1865 – Aug 16, passenger train rear-ended by locomotive, boiler bursts ~Bridgeport CT–11
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 12-5-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 11 Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. Notes on Railroad Accidents. 1879, p. 152.
— 11 MA Board of RR Commissioners. “Accidents…,” Third An. Rpt., Is. 9, Pt. 2, 1872, cxxv.
— 11 Railroad Stories. “August in Railroad History,” August 1935, pp. 66.
— 11 Trumbull, CT. Historical Society. “Trumbull, Connecticut, U.S.A. Early Transportation.”
— 11 Willsey and Lewis. “Memorable Railroad Accidents,” Harper’s Book of Facts. 1895, 674.
— 10 NYT. “The Housatonic Disaster. Verdict of the Jury of Inquest,” Aug 22, 1865, 1.
Narrative Information
Adams: “…16th of August, 1865, upon the Housatonic road of Connecticut. A new engine was out upon an experimental trip, and in rounding a curve it ran into the rear of a passenger train, which, having encountered a disabled freight train, had coupled on to it and was then backing down with it to a siding in order to get by. In this case the impetus was so great that the colliding locomotive utterly destroyed the rear car of the passenger train and penetrated some distance into the car preceding it, where its boiler burst. Fortunately the train was by no means full of passengers; but, even as it was, eleven persons were killed and some seventeen badly injured.”
(Adams 1879, pp. 151-152)
MA Board of RR Commissioners: An “…accident took place on the Housatonic road on August 16, 1865…A new engine out on an experimental trip ran into the rear of a passenger train which was at the time backing towards it. In this case the colliding locomotive ran wholly through the rear car and into the one next to it, where its boiler burst. Eleven persons were killed, and some seventeen badly injured by crushing, scalding etc.” (Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners. “Accidents…,” Third Annual Rpt., Is.9, Pt.2, 1872, p. cxxv.)
Railroad Stories: August 16, 1865 – “New engine making trial run on Housatonic R.R. (now part of the New Haven) in Conn. Rounds curve and crashes into passenger train towing a disabled freight. Locomotive boiler bursts; 11 killed, 17 injured.” (Railroad Stories. “August in Railroad History,” August 1935, pp. 66.)
Trumbull Historical Society: “In an 1865 wreck, eleven persons died and another 27 were injured when a passenger train heading to Pittsfield Massachusetts came upon a disabled freight just North of Trumbull Center. The engineer then decided to back the train back to the Bridgeport depot when it collided with locomotive “Fairfield” on its first trial run. This normally unscheduled train had departed the Bridgeport depot only fifteen minutes after the Pittsfield bound passenger train.” (Trumbull CT Historical Society)
Newspaper
Aug 22, New York Times: “A Coroner’s jury has been found which has had the moral courage to decide that railroad officials were guilty of neglect in the case of the disaster on the Housatonic railroad. “In consequence,” says the verdict, “of the careless neglect of simple precaution by these officers and employees of the road, ten human lives have been sacrificed. We, the undersigned jurors, having considered the evidence given to us, do on our oaths say that…[ten names] came to their deaths from a collision on the Housatonic Railroad on the 15th of August, 1865, between a passenger train and the locomotive Fairfield, which collision occurred in consequence of the culpable negligence and want of proper care and caution on the part of Charles Hunt President and Superintendent, Henry S. Plumb, conductor, Andrew Winslow, master mechanic and Edward R. Lyman, engineer of said railroad.”
“Now, if the laws of Connecticut provide any penalty for such wholesale killing as this, the verdict of another jury may, perhaps be obtained, which will visit these officials with adequate punishment for this murder.” (NYT. “The Housatonic Disaster. Verdict of the Jury of Inquest,” Aug 22, 1865, 1.)
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
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
New York Times. “The Housatonic Disaster. Verdict of the Jury of Inquest,” Aug 22, 1865, p. 1. At: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=940DE7D6123EEE34BC4A51DFBE66838E679FDE
Railroad Stories. “August in Railroad History,” August 1935, pp. 63-67.
Trumbull, Connecticut Historical Society. “Trumbull, Connecticut, U.S.A. Early Transportation.” Accessed 12-23-2009 at: http://www.trumbullhistory.org/transprt/
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