Connellsville Railroad Accident

The Connellsville railway accident was a train derailment on December 23, 1903 in Lower Tyrone Township in Fayette County near Connellsville , Pennsylvania , USA , which was caused by the loss of cargo on a freight train into which a passenger train, Duquesne Limited , drove. 64 people died, 68 were injured.

Starting position

The accident happened on a double-track railway line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad west of the village.

A New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road) freight car on a B&O freight train was en route west to New Castle , Pennsylvania that evening . Among other things, he had loaded wood in the form of entire logs 18 meters long, which were transported on stake wagons and loaded in Friendship , Maryland .

The Duquesne Limited of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was traveling east on the same route from Pittsburgh to New York with about 150 passengers and a speed of almost 100 km / h . A number of travelers wanted to transfer to a ship to Great Britain there . The train was pulled by an Atlantic class locomotive. It was followed by six cars: a baggage car with a smoking compartment , two passenger coaches , two Pullman cars, and a dining car .

the accident

After 7:30 p.m. the freight train made a tight curve. Presumably due to centrifugal force , the stanchions of at least one car broke and the tree trunks loaded there fell into the track in the opposite direction without the train crew noticing.

At around 7.45pm the Duquesne Limited took the corner. The engine driver saw the obstacle so late that he could barely brake. The locomotive overturned, fell between the tracks and tore up 150 meters of track bed before it came to rest on its side. The tender flew in the air and over the locomotive. The following baggage / smoking car slid along the locomotive, was slit open by the locomotive lying on its side and broke off its steam dome , which protruded into the car at window height. The escaping steam fatally scalded almost all passengers in this very busy car. Another car crashed into the Youghiogheny River .

The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad ran across the Youghiogheny River . An employee in a signal box there saw the accident and sounded the alarm. The seriously injured luggage conductor of the Duquesne Limited managed to run towards the following train, light his coat with matches and thereby warn the following train, which could just stop at the scene of the accident. A relief train arrived around 9 p.m.

examination

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad blamed the accident on those who loaded the logs onto the freight car.

literature

Edgar A. Haine: Railroad Wrecks . 1994.

Web links

Contemporary press coverage

Remarks

^ Peter WB Semmens: Catastrophes on rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 , p. 24, cites the number of 53 deaths and the accident site Laurel Run .
↑ Where exactly the accident happened cannot be deduced exactly from the information on this point in contemporary reporting: The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer state "Laurel Run", 8 miles (12 km) west of Connellsville, which means only a stream of that name can be meant; a place of that name only exists at the diagonally opposite end of Pennsylvania. The Connellsville Courier gives the scene of the accident a point two miles (three kilometers) west of Dawson . With the additional information that the accident happened directly on the course of a river, the geographic location of the accident site assumed here results.

Individual evidence

^ Haine, p. 31.
↑ ^a ^b Train Wreck Victims Total Sixty-Four . In: The New York Times . December 25, 1903 (English, full text ).
^ Ogdensburg Advance and St. Lawrence Weekly Democrat .
^ NN: Sixty Dead . In: New York Times v. December 24, 1903 .
↑ The Courier , Connellsville, v. December 24, 1903 .
^ NN: Disastrous Wreck . In: Philadelphia Enquirer v. December 24, 1903 .
^ Haine, pp. 64f
↑ The Courier , Connellsville, v. December 24, 1903 .
^ NN: Sixty Dead . In: New York Times v. December 24, 1903 .
^ Haine, pp. 64f.

40.052322 -79.695511Coordinates: 40 ° 3 ′ 8.4 " N , 79 ° 41 ′ 43.8" W.

[2] Peter WB Semmens: Catastrophes on rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 , p. 24, cites the number of 53 deaths and the accident site Laurel Run .

[3] Where exactly the accident happened cannot be deduced exactly from the information on this point in contemporary reporting: The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer state "Laurel Run", 8 miles (12 km) west of Connellsville, which means only a stream of that name can be meant; a place of that name only exists at the diagonally opposite end of Pennsylvania. The Connellsville Courier gives the scene of the accident a point two miles (three kilometers) west of Dawson . With the additional information that the accident happened directly on the course of a river, the geographic location of the accident site assumed here results.

[1] Haine, p. 31.

[nyt_1903-12-25-4] Train Wreck Victims Total Sixty-Four . In: The New York Times . December 25, 1903 (English, full text ).

[5] Ogdensburg Advance and St. Lawrence Weekly Democrat .

[6] NN: Sixty Dead . In: New York Times v. December 24, 1903 .

[7] The Courier , Connellsville, v. December 24, 1903 .

[8] NN: Disastrous Wreck . In: Philadelphia Enquirer v. December 24, 1903 .

[9] Haine, pp. 64f

[10] The Courier , Connellsville, v. December 24, 1903 .

[11] NN: Sixty Dead . In: New York Times v. December 24, 1903 .

[12] Haine, pp. 64f.