The Stockton train wreck occurred on August 4, 1944 at 11.45 p.m. on the

Atlantic Coast Line Railroad The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was a United States Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967 it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast L ...

Stockton, Georgia Stockton is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lanier County, Georgia, United States. Stockton is located in the far southern portion of the state on U.S. Highway 84, near Valdosta and Lakeland. The surrounding ar ...

and killed 47 people, mostly black labourers returning home to

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

for the weekend.Table 4-2 Selected Train Wrecks in the United States in the Twentieth Century in ''Living With Hazards, Dealing With Disasters: An Introduction to Emergency Management'' by William L Waugh, publ. February 2000
''Syracuse Herald Journal'', New York 1944-08-06 The 14 car train, en route from Waycross, Georgia, to

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, was traveling westbound on a single track line through Stockton at a speed of 65 mph, when a broken rail beneath the 9th car derailed the 10th-14th cars into a siding where they collided with a freight train which had been standing there to let the passenger train pass. All the fatalities occurred in the 10th car which was "sheared practically its entire length diagonally from the floor on the right hand side to the juncture of the roof and side sheets on the left hand side". The rescue operation was hampered initially by lack of light before Army trucks from

Moody Field Moody may refer to: Places * Moody, Alabama, U.S. * Moody, Indiana, U.S. * Moody, Missouri, U.S. * Moody, Texas, U.S. * Moody County, South Dakota, U.S. * Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada * Hundred of Moody, a cadastral division in South A ...

Valdosta Valdosta is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, United States. As of 2019, Valdosta had an estimated population of 56,457. Valdosta is the principal city of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in 2021 had a ...

arrived with searchlights. The resulting investigation "found that this accident was caused by a broken rail, as a result of the presence of transverse fissures". It noted also that this railroad had reported 61 accidents during the previous 4½ years caused either directly or indirectly by broken rails.

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Stockton, GA Terrible Train Collision, Aug 1944
{{coord, 30, 57, 00, N, 82, 58, 20, W, display=title Railway accidents in 1944 Derailments in the United States 1944 in Georgia (U.S. state) Transportation in Lanier County, Georgia Accidents and incidents involving Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Railway accidents and incidents in Georgia (U.S. state) August 1944 events Train collisions in the United States 1944 disasters in the United States

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