Camp Hill
Train Disaster
Ft. Washington, Pa.
 July 17, 1856

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There are two locations known as Camp Hill in Pa. One is located about 3 miles west of Harrisburg, the state capitol, in the center of the state. Another, lesser-known, Camp Hill is near Ft. Washington, outside of Philadelphia, in the eastern portion of the state.

Few people know that the latter is the site of one of the most horrific railroad accidents in the history of the United States.

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The year was 1856. The country was still young. The railroads, having been invented only 25 years before, were still in their infancy. The North Pennsylvania Railroad was only one year old.

The airbrake hadn't been invented yet; nor many of the safety procedures we now have. The telegraph was just being put to use for the railroads and was not yet universally accepted. The wooden cars were heated with coal stoves. This resulted in many small accidents becoming fires.

Most of the runs between towns were single tracks with occasional sidings where a train could pull off to let another train pass in the opposite direction.

Time itself was not yet standardized across the country. Towns kept their own time. It was not unusual for neighboring towns to go by different times. The state of Illinois was said to have up to 27 different local times.

The railroads were responsible for bringing a standardized time system to the country. Since they tied the towns together, they used their own time system to operate efficiently. Eventually, the towns along the routes adopted the railroad's time system. It wasn't until 1883 (27 years later) that the whole country adopted a standard time system.

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It was very early morning on Thurs., July 17th, 1856. St. Michael's R.C. Church in the Kensington section of Philadelphia was sending their Sunday School children on a picnic to Shaeff's Woods, a Ft. Washington park. About 5 am, 1500 pupils, teachers, and parents loaded onto 12 cars on 2 trains at the Master St. Depot.

The first train pulled out of the station 23 minutes late. The engineer was confident he could make up for lost time. He knew of a passenger train due to be coming in the opposite direction on the same single track, but calculated they could use the siding at Edge Hill to safely pass each other.

The passenger train engineer also knew of the excursion train due to be coming towards him, but also calculated a safe passing at the Edge Hill siding. He carefully continued on his way.

As he neared a blind curve near Camp Hill, he slowed the passenger train to about 10 mph, and blew the whistle almost continuously. Due to the primitive communications of the era, neither engineer knew exactly where the other was.

It was about 6 am. The passenger train was slowed to 10 mph. The excursion train was on a long downhill run and still trying to make time travelling at 35 mph. They caught sight of each other at the blind curve, but it was too late.

The trains collided.

The boiler of one exploded, being heard up to 5 miles away. The Sunday School train derailed. Being made of wood, the cars were perfect fuel for the ensuing fire.

Some reports say 59 people died in the crash, others say 67. The reports agree, though, that most of them were children. Their screams were said to be heard a mile away. 100 others were injured. The Reverend Sheridan was among the dead. Most of them perished not in the actual crash, but in the fire that followed.

The conductor of the regular passenger train was so devastated by the accident that by the end of the day, he took his own life. Ironically, he was later absolved of any blame. A jury placed the blame on the engineer of the Sunday School train for his "gross carelessness".

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One of the first people to the accident was Mary Johnson Ambler, a 56 year old widow who lived about 2 miles away. For almost 24 hours, she worked through the sweltering heat, caring for the injured and dying. She brought medical supplies and dressed the wounds of the injured. She comforted the dying. And she opened her house as a makeshift hospital.

The railroad company offered to pay her for her assistance, but she refused.

Mary Ambler died on Aug. 18, 1868 at the age of 63.

One year later (or 13 years after the disaster), in 1869, the Wissahickon railroad station needed to be renamed. The station happened to be located across the tracks from Mary Ambler's former homestead. The railroad company decided to honor the heroine by naming the station in her memory.

Eighteen years later, on Nov. 22, 1887, the surrounding village voted to incorporate into a borough, and named itself Ambler, after the station and the woman.

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Although known as the Camp Hill disaster, the station near where it occured was called Sandy Run at the time. Later, the station would be called the Camp Hill station, and today it's known as the Felwick station.

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The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin ran an article on the 112th anniversary of the disaster. This article reports some small differences to the above.

It reports that 1000 people were on the train, not the 1500 of other reports.

It states that "more than 100 people died later" from injuries received in the accident.

It also disputes the above statement about the conducter taking his own life "by the end of the day". It states that the engineer of the southbound train fled the scene followed by an "angry mob". He ran west on Morris Rd. to Werstner's Mill. The proprietor of the mill hid the man and later helped him slip back to Phila. "But the event so preyed on the man's mind that he committed suicide in his own home within the next few months."

- Phila. Evening Bulletin - Thurs., July 18, 1968

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The Camp Hill disaster was only the third recorded railroad accident with a major loss of life.

The first being three years earlier in Norwalk, Ct., with 46 passengers being killed when a train ran through an open drawbridge and fell into the Norwalk River.

The second was a head-on collision on the Camden and Amboy railroad in 1855, where 23 people lost their lives.

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Two Philadelphia Inquirer Articles from July, 2006

Camp Hill Disaster - 150 Years Later

Mildred Smith Researches the Camp Hill Disaster

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For a FULL-size map (175k), click here

Site of Accident Site of Accident

Artist's Rendition of the Accident

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Created- Thurs, March 2, 2000
Revised- Wed, Dec 25, 2002 (Christmas Day)
crc1123@voicenet.com