On Dec 31, 1929, there was a wreck on the CNJ in Dunellen, NJ on the westbound mainline and adjacent yard located in the area between the CNJ Dunellen roundhouse and the Art Color Printing Co.
Phil Mulligan commented regarding this accident on Railway Preservation News: “A Reading freight train sideswiped a CNJ passenger train at Dunellen NJ on the CNJ. It was four track territory on the CNJ, and Jersey City – Philadelphia trains (freight and passenger) ran on a pool basis based on mileage, about two Reading to one Central. B&O Royal Blue service also used these tracks. Today this is on NJT’s Raritan Valley Line.
The derailment affected the Westward tracks. It wasn't a rear-end collision, but it appears the freight train had derailed and struck the passenger cars on a siding, and the wreckage does not seem to foul either of the Eastward tracks. Of course they may have already cleaned that part up. The roundhouse is CNJ’s Dunellen enginehouse. Some suburban trains to Jersey City originated at Dunellen, hence the enginehouse and the cars laying over.
The overturned engine is a RDG M1 2-8-2, preferred power for merchandise freight.
The first two trains passing were CNJ with 4-6-0’s, the third is RDG with G-1-s-a 4-6-2 105, the first of its class and undoubtedly on a JC-Philadelphia train.”
The following series of photos of the wreck were given to me in the late 1970s by the late Charlie Luftberry, a retired CNJ conductor and a fellow member of the Railroadians of America.
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