Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
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Source: April 1973 Volume 16 Number 2, Pages 31–38

Accidents Will Happen in the Best Regulated Companies

Robert E. Goshorn

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I. The recent freight wreck at Downingtown, after which many families had to be evacuated when tank cars filled with a highly flammable substance overturned, and its similarities to a wreck at Daylesford about ten years ago (1962), led to my brief research on train wrecks in the Tredyffrin and Easttown area. In the general area from Wayne to just east of Frazer, I found reports of seventeen wrecks.

II. Although it is widely known that in the early years of the Main Line of Public Works, it was necessary to replace the original stone sills supporting the rails with wooden ties or "sleepers" because the stone sills would heave in the frost, causing the rails to spread with frequent derailments, the first rail accident in this area of which I could find published record was on March 31,1869. In the West Chester Village Record of April 3 of that year, it was reported that:

"There was a dangerous accident on the Pennsylvania Rail­road on Wednesday between the Paoli and the Spread Eagle in Tredyffrin Township. The Lancaster train was moving at a rapid speed when, in consequence of breaking a spike in the rail, three of the cars ran off the track and upset. There were a number of passengers on board, and the accident pro­duced great consternation and screaming among the women...". It was also pointed out that "a gentleman, whose name we have not learned, was insensible for some time ...".

III. The first fatalities reported were in a train wreck that happened three years later, on October 3, 1872. In the Oct­ober 5th Jeffersonian was the report that; "On Thursday morning, about 2 a.m., the connecting train with the Cincinnati Express was hurled from the track at Hibbard's Embankment on the Pennsylvania Railroad near Garrett's Siding, and about two miles above the West Chester intersection (now Malvern), and two men, the engineer and fireman, were instantly killed." "The cause of the accident", it was reported, "was that some person or persons had unbolted the coupling plain fast­ening two rails, one on either side of the track, while the outer rail was also divested of its spikes and pushed out of place probably ten or twelve inches in the direction of the declevity.

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The other rail on the opposite side was raised to an elevation of perhaps eight inches by means of a strong block, as with this preparation a serious accident was inevitable." (It should also be noted that in this same issue of the Journal it was reported that "sometime during the night" of the preceding September 17th, the tracks in the same area had been tampered with, presumably in anticipation of the passage over them the next day of a train which Horace Greeley, the Liberal Democrat candidate for President of the United States, was expected to be a passenger, but that "during the morning" after daylight the affected part was discovered by some of the road hands and the repairs were made at once,"preventing any accident".)

Concerning the persons who caused the accident, the Jeff­ersonian pointed out;

"During the day visitors in numbers gathered at the scene, and with horrified countenances heard the sad story from those who had become cognizant with the facts relating thereto. But to the questions: who was instrumental; where is the friend who influenced the catastrophe?" answers were not attempted, for seemingly no one knew.... "Thought we, as we heard the various surmises as to what would lead anyone to the act, perhaps in this very assemblage the guilty wretches may be cunningly listening to the expressions of regret and ven­gence coupled with the event. But these were merely conjections of a few and who by, and for what cause, the cowardly deed was committed, the question is as yet unanswered."

Two weeks later, it was reported;

"It will be remembered by all who read the account of the terrible affair, that the engine, tender and two express cars were hurled down the enbankment; and the engineer and fireman, named respectively Keller and Kline, were instantly killed, while the passenger cars remained upon the track uninjured. (which contained $27,000 in specie among the valuables), whose duties are never to quit their posts while on the train, were seated in another car at the time of the Catastrophe, and there­by no doubt saved their lives. The rumor now is current that these two agents have been placed under arrest by the Railroad Company, upon suspicion of being implicated in the plot of wholesale murder in the attempt to send the whole train over the embankment and into the dark canyon below..."

While the Jeffersonion reported "we confess we are inclin­ed to attach considerable weight to a goodly part" of these rumors, unfortunately my research was too limited to decide whether they really had any substance.

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Similar rumors of sabotage were heard briefly follow­ing another railroad accident 87 years later in the same general area. On April 14, 1959, it was reported in the West Chester Daily Local News that:

"All four tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Main Line, 4 1/2 miles west of Paoli, are blocked this morning by a wreckage of a derailed freight train and express passenger train... The freight train, eastbound, derailed when a driving wheel on the second of two locomotives pulling the 44-car freight locked...(and) the Pittsburgh Night Express, a 16 car passenger train, side-swiped the derailed train as it swept west..."

"The first ten cars of the (passenger) train," it was reported,"all baggage and express cars, jumped the tracks and rolled down an embankment. Eighteen of the freight cars were derailed, 3,000 feet of track were torn up and wreckage, including the contents of some of the freight cars, were strewn over a 1,200 yard area. Television sets, rolls of wire fencing, cases of solvent, and cases of canned pork and beans were thrown from the cars as they hit the rails and split open..."

The situation that gave rise to the rumors was revealed the next day, when it was reported that two auxiliary police officers "had an unusual assignment on the night of the two-train derailment," when they "were ordered to guard a strongbox on one of the freight cars while the guard who had been riding the train was sent for treatment of minor injuries."

"According to Police Chief William Eason," the report states, " he approached the injured man and told him he should get medical attention, but the man refused to leave the strong-box without protection. Eason said that when he asked the contents of the box, the guard said it contained $2 million in freshly printed bills..."

It was also discovered, twelve days later, that a painting and a drawing by Henri Toulouse-Lautree, being shipped by Railway Express from Philadelphia Museum of Art for display in the Los Angeles Art Museum, were on the passenger train involved in the wreck.

Total costs of this wreck, incidentally, were estimated at between one and one and a half million dollars by railroad spokesmen.

Perhaps the most spectacular wreck in the area, and certainly one of the most unusual in its cause, was one which occurred on August 23, 1888. From the West Chester Local is taken this report:

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"A disastrous freight wreck took place between two and three o'clock this morning on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, between Devon and Stratford. It appears that a heavily loaded freight train, bound east, while on the grade west of Devon and running at a high rate of speed, was divided by a coupling break. At the end of the grade, the engineer slackened the speed of his engine to await the arrival of the detached por­tion, which came thundering down the grade and plunged into the forward section, completely demolishing fifteen cars loaded with various articles and strewing the debris over the four tracks, blocking them completely. On the rear section there were two oil tanks filled with petroleum, and when the crash came the tanks were broken and the oil took fire from the sparks caused by the iron work of the cars crashing together..."

In other words the train ran into itself;

In a subsequent account of the accident, it was reported that;

"The trainmen jumped from the train uninjured, and stood aghast at the fearful wreck, along which the flames were run­ing like a prairie fire. There was no explosion of the oil,but flames leaped forty feet into the sky, and soon the sky was lurid with their glare. In a short time thirteen cars were enveloped in flames, and the engineer and trainmen had succeeded in detaching the forward cars from the burning mass... For four hours," the account oontinues, "the cars and their freight fiercely burned, and for two hundred yards the tracks were red with burning coke and blazing oil. Blazing barrels ran down the bank and crashed through fences into fields of corn. So intense was the heat that no one dared go near the burning cars, and the wrecking crew, which had come up from Paoli, after dragging the uninjured cars a safe distance, had to stand idly by and see $150,000 worth of property go up in fire and smoke, the sparks of which threatened to fire the Devon feed warehouse... For the whole length of the fire the ties were burned to ashes and the rails melted and twisted beyond repair ..."

The only two casualties, fortunately, were two, or five, tramps, who were stealing a ride in one of the cars with the oil tanks. The other three, "with a wild shriek, jumped from the oar and immediately disappeared."

As an aftermath, it was reported that "hereafter all freight trains will be compelled to run over the grade at a reduced speed to avoid a repetition of the accident."

V. Nevertheless, less, than three years later, on Easter morning in 1891, an eastbound passenger train, running late and apparently trying to make up time, had an accident in the same area. As reported in the West Chester Local for March 30,1891:

"One of the most extensive and costly passenger train wrecks which have occurred in a long time on the PRR happened at Devon Easter Sunday morning, yet withal it was one of the most fortunate, for with many sleeping passengers on board only two were slightly injured..."

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Entering into a straight section of track after "dashing" around a curve a short distance west of the Devon station, four cars left the tracks and turned on their sides. "Did they tumble down the high embankment to a depth of 35 feet, break and smash the handsome cars and kill and maim the sleeping passengers?" the report asks; and then answers,"No, but two feet further over and nothing could have stopped such a catastrophe. There they lay on the brink with scarcely a foot of ground between them and the incline... Men, women and children broke window glass not already shattered, gathered what they could in the way of wearing ap­parel and valuables, and climed out into the cool Easter morning."

The cause of the wreck was said to have been "the softness of the ties at the curve," and the fact that some of the spikes had been withdrawn in the process of laying new rails.

Two other wrecks, both freight wrecks, also occurred along the tracks in the upper Main Line area in 1891.

The first occurred on the morning of January 29 near the Green Tree Station between Malvern and Paoli, and was again described as "very fortunate in its results." According to the West Chester Local for that day: "It was what railroad men called a run-in'. One freight train ran into another, both eastbound, causing a wreckage of cars and engines. Then a westbound train approached, and before warning could be given it, had run into the wreck, and its engine and some of its cars were added to the debris. About eighteen wrecked cars were piled up on the tracks..." "No one was killed", it was reported, "but three brakemen, whose names were not learned, sustained injuries which it is thought will prove not serious..."

The other accident that year happened on November 14 at the Strafford station when the engine of an eastbound freight, "running at a lively rate of speed", lost the track and overturned when a "frog" broke. The fireman saved his life by jumping, but the engineer was crushed under the heavy locomotive.

About seven months later, on June 21, 1892, there was another freight wreck just west of the Strafford station,' which was reported in the West Chester Local the next day, with the wry observation in the headline,"That Two Trains Cannot Pass on the Same Track Again Illustrated." In this case, a freight train had been stopped at Strafford by a local freight at Wayne. A flagman was sent back and had sig­naled the engine of another ensuing train, but not in time to avoid a collision." "The force of the collision", the Local reported, "was well illustrated", says a gentleman who viewed the wreck. "The caboose of the forward train was hurled into the air many feet and, falling, alighted upon the cab of the engine (of the second train), having passed entirely over the boiler.

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Both it and the cab were smashed to splinters,..." Fortunately, both the engineer and fireman of the second train, had, "seeing that a collision was inevitable, jumped from their jobs."

VI. The year 1893 also saw three railroad accidents along this section of the Main Line.

The first occurred on May 3, 1893, the West Chester Local reporting that there was "another wreck on the main line of the PRR, this time at Sugartown Bridge between Malvern and Frazer" It was another "run-in", with another light train running at high speed overtaking and running into a slower heavy freight. "Before the engineer could bring it to a standstill", it was reported, "it had crashed the rear end, demolishing the ca­boose and two freight cars (while) the engine of the rear train was also badly damaged."

The second accident, also involving a freight train, happened at Green Tree, and was reported on October 7.

The third wreck involved a passenger train at Paoli on December 18, an axle on a passenger coach breaking and caus­ing "a general Shaking up." By an unusual twist of fate, one of the passengers injured in the accident was also involved in a wreck that had occurred only several hours earlier on the same day at the Broad Street Station in Philadelphia.

Fifteen months later, on February 9, 1895, another wreck involving a passenger train and a fast mail train occurred at Paoli. According to the newspaper account:

"A train which had been standing on the side track had just pulled out into the main track, when a fast mail came thundering along, it being drawn by two hog engines. The trainmen saw the danger only too late to prevent a collision... Both engines were badly broken, as were also the cars... Fortunately",the newspaper reported, "no one was injured..."

VII. Probably the worst and most tragic rail disaster in this area, at least in terms of lives and injuries, occurred on September 25, 1905, also at the Paoli Station. This report is from the Philadelphia Record of the next day: "Running at the rate of 50 miles an hour" in an effort to regain lost time, the express train from St. Louis bound to New York, and due in this city at 3:22 p.m., yesterday afternoon crashed into the rear of a local train standing at Paoli, killing four men instantly and injuring 20 others, one of them so seriously that he died shortly after being admitted to University Hospital." "All of the dead were in private car No. 30 of General Manager W.W. Atterbury, which was attached to the Paoli local train preparatory to being run a trial trip to this City.

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All the dead were employees of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who were on the car supervising and inspecting the various parts of the run..."

Ironically, it was the General Manager's private car, which itself was valued at $30,000, and which "had been overhauled and costly and magnificent appointments...added" that was indirectly the cause of the accident. The report notes that "When the enginer of the local train halted at Paoli station, he did not take into account the fact that his train was unusually long because of the addition of Mr. Atterbury's special car. The wheels of the rear truck of this car, resting on the switch, prevented it from closing, thus making what is known as an 'open switch' from track No. 2 to track No. 1..." While the second of two switch towers "showed the red danger signal", the distance between it and the preceding signal towers "is so short... that the enginer was unable to bring his train to a halt". It was also reported that one of the towermen "blew the emergency whistle twice in succession, but even this warning was too late to save the doomed passengers". "The two trains met about 200 feet west of the Paoli road bridge over the railroad..." the report continues, "passengers in the station who were about to board the local train shrieked in horror as they saw the heavy engine smash the rear cars as so much glass. A rain of broken glass and flying splinters fell upon the platform, some of it flying as high as the bridge under which the trains came together. "The impact of the collision was so great that the entire local train was driven forward upon the tracks for a distance of about 300 feet before the impetus of the heavy express train and the big locomotive were overcome..."

In commenting on the disaster and its causes, the Record editorialized "that the system of handling trains at this point is not ideal is emphasized by the fact that the Pennsylvania Railroad Company is now constructing a tunnel at Paoli which will make it unnecessary for trains leaving the Paoli yards to cross over the express tracks in order to pass onto the eastbound tracks." But it came too late.

VIII. Fortunately, by comparison, the train wrecks in this area during the next half-century seem almost anti-climactic, although the dollar loss in the wreck in April 1959, west of Malvern, as already commented upon, was considerable.

On June 6, 1917 it was reported in the West Chester Local News that "Thirty-eight freight cars were piled up in a wreck... near Devon."

On April 7, 1948, local commuter service was stalled and traffic delayed for five hours when three tank cars "left the rails in the neighborhood of the Walter C. Eves residence" just east of the Paoli station, blocking all four tracks."

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According to the account in the Upper Main Line News: "The wreck occurred about 6.30 a.m. as the enginer of a 92-car train westbound from Camden to Harrisburg was recoupling his train after cutting out a hot-box car at Paoli station. As he backed into the string, the 21st car buckled and left the rails, taking with it the 20th and 22nd cars..."

There was also a minor wreck on February 1, 1950 when a center broke out of a wheel on the last car of a Paoli local 500 yards east of the Berwyn passenger station. The train­men were reported, in the Upper Main Line News, to have known nothing of the break until the train "went bouncing into the station."

The most recent wreck in this area was shortly after midnight on April 27, 1962 between Paoli and Daylesford, in­volving an eastbound freight train on its way to Camden from Pittsburgh. As reported in the West Chester Daily Local News of that date: "Some 12,000 commuters were affected this morning when all four main line tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Paoli were out of service as the result of a 77 car freight train derailment last night at 12.33, which spilled 22 cars in all directions. An overheated journal on the 22nd car of the train caused the derailment... and the tangled mess of cars just across from Twaddell's Diner on Rt. 30..." Of the 22 cars derailed, 14 were loaded with plywood, auto parts, and mineral oil. 12 of these were tank cars, 5 of which were loaded, four with oil and one with ammonia..." While the local fire companies, on arrival, quickly put out "four blazes along the rails and under the carriages of the cars," as well as another fire which broke out later, the nature of the train's contents raised a fear of possible ex­plosion. "Because of possible fire or blast danger", it was reported in the Local's account, "from a car filled with nitrate, families along Russell Road and Maple Avenue, up to Rt. 202 on the north side of the tracks, were evacuated from their homes for several hours until the danger was past... Explosive experts from the Pennsylvania Railroad were also at the scene (when) removal operations got underway..."

IX. No claim is made that this is a complete summary of railroad wrecks in this area; there were undoubtedly others. In fact I have a vague boyhood memory of a wreck between Malvern and Frazer that is not included, a recollection reinforced by the fact that one of the watchmen invited boys and girls viewing the scene to climb up and reach out a hand­ful of gumdrops from one of the overturned boxcars. It could have been in 1925 to 1928 as I recall. Maybe some one can find a record of it and add it to this report.

And, to put this all into perspective, we should not forget that more than a few trains have also passed through this section without wreck or mishap.