Wreck of the Red Arrow: An American Train Tragedy

At 3:22 am on February 18, 1947, the Red Arrow, an express passenger train of the Pennsylvania Railroad en route to New York City from Detroit, crashed at the peak of the Allegheny Mountains near Altoona, Pennsylvania. Twenty-four people were killed and 140 were injured, many grotesquely. The story of the Red Arrow is riddled with controversy. The Interstate Commerce Commission, which investigated the wreck, concluded that the train was going at least 65 miles per hour when it plunged into a 200-foot deep gorge at Bennington Curve. At that time, the speed limit on the curve was 30 miles per hour, and the Red Arrow's locomotives did not have speedometers.