Boris
Beach Bum
PC decided the tried and true method of General Orders and Train orders clearance forms etc. was too expensive, as were annual reprints of the timetable, so they phased in Bulletin Orders. I started carrying a slim loose leaf binder to keep my Bulletins, with highlighters to call my attention to pertinent bulletins. With all the speed restrictions, it was necessary to keep reviewing them during the trip. And then it became necessary to carry a binder for each division.Boris I didn't know this, At the time I hired out they were changing all the platforms from low to high. New bulletin orders every day. Single tracking Train orders every day. Then after that they started electrifying the Harlem Division. A consent stream of orders every day. A 75 year old engineer forgot about the single tracking order at Chappaqua NY ran through the 30 mph crossover derailing the engine and 4 cars with rails coming up through the car floors.
Swal
The distinction with the Broker accident, was that the train operated on three separate railroads. From Bay Head to South Amboy the New York and Long Branch (66% owned by the PRR, 33% owned by the CNJ. South Amboy to Wood the CNJ, and Wood to Jersey City and the Meadows, the PRR, New York Division, (their Home Division). Chances are that in 1951, the only restriction / obstruction / deviation for the entire route would be in the area of the wreck. Considerably less than we had to deal with, and significantly less to forget.
Significant that Jersey's other disastrous wreck involved a crew out of Bay Head, the CNJ train that ran the signal and off the open lift bridge into Newark Bay in 1958. No cause determined beyond the obvious in that incident either. That occurrence, was in the morning, while the Broker was in the late afternoon.
