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| The jumbled wreckage of the Red Arrow Image Retrieved From: https://www.gendisasters.com/ |
Seventy-eight years ago today, the Red Arrow, a premier passenger train of the Pennsylvania Railroad, crested the summit of the Allegheny Mountains at Gallitzin, Cambria County on its sprint to New York. From here, the entire 12 miles to Altoona would pit the train against gravity. Engineer Billig leaned out the cab window into the foggy night. Behind his engine were fourteen cars full of passengers, many of whom had been lulled into slumber by the gentle rocking of the train. Ahead was Bennington Curve, the first of many that snaked the tracks down the mountain. Engineer Billig had taken many a train around this curve, so it was to his surprise when he felt the engine begin to heel over, followed by the earsplitting sound of the train being ripped apart.
Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) Train No. 68, the Red Arrow, had left Detroit, Michigan for New York at 5:20pm on February 17, 1947. Two Pennsylvania Railroad K4s steam locomotives were the hotshot iron horses pulling the train. At the head end, was engine #422 with 53 year old Michael Billig at the throttle, a season engineer with the Pennsylvania Railroad. As lead engineer, Billig controlled the entire train. Behind his engine was locomotive # 3771 and its two-man crew. Coupled behind were fourteen cars carrying 200 passengers, porters, mail clerks, and train crew.
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| An example of the PRR's K4s locomotive Image By: Ad Meskens https://commons.wikimedia.org |
After stopping in Pittsburgh, the train departed over an hour late. It was 3:17am when the train passed a control point near the summit of the Alleghenies at Gallitzin, still over an hour behind schedule. As the train crested, Billig closed the throttle and lightly applied the brakes to slow the train on the decent down the hill. About a mile below was Bennington Curve. What happened in the next five minutes will forever remain a mystery.
As the Red Arrow crested the summit and entered the tunnel at Gallitzin, Billig estimated his speed to be 25mph. The speed limit for the track immediately before Bennington Curve was 35mph. Bennington Curve itself had a 30mph speed restriction. As his engine came into the curve, Billig later reported that the throttle he had closed had inexplicably opened, accelerating the train. Michael quickly closed it. No sooner than he did, he felt his his engine begin to lurch over. It was 3:22am.
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| An aerial photo of Bennington Curve in the early 1950's. The train would be traveling from left to right. Image Retrieved From: Penn Pilot |
When everything came to a stop, only three of the fourteen cars remained on the rails. Passengers and crew uninjured in the wreck set about rescuing others still trapped in the mangled cars. Many would have to wait for rescuers with torches and heavy machinery to free them. For others, all that could be done was to console them in their final moments.
Since Bennington Curve was inaccessible by road, medical personnel and railroad workers piled into trains in Altoona and rushed to the wreck site. Temporary hospitals and morgues were set up in buildings near the Altoona station to treat the wounded and identify the dead.
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| A map of the devastation. The Pullman cars were leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad from the Pullman Company Created by the Author |
In all, 24 people perished in the disaster: 15 passengers, 6 mail clerks, and 3 train crew. Over 140 others were injured to various degrees. Micheal Billig was the lone survivor from the engine crews. Broken steam pipes had left him with severe scalds in addition to lacerations, and internal injuries. He remained conscious and was transported to the hospital in Altoona.
"How?" was the question on everyone's mind. An investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the federal agency overseeing the nation's railroads, the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission, and the Pennsylvania Railroad attempted to find that answer.
The condition of the track was one of the first components investigated. Track inspectors scoured the rails before and at the point of derailment. Their investigation ruled out that a defect or obstruction on the track had influenced the wreck. Damage to the rails seemed to indicate that the engines were lifted from them, leaving little damage at the initial point of derailment. Track inspectors had examined this stretch of track just 30 hours prior to the wreck. Additionally, another train had traveled around Bennington Curve on the exact same track just mere minutes before the Red Arrow with no reported issues.
Braking equipment on the engines and passenger cars was also put under scrutiny. Mechanical engineers removed the brake related equipment from the wrecked engines and cars and transported them to Altoona for testing. Thorough evaluation revealed that the braking system on the cars and both engines were in proper working order.
Once the locomotives were raised from the ravine, they were taken back to Altoona for a detailed inspection. None of the wheels from the locomotives or tenders displayed any damage from striking an obstruction and were otherwise in good order. Both throttles were found in the closed position. While the locomotives were damaged beyond repair, the functionality of critical components enabled investigators to rule out that a mechanical defect had caused the incident.
To unravel the Red Arrow’s speed during its final moments, the investigation turned to the train's surviving crew and railroad employees that had witnessed the train pass through Gallitzin. An important point to make clear is that both engines did not have speedometers onboard, nor were they required equipment at the time. Speed was calculated by counting the seconds between mileposts (posts spaced every mile along the tracks) or by the “feel” of the engine by an experienced engineer.
Engineer Billig later testified that he judged his speed to be 31mph before entering the curve. As the engine nosed into the curve, Billig glanced out the cab window and noticed in his periphery that the throttle had come half open. He recalled that it was open only a “few seconds” before he closed it. Moments later, he felt the engine begin to lean over. How the throttle could have opened on its own was one of the questions that was was never answered during the investigation. By design, the throttle cannot move unless it it is manually unlatched first.
Bennington Curve had a speed recorder along its length, however the Red Arrow had not traversed the required distance to produce a reading. Investigators dug through the speed recorder data to learn Billig’s history of traversing the curve. The data from the previous six months revealed that he had not once exceeded the speed limit, but had rounded the curve at the posted 30mph limit three times within that period. Other recorded speeds averaged between 15-28mph.
Interviews of the Red Arrow’s conductor, flagman, and brakemen seemed to collaborate Billig’s statement in that they estimated the train’s speed at 30mph and that the cars were "riding smoothly" right up until the derailment. However, testimony from a train crew on an adjacent track roughly half a mile before Bennington Curve challenged this estimation. Two of the train crew estimated the Red Arrow's speed to around 45mph. Another crewman believed the passing train was traveling 40-45mph. The fourth estimated the Red Arrow's speed to be 35-40mph. One of the train crew remarked that the Red Arrow was traveling "much faster than usual." Three of the four trainmen also stated they saw sparks coming from the wheels of the passenger cars. In comparison, Engineer Billig estimated his speed to be 22mph around this same location.
Mechanical engineers of the Pennsylvania Railroad set about calculating how fast the train would have to be traveling to be lifted from the rails by centrifugal force. Engineers came to the conclusion that for the 320,000lbs.engines to be lifted from the rails, they would need to be traveling at least 65.1mph. This calculation was also applied to the tenders behind the locomotives which came out to 73 mph. How the train reached that speed was never determined by railroad officials.
Investigators were left with the following conclusions: the track was in good repair with no evidence of obstructions or defects; critical components of the locomotives and cars including the brakes and wheels were in proper running condition; and testimony from survivors and witnesses contradicted the speed that physics was objectively stating the train was traveling. With that, the Interstate Commerce Commission listed the official cause of the wreck as “excessive speed on a curve” and closed the case in April 1947 without casting any definitive blame on the Pennsylvania Railroad or its employees.
A coroner’s inquest was convened in May 1947 to determine if Engineer Billig had committed criminal negligence. Michael maintained that everything had been normal until the engine began to lift from the rails. He reasoned that “someone must have put something on the track or a rail must have been broken.” The jury ultimately found Michael Billig not guilty. Michael continued to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad until retirement; he passed away in 1982.
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| A list of fatalities from the wreck |
A suit filed against the Pennsylvania Railroad in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas in 1948 brought some interesting details regarding the disaster to light. The petitioner was Antoinette Turek who had been on the Red Arrow along with her husband Frank, a Pennsylvania Railroad employee, and their two children in the train's third car. As the train derailed, the third car end up upside down partially on top of the first car. Antoinette and her children escaped with relatively minor injuries, however Frank's wounds proved fatal.
Her wrongful death suit against the Pennsylvania Railroad included testimony that stated that she had been on trains traversing Bennington Curve "18-20 times" in the past. She reported that on the morning of the disaster, she felt the train picked up speed shortly after exiting the tunnel near the summit at Gallitzin. Turek remarked that "[the] cars swayed from side to side, baggage fell from overhead racks, and passengers were jostled one against another."
The Pennsylvania Railroad introduced time records as evidence that the train had not been speeding when it derailed at Bennington Curve. These records included documented times when the Red Arrow passed control points manned by railroad personnel. According to a representative for the railroad, based on these time records and the locations of the derailed cars, the Red Arrow was traveling at 22 mph when it jumped the track. However it never produced evidence of how the train derailed at this speed.
As for the time records, the trial judge stated that, "The time records relied on by the defendant (Pennsylvania Railroad) as collaborating the engineer's testimony were at best inconclusive, for they disclosed a discrepancy and also an apparent, although denied, alteration." Council further highlighted that while the Pennsylvania Railroad had investigated the incident thoroughly, it "offered no affirmative evidence to explain the happening of the incident."
Judgement ruled in favor of Antoinette Turek, however the Pennsylvania Railroad appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for re-argument. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court's ruling stating that while Turek had proven an accident had occurred, she had not introduced the required evidence to indicate that the railroad was guilty of gross negligence. A writ of certiorari for the United States Supreme Court to hear the case was prepared by Turek's council, however this writ was later denied.
It appeared that the Pennsylvania Railroad attempting to distance itself from the calculated overturning speed of 65mph that was published in the ICC report and brought up during the trial. While the railroad was adamant that the Red Arrow was not speeding, it introduce no evidence to explain how the train derailed at this much lower speed. It also brings into question the times recorded by control point operators. The last two "confirmed" times used by the railroad were 3:17am, when the Red Arrow passed the manned control point near Gallitzin, and 3:22am when the track indicator light at the control point went out, indicating the electrical circuit that flowed through the rails was disrupted by the derailment. Are these times truly accurate, or are they fabricated to tell a less incriminating version of the story?
More inferences can be drawn from other wrecks involving passenger trains on Bennington Curve. Prior to the Red Arrow's derailment, there had been three other ICC investigated wrecks that were caused by "excessive speed on a curve." Those wrecks with their casualty counts are as follows: April 27, 1921- 2 killed 21 injured, December 19, 1925-1 killed 37 injured, and August 29, 1927- 2 killed 3 injured.
The 1921 wreck has several overlapping features to that of the Red Arrow. The train involved in this particular wreck consisted of one engine and nine cars rather than the Red Arrow's two engines and fourteen cars. Time of day for the wreck was 10:08pm and the weather was reported as "misty."
As with the Red Arrow investigation no mechanical faults on the engine or cars were found. An obstruction or defect with the tracks was also ruled out. The lack of any wheel marks on the wooden ties indicated that the locomotive had been lifted off the rails by centrifugal force in the same manner as the Red Arrow's engines. The theoretical overturning speed for the engine was calculated by PRR mechanical engineers at 66.4 mph.
Disparities regarding the train's speed at the time of the wreck also overlaps considerably with that of the Red Arrow. Speed estimations by passengers, several of whom were Pennsylvania Railroad employees ranged from 25-45 mph. Many remarked that they noticed nothing amiss until the train derailed. The time between the train passing the last control point and the time of the derailment indicated it was traveling at an average speed of 32mph, an inconsistency shared with the Red Arrow. Both engine crewmembers, who were experience employees were killed in the wreck, eliminating a speed estimation from those sources.
One of the passengers was a retired Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive engineer who had 40 years experience operating trains along this section of track. He inferenced that a train that was not under control would reach Bennington Curve at "50mph" although he estimated that the train was traveling 30 mph when it derailed.
While these previous investigations help to shed some light on what may have occurred that February night in 1947, it also reveals that the learning curve to avoid such disasters was not a sharp as Bennington Curve. Even today as we remember those lost that tragic night, we still do not know for certain what transpired between Gallitzin and Bennington Curve. Unfortunately, we will never know for certain.
For those who would like to learn more about the Red Arrow, I highly recommend Dennis McIlnay’s book, The Wreck of the Red Arrow: An American Train Tragedy, as a great resource for understanding the wreck and the impact it had on those involved.
McIlnay, D. (2010). The wreck of the Red Arrow: an American train tragedy. Seven Oaks Press. Retrieved from: http://www.sevenoakspress.com/RAW/Excerpts.html
Red Arrow inquest says operation of train was safe.(1947, May). Union-Press Courier. Retrieved from: https://panewsarchive.psu.edu/lccn/sn87079954/1947-05-15/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=01%2F01%2F1947&city=&date2=12%2F31%2F1947&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=8&words=Arrow+Red&county=&frequency=&ortext=&proxtext=Red+Arrow&phrasetext=&andtext=&rows=20&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
Sauro,S. (2017,February). Locals tell story of the red arrow 70 years after railroad disaster. Altoona Mirror. Retrieved from:https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2017/02/locals-tell-story-of-the-red-arrow-70-years-after-railroad-disaster/
Seidel,D. (2017). Red Arrow 70th anniversary. The Coal Bucket. Retrieved from: http://www.trainweb.org/altoona-ry-museum-club/minutes_newsletters/CBv2/COAL%20BUCKET%20WINTER%202017.pdf
Train believed to be going to fast on curve. (1947,Feburary). Union-Press Courier. Retrieved from: Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive. https://panewsarchive.psu.edu/lccn/sn87079954/1947-02-27/ed-1/seq-1/#words=Bennington+Curve
United State Supreme Court (1951).Transcript of record. Retrieved From: Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=nB2phTygqN4C&pg=RA14-PA5&dq=red+arrow+%2B+bennington+curve&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQuKCukbqLAxXSMlkFHZAzGAEQ6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q=red%20arrow%20%2B%20bennington%20curve&f=false
Without more information, the cause was indeterminate. The intrinsic physics suggest the best guesstimate to the answer. These events are always gut wrenching and vexing.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was in the Altoona hospital when they brought in people hurt on the train. She said people were screaming and children were crying, aboard the train to was a group of circus people,, little people, one in sdt was going around singing to children calming them down.
ReplyDeleteI was born morning of 17th, my mother was on a bed in the hall, when the call came in all nurse's and Drs disappeared going to the site of the wreck.
I went home the next day, the 17 there was a terrible snow storm. Today Mark's 78 year's ago
My sincere thanks for taking the time to write about your connection to the Red Arrow tragedy. It is much appreciated!
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