Then and Now.....The Accident of the Blue Comet Train

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,602
8,181
I fixed all but two links. I can't find the photo's for them. Basically, it was a photo at the time of the accident showing the poles along the tracks.

Guy
 

NJBill

Explorer
Sep 10, 2008
120
2
Hamilton (Mercer County)
I'll vouch for the six years of great stuff. I've been reading and digging into it for a couple hours per night for the past six weeks. Its been an exciting journey reading into the history of that various areas. My personal favorites have been the well written and photographed day trips the contributors have put together.

Thanks to all of you who chase this passion and are kind of enough to share all of this incredible history and detail of the Pines.
 

gipsie

Explorer
Sep 14, 2008
547
67
55
atlantic county
Awesome! I just noticed this thread. I have been to the area and had never knew where the exact spot was. Thanks Nik, for bumping it up. And thanks, Guy for the great detective work and photos!
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,602
8,181
Maybe in the fall we could spend an hour and visit there again.

I found one of the photo's showing the pole in 1939.

36_3.jpg


Guy
 

gipsie

Explorer
Sep 14, 2008
547
67
55
atlantic county
Short article that does not say much, but thank you Guy for reviving this thread! One of my favorite places in the Pines...

There are some places you can go back to a million times! The site of the Blue Comet Wreck, the site of the Bear Swamp crash, the old logging machine in the Great Swamp, Hampton Furnace, the WP stone and many many more.....

"The Pines may not consume you....but their history will"
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,602
8,181
BTW Gipsie, I noticed you posted once on another site asking for information on the Swamp Monster (logging machine). I did not respond because I thought that info was still on this site. Recently, I looked for it and noticed that all of my research was no longer here, or at least I could not find it. So, if anyone is interested in me posting it again I will dig it up and get it to you.


Guy
 

Boyd

Administrator
Staff member
Site Administrator
Jul 31, 2004
9,505
2,766
Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
Was it this perhaps? http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/get-togethers-events-trip-reports/6402-swamp-monster.html (made me a little sad to see those photos and posts from Jim...)

TeeGate said:
If you do a search here you can find more, and maybe even the photo's of the harvest that I posted. But basically here is what I found:

The Swamp Monster was manufactured by the "Unit" Crane and Shovel
Corporation of Waukesha (Milwaukee) Wisconsin, with offices or
manufacturing plants in other cities. They produced several different
models with different attachments on each one. Some were shovels, some
were cranes, and there is an attachment with a magnet to move around
scrap metal. So which particular model is ours?

In order to find that out, I took a photo of the serial number on a
recent visit there, and started asking questions. Here is what I have found.

Up until 1946, Unit used a common number system for all of their
equipment, with the last piece made that year being serial number 2663.

In 1947 they started using the last two digits of the year of completion
as the serial number prefix, which then would be followed by the
quantity number of the piece made to date. Here is the serial number of
the Monster:


Link does not work anymore. Sorry.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate...rialNumber.JPG

So given that number is 51802, we now know that it was produced in 1951.
I also learned that more than likely, it was built in November or
December of that year because the 802 is slightly less than the machines
built that year. I have not found out how many were actually built that
year.

I also learned that the two model numbers were the 514 and the 614, but
I have not learned as of yet how that is determined. But from the
photo's I have of it there is a clear consensus that it is a 614 which
has a capacity of 5/8 of a yard. I would then assume that the 514 was
the smaller one, with a capacity of 1/2 yards, and the size determines
the model.

Most of these units had the cab set a few feet above the deck gear hood
which made for good visibility.

Guy

Also this: http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/get...ip-report-shiver-me-timbers-blow-me-down.html

TeeGate said:
Swamp Monster Update

I have a timeline on when the Swamp Monster was abandoned, and it was much later than I had thought it might have been. In April and July of 1977 there were serious fires in the pines, with one being east of Paradise Lake in the Great Swamp which burned for a week. Many of the cedars still in good condition fell over because the fires burned under the ground and destroyed the roots. Steve (Behr655) noticed the downed trees in aerial photo’s, and members of PBX visited there in our “Shiver Me Timbers and Blow Me Down” Hike in 2006 that you can read about in this thread.

The area in question.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.67...pn=0.011396,0.023196&t=k&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1

About 120 acres were then put up for bit to have the cedars removed. The contract was won by Paul Harmanson who owned a saw mill in Mt. Holly. He hired Leon Stevens who owned Stevens Landscaping in Sickerville to harvest the trees, with the state receiving $54.320 for the wood. It was decided that because of the harsh terrain, the wood would be cut, placed on sleds, and pulled to dry ground with .......... a bulldozer. Sound familiar! Harvesting began in the fall of 1977, but complications caused them to stop. (Hmmmm) It resumed in January of 1979.

This was slow and costly, so a new plan was devised where a helicopter would remove the wood in place of driving it out. It was estimated that the vehicles could remove 60 cords a week, and the helicopter could do that in one day. The helicopter flew out of Hammonton airport each day of the operation.

All of the cedars removed were dead trees, and all the live tree’s were not touched. To insure the proper trees were removed, a blue line was painted on the tree’s at the division line between dead and live tree’s. This photo illustrates that perfectly.

IMG_7522.JPG



It is apparent from this info the reason why there are so many downed tree’s still there, is because even though these tree’s fell in the fire because the roots were damaged, they must have still been alive and were not up for harvesting. You can see them clearly here as Steve noticed when planning the hike.


http://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.67...74.683975&spn=0.001424,0.002899&t=k&z=19&om=1


Using the helicopter caused some hazards, especially where occasionally a log would let loose. Everyone would run for cover as to not be crushed by it. One worker from the 15 man shift was injured by a chainsaw, and was airlifted by the helicopter to the lawn of Kessler Memorial Hospital in Hammonton for medical help.

They averaged about 5 acres per week, and the process was expected to be finished by the fall of 1979. Some of the wood had started to rot requiring them to get it done quickly. In the end the wood was worth over one million dollars with you and I getting $54,320 of it.


Guy
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,602
8,181
Boyd,

Yes, that is most of it. I do also have the article in the Batsto Citizens Gazette that I believe is not included in all of the info you posted. I know I posted it on one occasion but I have not found that either. I have been sidetracked the last few days.


Guy
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,602
8,181

ecampbell

Piney
Jan 2, 2003
2,840
958
March visit

After viewing the video, Delux: The Tale of the Blue Comet, Deepexplr and I were compelled to visit the wreck site . We parked at the end of Apple Jack road, which had it's own assortment of stuff.


We proceeded up the dirt road and in a short distance entered a foot path on the right which took us to the tracks. Heading west we began to see alot of discarded ties. We then cane upon the infamous culvert which couldn't handle the heavy rains that fell that August in 1939.


A brake shoe.


An old pole


Someone had gone to alot of trouble to block the tracks with trees but it was no problem.


We also found a snare in the downed trees placed where one would walk when heading down the tracks to the wreck site. The snare had no ID tag. I also found another wire attached to another downed tree.


We took a near by side trip where we saw this.


A good day out in March,
Ed
 

DeepXplor

Explorer
Nov 5, 2008
341
19
Jersey Shore
While at the scene of the Blue Comet crash site, Ed and I found the Geocache. Here are some pictures. Also, I took a few pictures of the rail that has the manufacturer and what looks like the date of manufacture. I don't know enough about this process so can someone tell me if that is the date when the rail was produced.

P1020181.JPG


P1020194.JPG


P1020195.JPG


P1020198.JPG


P1020199.JPG
 

fierodoug

Explorer
Jul 12, 2010
171
217
Browns Mills
Awesome, great pics. I just watched "Deluxe" as well, and had planned to do this hike today but something came up. Hope to do it this coming week before the Lines in the Pines event. I was planning on hiking in from pine crest, as the house at the end of applejack did'nt look very "friendly" to visitors when I was checking out the areas.
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,602
8,181
The man in the last house is not happy with all the traffic I believe so just make sure you park on Parker property. Do this soon because once it warms up I can tell you that area is terrible with ticks and mosquitos. Ben and I along with the man in my above photo's had a rough time of it that day.

BTW, Robert Emmons who made the video found out about the location from me telling the man in the above photo's where it was. I learned of the location from Jerseyman. The man in my photo's made the geocache and Robert learned of it. Robert asked to go with that man and the man asked me to go along. I skipped the invitation and recommended that Jerseyman be contacted to get the true facts of the story.

Guy
 

DeepXplor

Explorer
Nov 5, 2008
341
19
Jersey Shore
I parked on the left hand side of the road, across from his property, about 100 feet , him being the person that doesn't like people. There is a clearing and my jeep was not bothered. It was an easy walk from there. After visiting the site I will watch the DVD again to gain a better perspective of things.
 

Kevinhooa

Explorer
Mar 12, 2008
332
25
41
Hammonton, NJ.
www.flickr.com
It is a neat site to visit. You can always park near Rt. 563 in Chatsworth and walk South from there. I believe the milepost is roughly .7 miles from where the tracks disappear into the woods behind the old station there. The station and water tower base are neat to see, and there is the Wading River trestle also along the line in that vicinity.
 

RancocasRover

New Member
May 14, 2011
19
2
Mount Holly
Armed with the Interstate Commerce Commission accident report, 5 of us headed down the tracks to see what if anything we could find.

Guy Thompson

Guy, this is such a nice report. You've inspired me to begin working on a report of an accident between Lakehurst and Toms River in 1918 which killed my great-grandfather. I have a newspaper article but to identify the exact location I believe I would need to refer to an official accident report either from the JCRR, ICC (if they existed then) or local police. There was also an inquest and a man was charged (I'll provide more when I complete the report). Can you refer me to a source that may have JCRR or ICC reports in this era. I think I know where to go for police/court reports if they exist. Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks!
 
Top