She's been using the 150th anniversary of what was at the time the worst transportation accident to occur in the United States to review its history.

Let's start her story in Philadelphia public schools, where Smith was educated. "Philadelphia schools emphasized the history of our communities," she said. "I was always interested in any kind of history."

After graduating from Frankford High School, she studied at Temple University and eventually earned an elementary school teaching degree.

A half-century ago, she met and married the Rev. George Abraham Smith, the late pastor of St. Paul's German Reformed Church at Morris Road and Bethlehem Pike, and her interest in history extended to Bethlehem Pike, formerly known as the Spring House Chestnut Hill Turnpike, rich with the past. Part of the congregation of her late husband's church (it was a union church, with two congregations) dates back to 1710, when members met in the home of William DeWees.

"There were [Revolutionary War] skirmishes along [the Pike]," she said. "Ten [thousand], 11,000 men camped with Washington and not just on top of Camp Hill - all along the Sandy Run.

"I like to perpetuate history," she said. "To me, it's all tied in with people who lived during the Revolution."

After a career teaching in private schools, after her children were old enough and after she finished her degree, Smith worked as a substitute teacher - she preferred the freedom - in more than 40 Philadelphia schools, including William Cramp School, near Kensington, where her mother attended elementary school. And so did I. That coincidence gave Mrs. Smith chills, too.

Although I couldn't pin her down to what sparked her interest in the train wreck and what continues to feed her passion, it might be the coincidence of her house.

Her Summit Avenue, Fort Washington, home was built by Mary Scheetz Shriver and Anna Newberry Shriver, granddaughters of Dr. Milton Newberry, who had been the first physician to arrive on the scene of the Ambler Train Wreck. The sisters were still alive when the house was sold, and Smith became friends with them.

"I was so fascinated and privileged to be able to talk to Miss Anna and Miss Mary," Smith said. "Look at the changes they saw over their lifetimes! To think these women lived history, from the time of the horse and the buggy ... Miss Mary didn't quite live to see a man on the moon. She was born during the Andrew Johnson administration and died under Lyndon Johnson."

To return to Philadelphia, Smith is in contact with people at St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church at Second and Jefferson streets in the Kensington section of the city.

"All their Sunday school students and parents were coming up to spend the day at Shaeff's woods, on Shaeff's Lane [in Upper Dublin Township]. They were coming up for a Sunday picnic," she said.

A series of chilling coincidences had to fall into place for the accident to happen.

The train bearing St. Michael's parishioners was running late, she said, but early enough in the morning when the dew was still wet on the tracks, making traction difficult.

Another train was southbound from Hoydt, now known as Gwynedd. There was only one track, and as one train approached, the other was supposed to wait on a siding. At what now is Fellwick, a no-longer-used station, at a double curve, at a point at which no one aboard either train would have heard the other coming, the two trains collided.

"It was horrible," Smith said. "It was miscommunication. That's the bottom line, even today.

"[Firefighters] ran with fire apparatus all the way from Flourtown. Mary Ambler was one of the first on the scene. She walked from her house in Ambler. One of the reports indicates the children were trapped in the railroad cars."

Different sources give different accounts of the accident. Some refer to it as the Camp Hill Disaster, others as the Fort Washington Disaster. Were there 1,000 or 1,500 people on the train? Exactly how many people died - many accounts say they were mostly children - and where were they buried?

Smith is eager to visit St. Michael's Church, which is preparing a book for its own 150th anniversary, to see the cemetery and the documents they have archived, and perhaps find answers to some of her questions. She'd also like to know about a man named Mears and his contribution to the rescue effort.

Smith aims to pool her historical interests onto paper.

"That's my goal, to write extensively," she said. "Of all the bits and pieces of history I've accumulated, I want to do something, something with all the little personal things I know."

Some of them will give her goose bumps.