Crime & Safety
From the FWFC: Fort Washington’s Other Great Train Wreck
The wreck of 1956 was one of the FWFC most interesting responses.
The following was written by Denny Zwecker for the Fort Washington Fire Company newsletter, and shared with Upper Dublin Patch to maximize public notice. To view and subscribe to the fire company's monthly newsletter, click here.
Many residents have heard stories of the train wreck that occurred near Fort Washington on July 17, 1856, when the "picnic special" collided with the southbound train head on, between Fort Washington station and Camp Hill station (the now defunct Fellwick flag stop) where 59 people were killed. But few people are aware of the spectacular train wreck and bridge collapse that occurred almost exactly 100 years later (over 50 years ago next month) at almost the same exact location.
It was late Saturday afternoon in July, 1956 when the 77 car freight train rumbled onto the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge just north of the old Fellwick station. Over half the train had proceeded over the 150 foot steel trestle when the 60th freight car derailed just before reaching the bridge. This caused six rail cars to pile up on the west end of the bridge.
Damaged and no longer able to sustain the enormous weight of the rail cars, the west end of the trestle collapsed into the creek and onto the Reading Railroad commuter lines below, taking 11 freight cars with it. Luckily, the Reading lines were clear at the time of the collapse.
As the bridge fell, it took down high tension lines, igniting box cars containing acetylene tanks, drums of naphtha and other combustibles. The fire company, assisted by the Wissahickon Fire Co., set up well-grounded deluge guns and left the tracks until railroad officials confirmed that the power was shutdown.
Multiple explosions were heard throughout the night and both fire companies remained on the scene for over 20 hours. Ironically, while no railroad crew members were injured at the time of the accident, the fire company was called back to the scene the next day to rescue a worker knocked unconscious while removing wreckage.
