3 Killed When Buffalo Flyer Crashes Near Watsontown, 1941

 

A truck hauling a large steam shovel, a freight train, and a Buffalo Flyer

Two separate crashes minutes apart, in Watsontown Pa.

On August 1st 1941, a tractor trailer truck, hauling a large steam shovel, stalled on the tracks at Watsontown near the brick factory.  An oncoming freight train hit the cab of the truck, the cab burst into flames, enveloping the locomotive like a torch, traveling 200 yards before the debris dropped onto the adjoining track.

And then the Buffalo Flyer came from Milton, hitting the debris on the track, and plunging the engine down the embankment.

"Three Pennsylvania Railroad men were carried to death when the locomotive of the west bound Buffalo Flyer was catapulted from track on sideswiping debris of a wrecked truck a mile below Watsontown at 1:20 o'clock" [August 1st 1941]

Fredrick Weaver, on August 1st 1941, needed to deliver a big power shovel from the quarry at Turbotville to a quarry near Milton.   The Eck Brothers of Montoursville had a tractor trailer that could haul the shovel. Weaver, along with a crew including the Eck's had come via the McEwensville - Watsontown road, to avoid a bridge at Pioneer, above Watsontown, which  was too light for the equipment to cross. Weaver stated that he was attempting to make a turn at the public crossing at the brick plant, when the wheels got between rails, stalling the tractor on the east bound track, directly ahead of freight train, CSB-8, from Altoona to Wilkes-Barre.

" We came over the road from McEwensville, a back route, to avoid bridges. When I drove on the tracks the wheels got down between the rails and I could not get forward or back. I tried to flag the train, and it slowed up but did not stop. It hit the cab and ripped it loose from the trailer with the power shovel. " Weaver recounted.

A crew of men along with Weaver knew the freight train was close by.  The train had slowed  to go on a side track to allow the Flyer to pass.  They ran to the train, attempting to  flag it down but it was too late. As the freight train slammed into the truck, the truck burst into flames and  the cab was sheared off by the impact.  The engine carried the cab 200 yards before it broke loose and fell onto the adjoining track.

"The cab burst into flames, which enveloped locomotive like a torch as it went down the track. "

And then the second crash occurred.

"Coming from the direction of Milton we could see a passenger train. It was too close to stop, but it was slowing down brakes grinding as it came up the track. "

The freight train fireman and brakeman saw the Buffalo Flyer passenger train approaching, and attempted to back the freight train away from the wreckage.  They waved their lanterns in a vain attempt to halt the Flyer, but they were too late.  

 O. A. Long, of Tyrone, freight fireman, stated that freight was too close to stop when the trailer was first seen:

"I ran back to get out Murphy, who was in compartment in the rear of the tender. "We could see the passenger train coming up the track, and as we slowed down Murphy and I got off and ran ahead to flag it. They must have seen it, however, on account of the burning gasoline over the truck and the freight locomotive."

The  passenger train collided with  the wreckage on the track, with an impact was heard throughout Watsontown. 

"The truck cab extended out from the freight locomotive in such a way as to act like a wedge, shoving the passenger engine off the track and down into a road and pit at the brick plant.  A cloud of steam arose from the fallen engine, in which were the men operating it."

The engine plunged down the six-foot embankment, taking the coal tender with it. Three baggage cars were also pulled from the tracks but remained upright. As the train came to a halt, the passenger cars were jolted and the riders were unseated.  Several of the cars were knocked up against the brick works, while the mail coach lay to the north of the tracks against a telephone pole. 

Slavey, an eye-witness, told of seeing the accident from his bedroom window., "It was spectacular to big locomotive, like a gigantic torch, moving down the track, and then the passenger train coming up and its engine toppling into the pit."

The road foreman of engines, the engineer and fireman, trapped in the locomotive were instantly killed. Their bodies were enveloped in steam escaping from the boiler.

"Three Pennsylvania railroad employees, including two from Sunbury, were killed and 175 passengers on a west-bound passenger train were shaken up when the 12-car "Buffalo Flyer" and a freight train crashed on the Pennsylvania railroad one mile east of Watsontown near the Watsontown Brick Co. plant this morning at 1:10 o'clock."

The dead were: C.K. Shaibley of Williamsport, foreman; Frank E. Snyder of Sunbury, Engineer; Mr. McHenry, Fireman, of Sunbury.

The call went out and the Watsontown Fire Department responded. Pumping water from the nearby creek, the fireman battled the blaze. It was a long time before the wreckage cooled sufficiently for the fireman to extract the remains.

Emergency units were summoned from Milton, Sunbury, and Williamsport to help clear the debris from the track, and help transfer some of the cars. The trailer truck was totally demolished.

Railroad officials ordered wrecking crews from Sunbury, Northumberland, and Renovo to the scene. More than 100 workers came. Two steam shovels and cranes were used to remove the debris and lay new rails and ties. PP&L were called to help with providing light for workers. The Reading Company transferred passengers, and the undamaged section of the train was sent to Williamsport.

Temporary communication lines were set up near the scene shortly before 4 o'clock, while Pennsylvania State Motor Policemen from the Milton barracks were checking up on the ownership, and operator of the Highway truck.

It was reported that the entire population of Watsontown arrived to view the scene. The onlookers "numbered into the thousands".

 Deputy Coroner L. R. Townsend, Milton, released the bodies of the three into the custody of the railroad 'company. All three man Snyder, Shaibley, 'and McHenry were well-known to railroad men in this vicinity

A hearing on the 21st placed blame on the Eck Brothers of Montoursville, the operators of the tractor trailer truck hauling the steam shovel.  The Eck Brothers had not obtained a PUC certificate. 

"Are the lives of 180 people to be jeopardized simply because you did not bother to notify the railroad you would cross their tracks near the Watsontown Brick Company?"  

The Eck brothers maintained that they were not engaged in regular truck hauling, only using the big tractor trailer only for hauling their own equipment, renting it out to others on a contract basis.

Witnesses were called to testify as to how long the truck was on the track before the freight train arrived.  Their accounts varied greatly:

Stanley Slavely - an hour before the crash
Clarence Kurtz - 20 minutes
Mrs Charles Eschu - 15 minutes
Eck - 3 minutes.

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