| Rockport train wreck | |
|---|---|
| Details | |
| Date | June 16, 1925 |
| Time | 2.25 am |
| Location | Rockport, Mansfield Township, Warren County, near Hackettstown, New Jersey |
| Country | United States |
| Rail line | Lackawanna Old Road |
| Operator | Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad |
| Type of incident | Derailment |
| Cause | Debris on track |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 |
| Passengers | 182 |
| Deaths | 50 |
The Rockport train wreck happened at Rockport, New Jersey in Mansfield Township just outside Hackettstown on June 16, 1925 when a violent storm washed earth and gravel onto a level crossing, derailing a Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad train, killing 50 people.
Contents |
The train concerned was a non-scheduled special train carrying 182 German-Americans travelling from Chicago, Illinois to Bremen in Germany. The train would take them to Hoboken, New Jersey where they would board the transatlantic Pacific steamer to take the rest of the way. The trip was organised every year to allow mid-western Germans to visit their homeland.
The train's comprised locomotive No. 1104 pulling two passenger coaches and five Pullman cars. The train left Chicago mid-morning on 15th June, travelling through Buffalo and Binghamton. At Scranton there was a crew change before the train set off southeast through Moscow, Gouldsboro and Pocono Summit, crossing the Delaware River near the Delaware Water Gap, then travelling east into New Jersey heading for Morristown and on to Hoboken where their ship was waiting.
In a twist of fate, the train, which had originally been scheduled to travel via Blairstown, NJ on the Lackawanna Cut-Off, was re-routed due to heavy freight traffic on the Cut-Off. The towerman at Slateford Junction (near the Delaware Water Gap), who may have been aware that the train was hours ahead of the departure time for the transatlantic portion of the passengers' trip, decided that the special should instead travel over a route called the Old Road, a former mainline, but now a branchline, of the Lackawanna Railroad. What this did was to re-route the train so that it would travel through Washington, NJ and Hackettstown, NJ before rejoining the main line near Lake Hopatcong. Since the accident would occur near Hackettstown, the rerouting of the train off of the Cut-Off and onto the Old Road was the key decision that unwittingly led to the wreck.
On the evening of Monday June 15, a violent thunderstorm hit Hackettstown. A bolt of lightning struck a lumberyard setting it ablaze and lighting the night sky. Despite the efforts of the townspeople the yard was burnt to the ground. The torrential rain associated with the storm was also washing earth and debris down a 300-foot steep grade next to the railroad[1] and onto Rockport Crossing just outside the town. The road had undergone repair earlier in the day and the rain washed the loose debris down the road and onto the railroad crossing. Trains normally pass this section at 70 mph but due to the terrible weather the engineer on No. 1104 had slowed to 50 mph. At 2.25 am the locomotive ploughed into six inches of debris and derailed, coming to rest on its side; the first two passenger cars ended up piled on top of the locomotive. The collision had ripped off all the valves and steam fittings from the boiler, allowing pressurized steam to spray into the cars above, scalding to death those passengers who had survived the initial impact[1]. The New York Times dubbed the first coach as the "Death Car".
Joseph Snyder, a local farmer witnessed the crash and raised the alarm and the citizens and doctors of Hackettstown soon arrived, having had little rest after the earlier fire. They met a scene of intense suffering: very few of the crew and passengers had been killed instantly; in fact, only seven dead were taken from the wreckage[2] and many faced hours of agony before they eventually died. Pillows and sheets from the Pullman cars were used to try and ease the suffering. Snyder recounted "There were men and women and kids all around everywhere, screaming worse than I ever heard"[2].
An investigation found that it had just been an accident with no blame to be apportioned. Today a small garden and a brass plaque mark the site where 50 people died or were fatally injured, 'some from the impact of the crash but most from the inescapable steam'.