On August 23, 1903, at 7:33 a.m. a westbound newspaper train of the

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

, originating in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, derailed in

Little Falls, New York Little Falls is a city in Herkimer County, New York. The population was 4,946 at the time of the 2010 census, which is the second-smallest city population in the state, ahead of only the city of Sherrill. The city is built on both sides of the ...

due to excessive speed on a curve, killing two crew members – the

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and

fireman A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

. The train consisted of

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

number 2941, baggage cars 2570 and 2535, and horse car 2312.

Background

The train originated in

at 3:00 a.m. All three cars were loaded with New York newspapers destined for

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

from Albany to Buffalo and Canada. The train had left Albany at 6:05 a.m. and was instructed to reach

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

within three hours, including stops in

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, Fonda, Herkimer and Utica. The train was also instructed to reduce speed in three locations –

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, Little Falls, and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. The train was run by engineer Robert Lilly, fireman Thomas Connolly, and conductor George Erhardt. Lilly was an experienced engineer on freight trains.

Accident

The accident happened approximately east of the Little Falls

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...

where the tracks run parallel to the north shore of the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...

, on the ''Gulf Curve'', the sharpest curve in the New York Central system, a six to seven degree bend. After negotiating approximately 75% of the curve, the engine derailed and crossed two of the parallel tracks and went down an embankment landing on its side. The first baggage car also went over the embankment. The tender and second baggage car derailed but remained on the rail right-of-way, blocking the other tracks. The last car remained on its track. Engineer Lilly (age 48) was killed instantly by decapitation and fireman Connolly (age 25) died from a broken neck and skull injuries shortly after being removed from the wreckage. Four newspaper messengers were injured. The two most seriously injured were the only occupants of the destroyed baggage car. They believed they survived only by being cushioned by bundles of newspapers, and were treated at the Little Falls hospital. The engine and second baggage car were damaged but not seriously and could be repaired. The other derailed baggage car was destroyed. All three set of tracks involved were forced out of service due to twisted rails and damaged ties. Another train was sent and the newspapers were delivered with a two-hour delay.

Cause

Inspection of the track and equipment found no contributing defects. The track was "in perfect surface and alignment". The braking gear on the engine was in working order. The engine and tender had undergone routine maintenance the prior May. The engine's

throttle A throttle is the mechanism by which fluid flow is managed by constriction or obstruction. An engine's power can be increased or decreased by the restriction of inlet gases (by the use of a throttle), but usually decreased. The term ''throttle'' ...

was observed after the accident as being "wide open". The train passed a signal tower at St. Johnsville, east of the crash site, four minutes before derailing. From the distance, the train's speed at the time was calculated to be at least per hour. According to the survivors, the train was approximately 15 minutes behind schedule and the engineer was trying to make up time. The train left the track due to excessive speed on the curve. The conductor stated that the train did not reduce speed upon approaching the curve. Although there was no speed limit on the curve, most engineers did use braking to slow the train when rounding the curve. After the accident, a per hour speed limit was put in place.

Second Gulf Curve crash

The much more deadly

Little Falls Gulf Curve crash of 1940 A train crash with fatalities occurred shortly after 11:30 p.m. on April 19, 1940, when a first-class westbound ''Lake Shore Limited (New York Central Railroad train), Lake Shore Limited'' operated by the New York Central Railroad, derailed n ...

occurred on the same spot killing 31.

References

{{1903 railway accidents Railway accidents in 1903 Railway accidents and incidents in New York (state) 1903 in New York (state) Herkimer County, New York New York Central Railroad Accidents and incidents involving New York Central Railroad