Remembering the Swampscott Wreck of 1956
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- Опубликовано: 25 фев 2016
- A short program hosted by Richard Symmes on the Swampscott train wreck of Feb. 28, 1956 that was produced to air on BevCam (Beverly Community Access Media). The production was put together the week before the 60th anniversary of the crash and features unscripted segments and narration. It is meant to give viewers a basic understanding of the tragedy thus some photos and images do not necessarily correspond with historical fact.
Thanks mr.Symmes - and to all who made this fitting and well done documentation of the "Swampscott Wreck" 60 years ago.
Thanks for this program. My grandfather, Walter D. Allen, was one of those who died, and this is the most complete account of the wreck that I've seen.
Dan Harper I’m so sorry for your loss
Rip
I´m so sorry too. May be it went so fast that mister Walter D. Allen, your grandfather didn´t realize it.
Thanks for your comment, and bring back its name. He is no more an anonymous dead among others.
My mother survived this tragedy as a passenger on the Danvers train. She never rode a train again and rarely talked about it. Now I understand better why. Thank for your producing this thoughtful, historical tribute.
Thank you for this!! I grew up on Norfolk Ave. I was 2 yo & my Brother was 10 yo. who ran up Stetson to see what happened. We wish he hadn't done so. He was traumatized by the blood & body parts. Now I know the details & thank you again for this program. I've been on the Budd train in N.Conway & didn't know until now that it was the same car as the crash right around the corner.
I was 2 years old living in Beverly. My dad spoke of it when I was older.
22:20 I'm a conductor on the commuter rail and everytime I pass this spot, I think about this wreck. I was born 9 years and 6.5 years after the wreck.
The Swampscott Memorial is present at the station today. Its presence prompted me to find and watch this.
Thanks for watching. This RUclips video is a very polished first draft that we updated a few weeks later to correct minor errors and to let views know the memorial was installed back to its rightful place at the depot.
Thank you. This presentation was truly amazing and extremely informative and obviously very sad.
Thank you for this presentation- very well done !! Bless your heart & the victims, their families & the survivors.
I have rode in the Budd RDCs & one of their predessors, the Pennsy "Doodlebugs", as they were lovingly called.
🚬😎
This was an excellent program! I am from Marblehead, and was only a few months older than 3 when this happened, and I wasn't aware of it until I saw the video. I hope it's been shown on cable TV, as people in the area should know about such a sad part of local history.
Thanks. In addition to running on BevCam, it was sent along to the access stations in Bedford and Lynn.
Wow thats crazzy i watch trains here all the time.
Brian O'Leary.
Very accurate remembrance!!!
I was a senior in high school, living in Marblehead near the Swampscott line. I Heard about the initial reports and went to the wreck site within an hour after the time of the wreck and before most of the rescue crews arrived. I remained there for most of the day.and witnessed the rescue of the injured and removal of some of the fatalities. Very gruesome!!! I still remember many of the details. I will never forget it!
Thank you for your tribute.
Thank you for this touching and informative video. It is rare that I view any other videos which are as tastefully done as yours. I am Dan's cousin and Walter D. Allen was my stepfather, Richard Allen's father. My stepfather occasionally spoke of this event and particularly emphasized the hazardous action of the engineer. Your video corroborates his accounts of the wreck.
Hard to believe. 2 comments about the tragic passaway of mister Allen. For sure you are a close real tight family. Keep it, and all my regrets to you and your father.
A very well done presentation! Thanks for posting.
Excellently presented. Very moving memorial 🥺💕
Great Job Richard...very informative
Thank you so much for making this video. My great uncle Gardner Trask Sr. was one of the victims and I learned alot from your program.
I´m sorry madam Foster to hear about your great nucléaire, mister Gardner Trask Sr. When names or faces are added, suddenly events take a new, deeper dimension. Thanks for your comment in that delicate and sensible document.
Beautiful memorial. Thank you, i never knew.
Great job Matt and Richard! I have taken the liberty to share a link to this youtube page with various, Beverly, Salem, Peabody, and Swampscott facebook pages I post too.
Thank you, Stephen.
Good job with renovation. Wish I could have been there to see it.
Nicely done! I was a month and 10 days old when this happened and never heard about it until now. I'm from Gloucester and as a kid rode the Budliners to see the Bruins & Celtics at the Boston Garden. Back in the early 1980's there was another wreck on the Rockport-Boston line, I think 2 were killed. At the time I was camping with my girlfriend in the White Mountains. We had a small portable B&W TV in the tent and a news update came on which said a train wreck had happened outside of Boston on the Rockport line, If I remember right near Prides Crossing. My girlfriend got worried because her sister rode home from work about that time. It was pouring out but we had to hike in the pouring rain to the nearest pay phone(no cell phone those days). Luckily she was home arriving on an earlier train.
I didn't know about that. I'm here because yesterday was the anniversary of the Swampscott wreck. I ride that line twice a day to work and back. Do you remember the exact date of the 80s wreck?
@@josebro352 On August 11, 1981, a westbound MBTA Commuter Rail train collided with an eastbound B&M freight train at Prides Crossing. The cab car leading the MBTA train was thrust into the air over the freight locomotive. Two trainmen and a passenger on the freight and the engineer on the commuter train were killed. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the crash was caused by two dispatchers failing to properly communicate, resulting in the two trains being put on the same track (the second track was out of service due to construction).
@@CapeAnnImages That's morbidly fascinating. Thank you. I never knew about it. I go by Pride's Crossing twice a day. There's nothing really there now except the depot itself and a small candy store. Did the collision occur directly at the station or a little way down the tracks? I know that station is seldom used and the train usually bypasses it at full speed. The crash must've been horrific. Thanks for the info.
Thank you for your video. I believe there still 2 RDC in service for VIA🇨🇦
Thank you so much for a beautiful and insightful memorial of this tragedy and thanks for sharing your own experiences. Rest in peace to all those who have passed away in the tragic accident and everybody who survived it. I wish them well.
I would like to know if they were able to reinstall that monument in the victims’ honor?
Thank you
Yes, after the monument was found, it was reinstalled at the train station shortly after this video was made.
@@SFICA9 I get on at Swampscott station every night to take the train home to Manchester. I just noticed the monument yesterdayand I knew that I had never seen it there before. It's on the right side of the old depot building. Do you know where it used to be?
@@josebro352 Not sure where it was before.
Nice piece. I was an engineer on the B & M starting in 1973. As I was learning the Eastern Route, the line that includes Swampscott station, the old timers always pointed out the block signal that the engineer on the Budd Car missed. It was over a mile east of Swampscott station as I recall, and the last I knew, the footings for the signal are still there. Assuming that this signal was red and therefore the Budd Car should have been restricted to 15 mph, it would seem that the major cause of the wreck would have been the failure of the following train to obey the requirements of that signal. Is that not in the ICC report? Or did the old timers have the story all wrong?
Additionally, having run many, many Budd Cars, I can attest to the Roll-a-chron's (sp?) limitations. They had to be adjusted to work properly (and they often were not) and most engineers hated them because once they started tripping they would help going and going and the train would travel well past the point where the engineer intended to stop. I have no doubt that they contributed to the severity of this tragedy, especially given the slippery conditions, but the second train was clearly going much too fast to begin with and that was the primary cause of the collision.
On the whole however the Budd Cars were in many ways ahead of their time. They we easy to couple up and to uncouple, and because the motors were slung underneath the coach they could go around curves far faster than a conventional train. The downside of that however was that with there low ground clearance they would often get stuck if snow was too deep, as it would build up under the motor and actually lift the wheels up enough to lose traction.
This accident is one of many that illustrate the value of cab signals (sometimes called inside cab signaling), which were available at the time of this wreck, and positive train control, a newer system of train separation, which railroads are fighting an FRA mandate to install. (The MBTA does have plans to install PTC in the not too distant future).
No sure about the signal. Someone told me when the Budds were first delivered, they found out the block signal system circuit was not sensitive enough to detect the presence of RDCs due to their relative light weight so the signal dept. increased the amperage or voltage or whatever to make the track circuit more sensitive. I don't think this was a factor in the crash however. The engineer was going too fast for the snowy conditions. I'd have to reread the ICC report to figured out if any of the signals were covered by snow after the Portsmouth train passed by. Before the Danvers train departed Salem, the report does mention that the crew was aware there was a train ahead of them somewhere. farther down the line.
+SFICA9 You could be on to something there. As you may know, trains in slippery conditions apply sand to the track to increase wheel-to-rail adhesion. As recently as 1985, the B & M rule book prescribed the following:
"Rule 920a Light diesel engines and engines consisting of single or double RDC units must not use sand except in emergency or under severe rail conditions. When Diesel engines without cars or single or double RDC units are stopped on sand in Automatic Block or Interlocking Signal Territory, the engine, unit or units must immediately be moved far enough to get at least one pair of wheels off the sanded rail."
Note: RDC units are "Rail Diesel Cars", a.k.a. Budd Cars (You may have mentioned that in the video)
Given the snowy conditions, the engineer of the first train may well have used sand to help him stop. I know I would have. Nevertheless, I don't understand why the engineer of the second train would have been going so fast even if he had clear (Green) signals, if indeed he knew that there was a train ahead. I would have been scared to death of running into the first train ahead in those conditions, and would have been crawling, as would be any decent engineer. The situation with the stopped train and another following close behind happens quite frequently even now in commuter service, and engineers are highly vigilant in those situations. And it happens a lot during snowstorms, when trains are especially prone to breakdowns.
+whnutter nutter
Can I PM you with some follow up questions? I'm doing a short radio piece on this event, would be really interested in your point of view of things!
More input from another former engineer: "In order to apply the brakes on any train equipped with air brakes, the engineer moves the brake valve handle in front of him/her from "release" to "application." This reduces the air pressure in the brake pipe, which causes the brakes to apply on every car, whether it's a passenger or a freight train. In all diesel locomotives, that air out of the brake pipe is exhausted under the floor of the cab, somewhere below the engineer, in a space occupied by airbrake equipment, and OUT OF THE WEATHER. On that fateful day, the air brake exhaust pipe on the Budd car DID go below the floor, but OUTSIDE into the weather, in front of (or behind, can't remember) the steps leading from the cab, on both ends of each RDC. Heavy wet snow, train traveling at excessive speed, & brake exhaust pipe exposed to the weather, possibly plugged with ice, exacerbated with speed on the mainline. If the engineer moves his brake valve handle & NO air exhausts (comes out), the brakes will NOT APPLY.
When I went to engr's school, we learned that Budd RDC's are "diesel hydraulic," meaning the diesel engine(s) drive the wheel(s) directly, thru a fluid transmission, as opposed to a diesel-electric loco, where the diesel engine drives a DC generator (or in newer loco's, an AC alternator) which then powers the wheels thru a gear connected electric motor. The beauty of the RDC was that you could stop it or slow it down by putting it in reverse while moving forward, up to 50mph (when new..). Budd's had electrically driven air compressors. We routinely moved them around without airbrakes when they were in the shops for repairs by winding up the handbrake lightly, moving the car forward to wherever it was going in the shops, yard or engine house, then putting it in reverse & revving up the engine when we got close to where we wanted to stop it.
The engineer who lost his life in the collision may not have known this, was operating way too fast for the conditions, & the brake exhaust pipe may have been plugged with ice, rendering it unusable under the circumstances. After this accident all B&M Budd's were refitted with brake exhausts INSIDE the cab (with outrageously LOUD brake exhausts) that led many an older eng'r to become hard of hearing. I complained enough about this [noise] as a young eng'r that the company had me test multiple types of hearing protection, then made hearing protection mandatory in the cabs of all loco's ~ but that's another story."
The I.C.C. report can be found here: dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/Document?db=DOT-RAILROAD&query=(select+3659)
i rode those cars for years from gloucester to boston.the engines were loud and smelly.there was another accident years later in Chelsea ma when a train hit a fuel tanker.my father's best friends daughter was killed on that train.i don't know if they were budd cars or not.so sad
I was 14 years old living in Lynn when this tragedy happened. My brother and I
walked to the scene in the snow storm. A priest was there giving last rights to
the victims and the fire dept. were picking up human remains from the snow and placing them into fireman's boots.
I was 13 at the tim My father was an emerging responder for the electric company. I remember him telling about the body parts being put into boots.i don't think he ever got over that sight of devastation.
I´m really sorry for all that saw "that", specially young ones.
I was the first with a friend to arrive at à lady´s car hit by a passenger train. I know what it is to see "that". Hard to forgot. I took a piece of disc brake of the car, the size of a quarter to never forgot to be cautious at railway crossing.
Beautiful tribute, and Well done. Sadly, it seems that so many train wrecks are caused by human error. What qualifications are needed to operate as the Lead Engineer? Speed, bad weather and an operator who should have known better. Godspeed.
My Nana’s friend Penelope Kotsovillis was among the dead in that wreck.
There was a similar tragedy in England back in the 19th century; an express over ran signals in a blizzard and pitched in to a coal train. The engineer survived, saying he had been running hard despite the conditions endeavouring to keep up to time. Is it possible the engineer of the Budd had been doing the same? I've always been very puzzled as to why the New England / East Coast railroads don't appear to have adopted the English block system, in which only one train at a time is allowed into a section. I can understand it in the far West, with such vast distances between stations, but wouldn't it have been feasible in a more populated area?
A rail buff that I knew from many years ago once told me that he went digging into the engineer's history and despite being a seasoned veteran with eh B and M, he had a previous black mark on his record so maybe he grew complacent in his career? As Richard in the video said, his widow defended him to her death.
Question about the picture that is shown at 10:32 - was that picture taken at the Essex Street overpass? The Essex Street overpass is just to the north of the site of the wreck; the Budd train went under it right before colliding with the train from Portsmouth. Also, in addition to the hazardous weather conditions of that day, another factor which makes one wonder why in the world the engineer on the Budd train was traveling at such a high rate of speed is the fact that he was very close to the station in Swampscott (as Richard indicated in this video, the train from Portsmouth had stopped just short of the station). Blizzard or no blizzard, the engineer would still have had to have been traveling relatively slowly because he was about to make a station stop. To me, this supports the theory that the brakes on the Budd cars played a role in the collision.
The photo was provided by Richard Symmes but he did not take it so I'm not sure of its location. We just wanted something that captured the mood. As for the engineer, I had heard for a seasoned employee of the B&M, he supposedly had been cited for a few safety issues prior to this accident. Who knows? In the comments below, I passed along a theory about the brake intake pipe being clogged with snow as told to me by an engineer on the MBTA's commuter rail.
Isn't that where Monte's is today? I live on the north shore and go through Swampscott every day.
No. Monte's is in Lynn, but it is right near the rails.
@@maryannbenedetto8854 Oh, thanks. So I'm assuming that the crash happened right across from where the Gulf station is today correct? Near the baseball field?
Really interesting story. In doing so the souvenir of those that passed away, the injuries is not lost. Really sad that the town couldn´t put back the monument.
Tragic that so many people passed away in a Budd car that when builted were by far the strongest rail véhicule, exceeding many times the impact regulation of the time. Sadly it went under the heavyweight. As photo prove the Budd vestibule crashed completely as intended. That was a design to absorb impact energy just like in modern automobile. Those so light cars were so in advance of their time with abs disc brakes like today cars, shotweld construction, an other Budd invention that we take for granted today. That car was so strong and so well builted that IF it had climbed over the heavyweight, it would have opened it completely. Heavyweights were heavy with very strong underframe, but were very fragile above it under telescoping forces.
On that day, the death had her rendez vous, and victims she tooked.
For the failing engineer, all landscape is white. Ground, sky and maybe snow flakes falling in windshield create some hypnotic effects bring him à bit numb and unaware. When he or the brakemen saw the other train, they may be slam the brake in emergency and run away. The car may be tilt down a bit, just enough to pass under the stopped steel monster. it was game over
Thanks to tell us that moment and glad that your "souvenir" is now in the museum. And thinking that those that escaped...where involved again...at least tha death called nobody that time....
im a railfan of this station. It sucks to here about this wreak :(
MassDotFan1062 Productions do Trains go by this station :0??
Trains still go thru swampscott
I remember this well. Richard Symmes tells this story well. My Dad was waiting for the train to Boston in Swampscott. He and his riding mates were all delayed because of the blizzard. He heard the crash and witnessed the crash. My school chum's Mom had a friend who lived on Stetson Ave, who witnessed the whole thing from her kitchen window. It was terribly traumatic. She said she witnessed body parts being flying through the air into her backyard. It was awful.
It's a good thing this did not happen during morning rush hour this commuter rail line is the number 1 busiest in the state used by thousands a day and the death toll would be well over 100
A budd RDC is a cab car