Old Maude, Preface - Virtual Railroader

America's first high-speed electric locomotive
Old Maude:^
Parts: Preface | First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth | Notes
A FATAL ACCIDENT
If the Central had any thought of resting on its laurels, it was
soon to be disappointed. The new electrics, conceived as part of
a monumental response to a tragic accident, soon became - along
with their creators, owners, and operators - embroiled in an
accident that produced a public outcry of even greater
proportion than its predecessor. On February 16, 1907, an
evening rush-hour commuter train headed by a pair of the new
electrics derailed on a curve near 205th Street in Woodlawn.
The last four of the train's five wooden coaches left the tracks
completely and overturned, leaving twenty-three dead and
another one-hundred fifty injured.
The flames of public discontent with railroads needed little
fanning from the press, though it received plenty. The New York
Times, for example, carried one or more articles on the accident
almost daily for the next three weeks. The great struggle by
governmental and other reformers to reign in the freewheeling
railroads on such matters as unregulated shipping rates and
general disregard for public and worker safety had already been
given much ink for several years. Barely a month before the
Woodlawn accident, the Interstate Commerce Commisssion had
launched a hearing on the subject of railroad safety. On January
17 the Times reported that 1276 people had died in New York
State alone during the previous fiscal year in train and street
railway accidents. Two of the Central's crack passenger trains,
the Twentieth Century Limited and the Pacific Express had
crashed in 1906. The Century, always on the cutting edge of new
speed records, had crashed in 1905 as well. On January 22, 1907,
another Central passenger train crashed near Albany, killing