Did you know? Just before dawn on May 1, 1947, two sixteen foot sheets of steel shifted on an open gondola car of a westbound freight west of Huntingdon. Their ends swung out over the tracks on both sides.
The Pennsylvania Railroad's New York to St. Louis flyer, a sleeper and coach train called The American, was running westbound on the parallel track. It hit the steel, and the steel ripped open the side of the train.
Moments later an eastbound freight struck the steel sticking out on the other side. Its engine and tender came off the rails. All four main tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad were tied up. Three trains, one obstruction, a few seconds apart.
Five people were dead by the next day. One of them was Jean Sims, twenty six years old, of Clifton, Virginia.
Her daughter Penelope was two weeks old. They pulled the baby out of the wreckage wrapped in a towel with her left leg broken, and she lived. The Associated Press found her a day later at J. C. Blair Memorial Hospital here in town, taking a bottle. Hospital attendants told the reporter she was pretty fussy after they set the leg.
Down the hall was Joseph Monaco, a railroad machinist from New Castle, critically hurt on the way home from a honeymoon that had started two weeks before. His bride Mary was hurt less badly. She told a reporter that all she wanted right then was to go home and take Joe with her.
Does anybody have family who was working at J. C.
What the fact check changed. SUBSTANTIALLY TRUE, including the part that sounded most invented. CONFIRMED: the date (May 1, 1947, before dawn); two 16-foot sheets of steel lying lengthwise on an open gondola of a WESTBOUND freight, which shifted so their ends stuck out over the tracks on both sides; the train struck was the Pennsylvania Railroad's New York to St. Louis sleeper-coach flyer, running westbound on the parallel track; the steel ripped open its side; and the THIRD-TRAIN claim, which is real. An eastbound freight hit the steel protruding on the other side moments later, its engine and tender were thrown from the rails, and all four main tracks of the PRR were tied up. CORRECTED, train name: the post calls it the 'American Limited'. Both papers call it 'The American'. There is no 'Limited' in the name. CORRECTED, death toll: the post says four dead. Four was the first-day wire figure (Nome Nugget). By the next day the AP reported FIVE dead and named all five: Joseph Selnick jr., 18, soldier, Pleasant Gap, Pa.; Pvt. Robert E. Deavers, 37, Zanesville, Ohio; Pfc. Herbert B. Huetsch, 21, Columbia, Ill.; Michael Burdock jr., Monessen, Pa.; and Mrs. Jean D. Sims, 26, Clifton, Va. Wikipedia's citation to a Pittsburgh Press headline of May 2 1947 ('Fifth Victim Dies After PRR Crash') corroborates the fifth death, but the check did not open that paper. The rewrite says 'five people were dead by the next day', which is exactly what the opened source supports and also explains why other accounts say four. DROPPED, injured count: the numbers conflict badly. 40 (first-day AP), 46 (Pittsburgh Press headline per Wikipedia, not opened), 51 in the Evening Star headline against 45 injured plus 6 critical in its own body. No injury figure appears in the rewrite. DROPPED, distance: the first-day AP says five miles west of Huntingdon, the May 2 AP follow-up says 4 miles west. Two AP dispatches disagree, so the distance is dropped and the rewrite says only 'west of Huntingdon'. DROPPED, 'the fourth passenger car': no source supports it. The only traceable statement, in the Wikipedia entry citing an AP story in The State (Columbia S.C.), says the FIRST coach. the check did not open The State, so first coach is not asserted either. The rewrite says the steel ripped open the side of the train and names no car. DROPPED, '1:47 a.m.': traces only to the same Wikipedia entry and its unopened AP citation. The two papers opened say 'pre-dawn hours' and 'early yesterday'. The rewrite says 'just before dawn'. NAME CONFLICT FLAGGED: the Evening Star prints the mother's surname 'Simms' in the AP Wirephoto caption and 'Sims' twice in the article body, in the same issue. The rewrite uses Sims, the majority spelling in that issue. THE STORY THE POST MISSED: the two-week-old baby who came out of the wreckage wrapped in a towel with a broken leg and lived, while her mother did not, and the honeymoon couple in the same hospital. Both are in the rewrite. TONE: the original ended 'Tag somebody who grew up along these tracks, bet they've never heard this one' on a wreck that killed five people including a young mother. Replaced with a genuine question about J. C. Blair Memorial Hospital.
Checked 2026-08-01 · County history, independently fact checked
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