Atlantic City, NJ Train Wreck, Aug 1900

Express Again In Peril.

Fast Train Wrecked Last Week Delayed by Accident.

Atlantic City, N.J., Aug. 30.-Ill luck appears lately to follow the Pennsylvania express, leaving this city at 10 o’clock p.m. last Friday night this train, known on week days as No. 48, narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of train wreckers. Last night the same train, run as No. 280 on Sundays, met with an unlooked for accident at nearly the same spot on the meadows where No. 48 ran into a pile of ties Friday night.

The express train left Atlantic City promptly on time, in charge of Conductor Frank Flynn. John Holmes was the engineer, and Andrew Oxman was the fireman. The train consisted of a baggage car, ten ordinary cars, and to parlor cars. All the cars were crowded with excursionists returning home, and there were nearly 800 persons aboard the train.

The express had just crossed the drawbridge spanning the thoroughfare at the western end of the city when the passengers in the fifth and sixth cars were alarmed by the cars running off the track. The train was rapidly increasing its speed at this point, and the jolting of these two coaches over the ties caused the greatest consternation among the passengers. After running in this manner for some yards the truck again mounted the rails, but a minute later they were again plowing their way over the tracks through the ballast.

At this juncture Engineer Holmes realized that something was wrong with the train, and promptly applying the brakes, he brought it to a standstill. The Atlantic City wrecking crew were soon on the scene, in charge of Station Agent Howard Cloud, and after a delay of two hours the train was made up in two sections and sent to Philadelphia while the derailed cars were replaced on the track after several hours of hard work.

New Haven Register, New Haven, CT 20 Aug 1900

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Transcribed by June. Thanks June!