Train Wreck

The Train in the Water
(Wreck of Old 427) Story Inspired by The Loxahatchee Lament

Drivers crossing the high-arched fixed bridge on Alternate A1A in Jupiter tend to look to the east. There is a magnificent view of the Jupiter Inlet, Lighthouse, and the Atlantic Ocean. Next time you take the trip, look just to the west and down.

The Florida East Coast Railroad bridge crosses the river just west of the A1A bridge. It is an interesting sight and one that has peaked my curiosity since I first saw it. The bridge is so low to the water that it is open all the time. The open span on the north side lifts high into the air.

Trains flow down the FEC tracks through Jupiter all the time at normal speed. If I were the engineer of such a train, I'd be nervous about running my train toward a potentially open bridge. Knowing that technology doesn't always work as it should, I often look down to see if there is a train in the water half expecting to see one.

Well, it did happen! On a recent research outing in the Jupiter library I stumbled on a fabulous old book called The Loxahatchee Lament (more about that later -- it is soon to be reprinted). Thumbing through the book, I stopped short when I saw a picture of a locomotive nose down in river. Sure enough, there was the train in the water.

I met with Carlin White on Saturday, January 29, 2000, and had a chance to talk to him about this incident. He was able to fill in some interesting little details.

My first question was "why wasn't the movie camera used, at least after the crash?" The answer is that there was a lot of commotion and filming was the last thing on his mind.

Mr. White was on the water piloting a boat, a job he did on occasion. "I think the train was called the Miamian, which came out of New York. It was the third section of the train..." I stopped him at that point to clarify what he meant by third section.

Carlin related this fact about trains that I never heard before: "In those day on popular routes like the Miamian, when the train filled up and there were more passengers, they would add another train. That was called the second section. It was still the Miamian or whatever, but there were separate trains following each other each with its own locomotive. That day, there were three sections, or three separate trains following each other along the route."

"The three sections were heading south. The first two passed safely across the closed bridge and then the bridge raised. There is a single span on the north side of the bridge that points up in the air when the bridge isn't closed. We could see the sparks as from the wheels on the rails from as far away as where Tequesta Drive is today as the engineer locked his brakes. The whole thing happened like it was in slow motion. The train couldn't have been doing more than 3 or 4 miles an hour as it hit the upturned bridge span and nosed down into the water. It was fortunate that the crash happened on the side where the span was in place because it helped to stop the train."

"Was anyone hurt?" I asked.

"WRECK OF OLD 427 - One day during the 1930's, the FEC bridge had not been closed when a southbound train came upon it. This photo (we hope to get the photo - BP) from Neil DuBois' album shows the result. One eye-witness was Carlin White. He said the train was heard skidding along the tracks with its brakes set for sometime before the wreck. The engineer almost got the train stopped, but not quite. The engine ran into the upturned bridge span, knocked it off, and nosed down into the water behind it. Behind the coal car in this view from the west side, the first car of the train is still seen on the tracks. Later in the day Pathe News heard he had a movie camera with him -- but then White realized he had been so fascinated in watching the wreck unfold that he had not photographed it." Courier Highlights, July 4, 1974

Here's the caption from the picture as printed in The Loxahatchee Lament (caption above):

Picture postcard provided by Carlin White (publisher unknown)

"No, the train was going so slow at the time. But the engineer and fireman along with a couple of hobos leapt from the train at the last minute to avoid the crash. Afterwards, there was a lot of commotion. I heard the fireman giving the engineer hell for going through a yellow caution light. The engineer replied that he been going through yellow lights all the way down the line from being close to the train sections ahead of him and had assumed that this caution light was because of the train ahead of him. By the time the red light came on to indicate the bridge was up, the brakes were already locked." One other interesting sidelight of the day's events was mentioned by Mr. White with a smile.

"One of the reasons there are few pictures is that the train was loaded with wealthy men who were coming to Florida with their girlfriends. They didn't want their pictures taken. They also didn't want to wait around. They were offering to pay $100 for a ride to The Breakers in Palm Beach. I got my car and made four trips myself that day, so I made $400."