1871 — Feb 6, express train hits derailed freight, Wappinger’s Creek ~New Hamburg, NY–21
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 12-4-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–22 Railroad Stories. “February in Rail History,” February 1936, p. 57.
–21 Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. Notes on Railroad Accidents. 1879.
–21 Brockport Republic, NY. “Great Railroad Disaster.” 2-9-1871, p. 4.
–21 MA Board of RR Commissioners. “Accidents…,” Third An. Rpt., Is. 9, Pt. 2, 1872, cxxiv.
–21 Willsey and Lewis. “Memorable Railroad Accidents,” Harper’s Book of Facts. 1895, p674.
Narrative Information
Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. Notes on Railroad Accidents. 1879:
“A catastrophe strikingly similar to that at Abergele an express train on the Hudson River railroad, upon the night of the 6th of February, 1871. The weather for a number of days preceding the accident had been unusually cold, and it is to the suffering of employes incident to exposure, and the consequent neglect of precautions on their part, that accidents are peculiarly due. On this night a freight train was going south, all those in charge of which were sheltering themselves during a steady run in the caboose car at its rear end.
“Suddenly, when near a bridge over Wappinger’s Creek, not far from New Hamburg, they discovered that a car in the centre of the train was off the track. The train was finally stopped on the bridge, but in stopping it other cars were also derailed, and one of these, bearing on it two large oil tanks, finally rested obliquely across the bridge with one end projecting over the up track. Hardly had the disabled train been brought to a stand-still, when, before signal lanterns could in the confusion incident to the disaster be sent out, the Pacific express from New York, which was a little behind its time, came rapidly along. As it approached the bridge, its engineer saw a lantern swung, and instantly gave the signal to apply the brakes. It was too late to avoid the collision…
“Dante himself could not have imagined a greater complication of horrors than then ensued : liquid fire and solid frost combined to make the work of destruction perfect. The shock of the collision broke in pieces the oil car, igniting its contents and flinging them about in every direction. In an instant bridge, river, locomotive, cars, and the glittering surface of the ice were wrapped in a sheet of flame. At the same time the strain proved too severe for the trestlework, which gave way, precipitating the locomotive, tender, baggage cars, and one passenger car onto the ice, through which they instantly crushed and sank deep out of sight beneath the water. Of the remaining seven cars of the passenger train, two, besides several of the freight train, were destroyed by fire, and shortly, as the supports of the remaining portions of the bridge burned away, the superstructure fell on the half-submerged cars in the water and buried them from view.
“Twenty-one persons lost their lives in this disaster, and a large number of others were injured ; but the loss of life, it will be noticed, was only two-thirds of that at Abergele. The New Hamburg catastrophe also differed from that at Abergele in that, under its particular circumstances, it was far more preventable, and, indeed, with the appliances since brought into use it would surely be avoided. The modern train-brake had, however, not then been perfected, so that even the hundred rods at which the signal was seen did not afford a sufficient space in which to stop the train.” (Adams 1879, pp. 78-81)
“Rarely has any catastrophe merited a more careful investigation, and few indeed have ever called forth more ill-considered criticism or crude suggestions. Almost nothing of interest respecting it was elicited at the inquest, and now no reliable criticism can be ventured upon it. ‘The question of responsibility in that case, and of prevention thereafter, involved careful inquiry into at least four subjects: — First, the ownership and condition of the freight car, the fractured axle of which occasioned the disaster, together with the precautions taken by the company, usually and in this particular case, to test the wheels of freight cars moving over its road, especially during times of severe cold. — Second, the conduct of those in charge of the freight train immediately preceding and at the time of the accident; was the fracture of the axle at once noticed and were measures taken to stop the train, or was the derailment aggravated by neglect into the form it finally took? — Third, was there any neglect in signaling the accident on the part of those in charge of the disabled train, and how much time elapsed between the accident and the collision? — Fourth, what, if any, improved appliances would have enabled those in charge of either train to, have averted the accident? — and what, if any, defects either in the rules or the equipment in use were revealed?
“No satisfactory conclusion can now be arrived at upon any of these points, though the probabilities are that with the appliances since introduced the train might have been stopped in time. In this case…the coroner’s jury returned a verdict exonerating everyone concerned from responsibility, and very possibly they were justified in so doing…There is a strong probability that the investigation went off, so to speak, on a wholly false issue…turned on the draw-bridge frenzy instead of upon the question of care. So far as the verdict declared that the disaster was due to a collision between a passenger train and a derailed oil car, and not to the existence of a draw in the bridge on which it happened to occur, it was, indeed entitled to respect, and yet it was on this very point that it excited the most criticism. Loud commendation was heard through the press of the Connecticut law, which had been in force for twenty years, and, indeed, still is in force there, under which all trains are compelled to come to a full stop before entering on any bridge which has a draw in it,—a law which may best be described as a useless nuisance. Yet the grand jury of the Court of Oyer and Terminer of New York city even went so far as to recommend, in a report made by it on the 23d of February, 1871 – sixteen days after the accident – the passage by the legislature then in session at Albany of a similar legal absurdity. Fortunately better counsels prevailed, and, as the public recovered its equilibrium, the matter was allowed to drop.” (Adams 1879, 88-89.)
Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners: “February 6th, 1871. A night express train on the N.Y. Central & Hudson River road was thrown from the track on a bridge near New Hamburg by collision with an oil car. The locomotive and one or two cars were precipitated through the ice and others set on fire. Twenty-one persons were killed and a large number injured.” (MA Board of RR Commissioners, 1872, cxxiv.)
Railroad Stories: February 6, 1871. “Pacific Express on Hudson River, R.R. collides with derailed oil car at bridge over Wappinger’s Creek near New Hamburg, N.Y., wrecking passenger and freight trains, exploding oil tanks and destroying bridge; 22 killed, many injured.” (Railroad Stories. “February in Rail History,” February 1936, p. 57.)
Newspaper
Feb 9, Brockport Republic, NY: “….The Latest. The following is the latest news from the scene of the great disaster. All the bodies found have been identified. There are nineteen of them, as follows: [We take the names out of paragraph and place into separate lines.]
George S. Benedict, Cleveland;
- Gillett, Buffalo;
Arthur W. Pease and wife, Buffalo;
Lucius A. Root, Buffalo;
- Germaine;
Rev, Morrel Fowler, wife and three children;
Dr. Samuel J. G. Nancreede;
Robert Vosburgh, porter of the Wagner car;
James Stafford, New York;
- U. Forbush, Buffalo;
- R. Thompson, New York;
Peter Vosburgh, sleeping car conductor;
- M. Currey, Erie County, Pa.;
- H. Lowell, New York
“Two more bodies are to be recovered, that of Simmons, the engineer, and Lawrence Mooney, the brakeman, which makes twenty-one victims in all.” (Brockport Republic, NY. “Great Railroad Disaster.” 2-9-1871, p. 4.)
Sources
Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. Notes on Railroad Accidents. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1879, 300 pages. Accessed at: http://www.archive.org/details/notesonrailroada00adamrich
Brockport Republic, NY. “Great Railroad Disaster.” 2-9-1871, p. 4. Accessed 12-5-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/brockport-republic-feb-09-1871-p-7/
Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners. Third Annual Report, Issue. 9, Part 2, Jan 1872. Boston: Wright & Potter, State Printers. Digitized by Google. Accessed 9-4-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=VVIaAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Railroad Stories. “February in Rail History,” February 1936, pp. 56-59.
Willsey, Joseph H. (Compiler), Charlton T. Lewis (Editor). Harper’s Book of Facts: A Classified History of the World. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1895. Accessed 9-4-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=UcwGAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false