Some stories about coal train derailments and Woodside Station, Upper Paxton Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and how the mail was delayed and passengers inconvenienced. Also stories about an engineer who was scalded on a special train carrying mining company officials, a man walking on the tracks who was killed, a rail maintenance car overturning and injuring four trackworkers, and the demand of the Public Service Commission that heat be provided in the Woodside Station for the winter months.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, March 18, 1897:
The coal train was wrecked near Woodside Station on Tuesday afternoon. The accident was caused by a broken axle; fourteen cars jumped the track, which was torn up to such an extent that it required the combined effort of the Millersburg and Sunbury wreck crews, until near midnight, to get the tracks in shape, so that trains could pass. About midnight Lykens Valley accommodation came along and soon after, Day’s train. Three young men from this place were on the coal train and only three cars ahead from where the accident happened, and saved themselves by jumping. No one was injured.
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From the Lykens Register, Williamstown News, March 19, 1897:
The coal train to Lykens on Tuesday evening was over five hours late, owing to an accident to the coal train going west on the Summit Branch Road, caused by spreading of the rails near Woodside Station. in consequence, out Tuesday’s mail did not reach us until next day. Owing to a wreck near Lorberry Junction on the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, Wednesday, our usual noon mail from the east did not reach us.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, Rife News, March 25, 1897:
Our mail carrier, Charley Bonawitz, was greatly disappointed on Tuesday, by not getting the mail until the next day. The train was delayed until midnight on account of the coal train being derailed at Woodside Station on Tuesday.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, July 14, 1898, as reported in “Echoes of 35 Years Ago,” July 13, 1933:
When the Lykens Valley Accommodation arrived at the local station Saturday evening, that had on board the body of a man who had been killed on the track at Woodside Station, several miles west of town. His identity could not be ascertained, but it later developed that his name was Robert Buffington, a single man, with no fixed place of residence, but staying mostly with relatives at Gratz.
It appears that the unfortunate man had been walking on the track and being partially deaf did not hear the approaching train. He was thrown from the track by the locomotive and died in a few minutes. His age was about forty-five years.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, April 15, 1904:
ENGINEER BLOOM SCALDED
Engineer O. G. Bloom, of Wilkes-Barre, was terribly scalded about the ankles, hands and wrists, at 10:30 o’clock last Thursday morning when the packing blew out of the injector of the locomotive he was running at the head of a special train over the Summit Branch Railroad, and the boiling water spurted over the portions of his body that were exposed.
The accident occurred at Woodside Station a few miles below town, and the disabled train was attached to Day’s Accommodation. Bloom’s wounds are very painful, but will not likely prove fatal.
The special had come from Wilkes-Barre via the Northern Central Railway and conveyed General Superintendent R. A. Quinn, of the Susquehanna Coal Company, and other officials of the company, to Lykens to make an inspection of the Lykens Valley collieries.
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From the Lykens Standard, February 19, 1915:
The Public Service Commission on Tuesday, after hearing on the complaint of Charles S. Keefer for better station facilities at Woodside Station, on the Lykens Valley branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, decided that the company should provide heat for the station during winter and install a signal to stop the trains.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, May 20, 1926:
TRACKMEN’S CAR IN ACCIDENT
JUMPS TRACK NEAR WOODSIDE STATION
FOUR INJURED – TAKEN TO HARRISBURG HOSPITAL
On Wednesday morning about 8:30 o’clock, the repairmen, regularly employed as trackmen on the railroad between Millersburg and Lykens, left the former place in the motorized railway car and were traveling to Elizabethville.
Near Woodside Station the car jumped the track and turned over, injuring the following workmen: H. H. Haldeman; B. H. Teats; L. H. Geistwhite; and D. I. Schrauder, all of Millersburg.
Geistwhite and Teats were only slightly injured, but Haldeman and Schrauder were taken to a Harrisburg Hospital, as their injuries were more serious.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, April 4, 1928. [Note: The story of this averted accident was more fully reported in a prior blog post].
TRAIN WRECK AVERTED
A near disaster was averted Monday morning when the Lykens Valley Accommodation was stopped before striking ten bolts placed on the track. Three youths have confessed, but because of a plant breakdown, the Echo is unable to furnish full details. The bolts had been placed on the tracks near Woodside Station.
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From the Elizabethville Echo, July 19, 1934:
DERAILMENT BLOCKED BRANCH LINE THURSDAY
A coal train derailment blocked tracks of the Lykens Valley Branch more than six hours last Thursday evening delaying movement of the Lykens Valley Accommodation until early Friday morning.
The delay was occasioned when a truck of a coal car on a west-bound freight train jumped the tracks near Good’s Curve, east of the Woodside Station. No other cars were derailed nor were the tracks badly damaged by the accident. The Northumberland wreck crew and train were called to the scene and had the tracks cleared shortly after midnight.
The Lykens Valley Accommodation due here from Harrisburg at 6:20 p. m. was held at Millersburg where passengers were transferred to a bus to complete their trip to Upper Dauphin destinations. The Accommodation proceeded to Lykens about one o’clock the following morning.
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News articles from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.