February 6, 1951: The Woodbridge Wreck

February 6, 1951, 75 years ago: A Pennsylvania Railroad train derails on a temporary wooden trestle in Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey, killing 85 passengers. It is the deadliest rail disaster in New Jersey history, and the deadliest rail disaster anywhere in America since the Malbone Street Wreck, outside Prospect Park in Brooklyn, on November 1, 1918. 

Around 5:00 PM, Pennsylvania Railroad train Number 733 left Exchange Place station in Jersey City. It was to head down the PRR's Main Line to Rahway, where it would branch onto the North Jersey Coast Line. The Central Railroad of New Jersey was on strike, so No. 733 had more passengers than usual: Over 1,000 people on 11 cars.

At the time, there was a temporary wooden trestle near the Woodbridge station. The express was meant to bypass that station. The normal speed limit for a train doing so was 60 miles per hour. On the temporary trestle, the limit was 25.

A recent photo of the Woodbridge Station

But as the train approached the station at 5:43, the engineer, Joseph Fitzsimmons, only dropped the speed to 50. The tracks shifted under the weight of the locomotive, and 8 of the 11 cars derailed. The 3rd and 4th cars fell down a 26-foot-high embankment. Most of the 85 people killed were in one of these cars. The 5th and 6th cars were left hanging in mid-air over a street, and some people jumped out, some of those dying.

No one was charged with any crime as a result of the wreck. Fitzsimmons was kept on the payroll by the Railroad, but he never operated a train again.

Today, there is a memorial plaque outside the Woodbridge station. New Jersey Transit operates commuter lines, but even their express trains on the Coast Line usually stop at Woodbridge.

The successor to the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, NJT's Northeast Corridor, has a station on the other side of the Township of Woodbridge, in the Iselin section of town, known as Metropark. Amtrak also uses that station. It should not be confused with the main Woodbridge station, which is in downtown Woodbridge.