Rockport Train Wreck anniversary
Today is the 91st anniversary of the train wreck. Check out this trailer for an upcoming video about the disaster, featuring some locals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIvqr5-lzoY&feature=youtu.be
The film is due to be released in August.
HHS fan My husbands Grandfather and Grandmother lived by the train crossing. They were there that fateful day when this train wreck happened and tried to help the passengers the best they could. This was indeed a horrible disaster...
Joyful Amazing photos of such a tragedy and disaster. Does anyone know of the location of the wreck? Say between Hazen Rd and Blau Rd or between other roads or landmarks....near.the old State Game Farm for example.....?
And the Train was very mangled.........I wonder how fast Trains could go back then. And where were they coming from and what was their destination? Very interesting history for I did hear about it as a kid growing up but no details. Me and my friend Tommy would put pennies on the track so the train would run over them....... very flattened out pennies we would have......Tommy lived by State Game Farm on Hazen Rd.....
After I heard the story of the wreck as a kid...... I always imagined the disaster being right near where we put pennies on track
LittleRascal 
skippy The train derailed just past the Hazen Rd crossing going towards Hackettstown, there is a plaque near the crossing.
Hazen Rd was a gravel and dirt road at the time and debris had washed across the tracks during a thunderstorm earlier in the night which is believed to have caused the derailment.
A few hours before the derailment the lumber yard in town was hit by lightning and will still actively burning when people from Rockport made it to Hackettstown to get help!
Snow I recall reading that this particular train was a charter taking German immigrants from Chicago to Hoboken, near where they were to board a ship for a visit to the old country. The normal routing would have been over the Lackawanna cutoff through Blairstown, but due to freight train congestion on that line the train was routed instead over the former main line through Portland PA - Delaware - Oxford - Washington - Hackettstown. Unfortunately it never made it to Hackettstown.
How fast was it going? A reasonable guess would 50 MPH.
jd2 Here's a bit more information.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockport_train_wreck
NJKID1010 Looks like a great documentary. I've always been interested in the wreck since I first heard about it as a kid, and then again through Frank Dale's excellent issue on the wreck in his "Warren County Chronicles". Look forward to seeing this.
There was an abandoned house next to the tracks well into the 1980's, and apparently the man who lived in the house was one of the first responders on the scene. As I read it he was never right again and went a little crazy from the terrible things he saw. When he died, the house never sold and fell into ruin.
eperot 
1988LJ I take Thomas Road a lot on my way home which isn't far from Hazen. Has anyone else encountered the train signal lights going off for no reason? You have to ease up and double check that there isn't a train coming. It has happened several times over the years to me.
Hopeful Some interesting old pictures can be found under Bing images as well. Enter Rockport train wreck 1925. Certainly was a bad wreck.
OldSamJoyful wrote: "My husbands Grandfather and Grandmother lived by the train crossing".
Were they the sweet old couple who lived in the that old ramshackle house by the tracks back in the early 70's?
mel That Lumber Year must have burned twice? I can remember it burning was I was small, maybe in the 70s sometime. Does anyone recall?
hktownie 
4catmom Been in this area 25 years and never heard of this. Thanks for sharing. Terrible.
Botheredbyuu2 Joyful, my grandparents names were also Joseph and Eva. Definitely not the same people but I think that's neat though :)
weebiekins Just heard on WRNJ that Donaldsons is going to present a video of the Rockport Train Wreck on Saturday evening October 1st at 7:30 p.m. There is to be a question and answer period following the film.
yup Joyful....bring your own chair - big outdoor screen - maybe bring a blanket too if the cooling trend continues
Why would anyone show or bring a blanket to watch a video of a terrible tragedy where people were killed and families suffered horrendous loss? Have we become so insensitive as a society that such carnage has become no more than a pop corn eating, date night side show? Shame on Donaldson's.
auntiel Hey I suggested a blanket if the nights become chilly...Don't know what you think I meant
Guess if I follow Auntiel's thinking, watching movies like Gettysburg and Wicked Spring are out since they are both movies about terrible battles with loss of life. And I guess most John Wayne movies are out too. Gun violence and again terrible battle loss of life. Guess I'll be missing the westerns, most James Bond movies, and any disaster movie. Maybe Donaldson's could play Mary Poppins!
John C And what's wrong with being comfortable while learning about a tragic accident? It's probably more like a history lesson than "entertainment ". Have you ever watched documentaries on the different world wars? The extermination of Jews? Probably in comfort on your couch. You have some nerve and I wonder what's wrong with you to watch a movie about those tragic events. Shame on you!
RAS You know what I think is worse than bringing a blanket to a movie on a chilly night ( the horror of it), is all the detective and drama shows and movies, real and fantasy, about murder. Imagine if you had a family member murdered and everywhere you turn there's a show about murder or finding the person who did it. It must be terrible for the people who have had a tragic experience like that.
Clancy Here's the link to the movie online- it's 25 minutes long. Very interesting! Well done!!!
https://vimeo.com/185485045
JeffersonRepub JR, I just watched it yes it was well done and interesting. Although it didn't add anymore information that I didn't already know about the accident. I am sure there are a lot of people that didn't even know anything about it.
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