| Woodbridge train derailment | |
| Coordinates: | 40.5518°N -74.2764°W |
| Date: | February 6, 1951 |
| Time: | 5:43 pm |
| Location: | Woodbridge, New Jersey |
| Country: | United States |
| Line: | North Jersey Coast Line |
| Operator: | Pennsylvania Railroad |
| Type: | Derailment at diversion |
| Cause: | Excessive speed |
| Trains: | 1 |
| Deaths: | 85 |
| Injuries: | ~500 |
On February 6, 1951, a Pennsylvania Railroad train derailed on a temporary wooden trestle in Woodbridge, New Jersey, United States, killing 85 passengers. It remains New Jersey's deadliest train wreck, the deadliest U.S. derailment since 1918 and the deadliest peacetime rail disaster in the U.S. history.[1]
Around 5:00 pm. on Tuesday, February 6, 1951, Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) Train No. 733, nicknamed "The Broker", left Exchange Place in Jersey City. An express train to Bay Head via the North Jersey Coast Line, No. 733 was crowded that day due to a labor strike on the nearby Jersey Central Railroad. It carried over 1,000 passengers[2] in eleven cars drawn by PRR K4 4-6-2 steam locomotive No. 2445.[3]
That afternoon, rail traffic through Woodbridge was being diverted onto a temporary wooden trestle and a shoofly near Fulton Street, allowing laborers building the New Jersey Turnpike to work on the main line. A notice had gone out to train engineers in late January: after 1:01 pm. on February 6, they were to proceed through Woodbridge not at the normal 60mph but at 25mph.[4] However, the PRR at the time did not require any signal to be in place to warn approaching trains about the diversion, believing the verbal notification to be sufficient.[2]
Before "The Broker" left Jersey City, conductor John Bishop reminded engineman (that is the Pennsylvania Railroad's referring for engineer) Joseph Fitzsimmons about the speed restriction. It was not the railroad's practice to install warning lights in such cases, and Fitzsimmons failed to slow the train as it approached Woodbridge. Bishop, alarmed at the train's speed, tried to pull the emergency cord, but the crush of passengers made this impossible.[2]
The train was traveling faster than 50mph when it reached the curve approaching the trestle, according to a subsequent inquiry. At 5:43 pm, the tracks, which were not secured to sleepers but resting in shallow grooves on the top of the trestle, shifted under the massive locomotive, and eight of the train's eleven passenger cars derailed. The first two cars fell on their sides. The third and fourth cars crashed into each other as they hurtled down a 26adj=midNaNadj=mid embankment. It was in these two cars that most of the 85 deaths occurred. The fifth and sixth cars were left hanging in mid-air over a street that glistened from rain. Some passengers may have jumped to their deaths, believing they would land in water.
The accident occurred in a heavily populated area, so help soon arrived. Neighbors opened their houses and businesses to those in need. The critically injured were taken to nearby hospitals.[2] [5]
Although Fitzsimmons initially claimed that he had been traveling at only 25mph, the inquiry estimated that "The Broker"s speed was between 50mph60mph. The report concluded that the wreck was caused by "excessive speed on a curve of a temporary track". Fitzsimmons continued working for the PRR, but never operated a train again.[2]
Near the derailment site, the victims are memorialized by a pair of historical markers, installed by New Jersey Transit in 2002 and by Woodbridge Township in 2013.[6] [7]
In the prologue to his 1976 novel Slapstick, Kurt Vonnegut references the death of his brother-in-law, James Carmalt Adams, killed in the derailment of "The Brokers' Special", but Adams died in the 1958 Newark Bay rail accident.[8]
