--- title: Amtrak Crash Philadelphia: Derailment Echoes Train Crash of 1943 description: A tragedy on the rails on Tuesday night took place near the site of one of America's worst train disasters canonical: https://time.com/3857049/amtrak-crash-history-1943/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-13T14:25:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:06.666Z article:section: History og:title: Amtrak Crash Echoes 1943 Philadelphia Rail Disaster og:description: A tragedy on the rails on Tuesday night took place near the site of one of America's worst train disasters og:url: https://time.com/3857049/amtrak-crash-history-1943/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7430767480a0d5e0/6987ef8e3c1639603c455fae/congressional.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Grim procession of the dead of the Congr og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Amtrak Crash Echoes 1943 Philadelphia Rail Disaster twitter:description: A tragedy on the rails on Tuesday night took place near the site of one of America's worst train disasters twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7430767480a0d5e0/6987ef8e3c1639603c455fae/congressional.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Amtrak Crash Echoes 1943 Philadelphia Rail Disaster > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Know Right Now: Amtrak Train Derails in Philadelphia [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Amtrak Train Derails in Philadelphia](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DYs6Ioeq.m3u8) (1:05)  _Published 2015-05-13. Know Right Now: Amtrak Train Derails in Philadelphia_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 13, 2015 2:25 PM UTC  After the Congressional Limited train wreck in 1943 After the Congressional Limited train wreck in 1943 Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 13, 2015 2:25 PM UTC When an Amtrak trained [derailed on Tuesday night in Philadelphia](http://time.com/3856714/amtrak-crash-philadelphia/), leaving at least six people dead, it wasn’t long before observers [noticed ](http://abcnews.go.com/US/amtrak-crash-site-train-derailment-railway-tragedy/story?id=30998486)an eerie echo of the past: the wreck took place not far from the site of what was, at the time, one of the country’s deadliest train crashes. It was September of 1943 when the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Congressional “cracked apart” in what TIME called “one of the most spectacular wrecks in U.S. railroad history.” Like the most recent derailed train, the Congressional was bound for New York City but had not yet cleared Philadelphia city limits. And, like the people of today, first responders nearby rushed to the scene to try to help. This is what they found: --- > “” --- But it does look like, thankfully, there is at least one difference between today’s aftermath and that of seven decades ago: as of press time in 1943, TIME counted at least 75 dead. That put the Congressional crash within range of the 115 dead in what was at that time the nation’s worst-ever train disaster, a 1918 crash in Tennessee, though nowhere near the worst in the world, in which at least 500 French troops were killed on their way home for a leave during World War I. And the disaster didn’t stop there: by the next week, five more victims of the Congressional wreck had died, and the Pennsylvania Railroad had seen two smaller crashes with three more victims between them. Other local railroads saw their own spate of derailments. The reason for the run of trouble, TIME [surmised](http://time.com/vault/issue/1943-09-20/page/24/), was the burden of wartime demands. “Groaning under record loads of passengers and freight, short of men, shy of equipment, U.S. railroads have chugged along by dint of many a huff, puff and prayer, and some luck,” the magazine noted. “Now their luck seemed to be running out.” **_Read the full story from 1943, here in the TIME archives:_** [Wreck of the Congressional](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,791040,00.html) ### See Photos of the Amtrak Train Crash in Philadelphia  Emergency personnel work the scene of the Amtrak train wreck on May 12, 2015 in Philadelphia. Joseph Kaczmarek—AP  Emergency personnel work the scene of the Amtrak train wreck on May 12, 2015 in Philadelphia. Joseph Kaczmarek—AP  Emergency personnel help a passenger at the scene of the Amtrak train wreck on May 12, 2015 in Philadelphia. Joseph Kaczmarek—AP  Rescue workers climb into the wreckage of a derailed Amtrak train to search for victims in Philadelphia on May 12, 2015. Bryan Woolston—Reuters  Emergency personnel work the scene of a train wreck on May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia. Joseph Kaczmarek—AP  Emergency personnel work the scene of the Amtrak train wreck on May 12, 2015 in Philadelphia. Joseph Kaczmarek—AP  A crime scene investigator looks inside a train car after a train wreck on May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia. Joseph Kaczmarek—AP  A police officer takes a seat near the wreckage of an Amtrak passenger train which derailed in Philadelphia on May 12, 2015. Mark Makela—Getty Images  Officials survey the site of a derailed Amtrak train in Philadelphia on May 13, 2015. Mike Segar—Reuters ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] It is an absolute disastrous mess. Never seen anything like this in my life. 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