The Boston Highway Train Incident Explained
In January 1969, a dramatic incident occurred when three Penn Central locomotives derailed and blocked the northbound lane of the Southeast Expressway in South Boston. The locomotives, part of a freight train, were traveling on a bridge over the highway when the tracks gave way due to poor maintenance and the bridge’s deterioration. The engines fell onto the highway, disrupting traffic and causing a major scene. The Penn Central Railroad, which had formed only a year earlier from the merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central, was already struggling financially and operationally, and the derailment highlighted the infrastructure issues plaguing the company. The incident underscored broader challenges in the rail industry at the time, contributing to Penn Central’s eventual bankruptcy in 1970.
Support the Channel by becoming a member 👉 https://youtube.com/channel/UCzIZ8HrzDgc-pNQDUG6avBA/join
IT’S HISTORY – Weekly Tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.
» Subscribe: https://youtube.com/@ITSHISTORY?sub_confirmation=1
» Listen podcasts: https://ffm.bio/itshistory
» CONTACT
For brands, agencies, and sponsorships: itshistory@thoughtleaders.io
» CREDIT
Editor – Karolina Szwata
Host – Ryan Socash
Music/Sound Design: Dave Daddario
» NOTICE
Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only – always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes – retractions will be published in this section.
source
Bruh history is dead have you heard let the past be the past
Very simplistic explanation why PennCentral failed,
Just like GTA but only in real life.
I worked for PC at the end of it. Track conditions were awful – weekly derailments.
My dad worked for New York Central at the Dickinson yard in Quincy, WV, which became Penn Central, then Conrail, and now it's Norfolk Southern.
In 1969, the rail yard had a tanker car leak chlorine gas, and my dad and a few other guys tried to rescue some horses in a nearby field.
My dad ended up in the hospital, but we didn't know until a neighbor told us. He probably didn't want to worry us.
Nineteen years later, he would be diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
❤
1969 was an INSANE year.
They really took road train way to far
There a way you could a video on Connecticut! There are a few locations that have historical values
3’ groves in the road is BS. Cut many flanges with a loco, and it’s no more than 2”…
willful ignorance
its just a normal day on penn central
The most interesting part about the end of the Penn Central?
What was widely believed to be the final nail in the coffin?
A lost train of Potato boxcars from Maine. (It was a string of cars left to rot in the middle of a yard in the middle of Summer.) There was the slightest potato shortage, nearly killed the Maine Potato industry, and pretty much got most Maine potato farms to stop shipping by rail. But it did SIGNIFICANT damage to Maine's potato industry for like a year, with reverberating effects for years afterwords.
Stupid sat nav
Omg!! Thats insane!!
There is one way I can think of this happening on its own. Typically, road crews don't move engines around in the yard, or at stations. That's handled by "hostlers". Basically a trained engineer who only moves the locomotives around for servicing, fueling, or between repair areas and the dispatch area where train crews take them on to their destinations. Hostler crews in that day, were typically single man operations, with the hostler having to stop the locomotives to throw their own switches, before remounting the train and moving forward. I could see a situation where a hostler got in the habit of just setting the train brake air, and leaving the throttle in position 1 (notch 1) while leaving the locomotive to throw switches, or handle something. In theory, full train brake would keep the locomotives from moving, even under power with notch 1. If however the air failed, as often happened in that day, then it could create a situation where even with the handbrake set, the locomotives would have enough power to move at increasing speed.
“Tarmac” is normally used to describe the area where aircraft roam at airports.
I do t think I have ever heard anyone note the fact that these railroads were optimized for war. Particularly WWII. It was to be a severe challenge if even possible to maintain and profit generate during peacetime lol . I think the only way it would have worked is if they had immediately scaled back the amount of used lines and concentrated and simplified routes. Seems that may have been what was needed but not done.
My grandfather was a track supervisor for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and retired about the time the merger was finalized. He maintained that the merger would never have worked, because the PRR and NY Central signal systems were incompatible. So, yeah, the incompatible work cultures surely had a part in this runaway.
Technically the pavement is tarmac, another word for asphalt. It's just that the word is used for airports and asphalt for roads. Go figure.
Thank God that day stuck 7 hours had extra depends in my semi 🚛
This guy might want to learn his terminology a bit better. He also completely neglected to mention the New Haven or any of the other roads in the Conrail Merger.
Also, like, my guy, people know trains are connected.
Only at PENN CENTRAL
Well, that would scare the hell out of most people, lol.
The current-day train yard shown in the video is two facilities: MBTA Red Line, Cabot Yard, and the MBTA/Amtrak commuter rail yard. The Southampton St. rail overpass is a familiar landmark on the Southeast Expressway.
Tell me you know nothing about railroad operations without telling me you know nothing about railroad operations
Please learn the difference between a "train" and a "locomotive"; they're not the same.
Where were Denzel Washington and Chris Pine when they needed them??😢😅😊😮