too late. Before the employee could do anything there, the train drove past his signal box at a speed of 90 km / h. It was 6:06 p.m. Immediately afterwards the glowing axle bearing in the front bogie of the seventh car gave way, the axle jumped out, broke and wedged itself under the bogie. The car catapulted itself into the air and hit a signal bridge that slit the car lengthways at the height of the windows. The eighth car curved in a U-shape around the signal bridge. All 79 dead were travelers in these two cars. The next six wagons derailed and were badly damaged and scattered on the track . The last two cars remained undamaged, as did the first six.

consequences

The rescue work lasted 26 hours. Among the survivors was the Chinese author Lin Yutang .

The accident investigation revealed that the axle bearing had not been serviced until the morning of the same day. At all block points, the passing trains were visually observed by the employees working there for hot runners, as well as by the locomotive personnel, who looked at the curves of the train following the locomotive for problems. It was never clear why this hot runner was not noticed until it was already too late.

See also

• List of rail accidents in the United States

literature

• Benjamin L Bernhart: The Derailment of the Congressional Limited, Pennsylvania's Worst Railroad Disaster . 2007. ISBN 1-891402-08-0
• Interstate Commerce Commission : Investigation Report No. 2726 .

Web links

• NN: The Wreck of the Congressional Limited at Philadelphia, PA . In: The National Historical Railway Society, vol. 40/9 v. September 2009, pp. 1-3 (with photos from the scene of the accident) (PDF; 1.7 MB).
• Philadelphia, PA Congressional Limited Train Wrecks, Sep 1943 on gendisasters.com .
• The Milwaukee Sentinel, September 7, 1943: Limited Splits in Two on Curve, Many Killed .
• ICC Investigation No.2726

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Philadelphia, PA Congressional Limited Train Wrecks, Sep 1943 

Coordinates: 40 ° 0 ′ 6.6 ″  N , 75 ° 6 ′ 2.1 ″  W.