On September 6, 1943, 79 were killed in a trainwreck in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Congressional Limited, touted as being able to make the run from Washington, D.C. to New York City in 3 1/2 hours had flames burst out from one of the cars' hot box which caused the axle to snap and the train went off the tracks.
As you would expect during wartime, there were about 200 servicemen aboard the train. Seventy-nine passengers from two of the cars were killed and another 117 injured.
--GreGen
My Cooter's History Blog has become about 80% World War II anyway, so I figured to start a blog specific to it, especially since we're commemorating its 70th anniversary and we are quickly losing this "Greatest Generation." The quote is taken from Pearl Harbor survivor Frank Curre, who was on the USS Tennessee that day. He died Dec. 7, 2011, seventy years to the day. His photo is below at right.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Another Deadly Trainwreck Took Place Just Over Three Months Earlier
Labels:
disasters,
homefront,
Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia,
trains
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