On June 16, 1925, a severe
thunderstorm washed
sand and
gravel on the tracks of the
Lackawanna Railroad. At 3:25 in the morning, a seven-car
excursion train carrying
German-American passengers hit the obstruction, and four of the cars
derailed. The
locomotive's
boiler exploded, flooding the derailed cars with scalding
steam. The passengers were bound from
Chicago to
Hoboken, where they were to sail for
Bremen. Fifty people died.
(this is one of the New Jersey disasters)