Blizzard of 1947

On Christmas Eve, 1947, the Rahway Valley shuddered its doors for a much deserved holiday respite. A lite snow had blanketed the track side communities on December 23rd, giving the area a rare and welcomed white Christmas.

About 4 AM on Friday, December 26, 1947, a few stray snowflakes began falling across the northeastern United States. The weathermen had made no such snowfall prediction, but as the boys showed up at Kenilworth to begin the day's work, the menacing clouds had gathered intensity. The snow fell steadily, relentlessly, silently on a bitterly cold, windless day.

Engineer Frank Froat, Conductor Bob Davis, a fireman, and two brakemen went about the day's freight switching with No. 14. The intensifying storm, however, prompted George A. Clark to have a second locomotive fired up to clear the tracks. No. 13 was fired and fitted with its home built snow drag, which Carl Nees had fabricated for that locomotive back in 1936.

Clark was never afraid to lend a hand to the boys in a pinch. He wore lumberjack shirts and corduroy pants, supported by suspenders, to work each day. As the snow began to pile in Kenilworth, No. 13 got underway with Caboose No. 102 in tow, Nees firing, and Clark at the throttle. They headed westbound out of Kenilworth, eventually turned at Branch Junction, and came back east to clear the line towards Aldene. Years later, Clark recalled, grinning, "I wasn't back here sitting until the snow began to melt in February."

The record-breaking snowfall soon rivaled that of the Blizzard of 1888. Trains out of New York City were running twelve hours behind schedule. On the CNJ, at the Cranford station, droves of Kenilworth residents were journeying for home on foot. Conditions made plowing streets nearly impossible. Cars were marooned everywhere. Still, the snow fell.

After No. 13 cleared the line of snow - at least, temporarily - Froat and Davis headed back out with No. 14, and the caboose, to resume freight service. About 3:30 PM, Froat and Davis had No. 14 at Aldene to pick up ten cars from the CNJ. The local “Cranford Drill” was in the yard, with No. 309 – an 0-8-0 USRA-design switcher – as power, and No. 14 followed the drill up Track 10 into Cranford Yard. Davis rode the drill caboose and asked its flagman, Charles Cody, to leave the switch open because No. 14 was making a move and he’d look after it. Visibility was near zero and all tracks and switches were completely snowed under, making all switching operations a matter of guesswork. Inadvertently, instead of protecting the switch for Track 6, Davis threw the wrong switch and passed a signal for No. 14 to move ahead. In the meantime, No. 309 – with snowplow – was standing on the west end of Track 6. A member of the drill crew had thrown the switch operating the derail. No. 14 went over the derail, damaging it, and derailed its pony trucks and tender. After a great deal of difficulty, due mainly to the fact that the RV’s frogs were too low for CNJ rails, the locomotive was re-railed about 5:45 PM.

The yard was so inundated with snow that No. 14 derailed three more times before reaching the RV. In order to pass the Aldene station, it was necessary to hand shovel and pick out Track 8 and it took the RV crew several hours to move a distance of approximately four hundred feet. Passing plow trains kept burying No. 14, trapping it in the yard. Clark said, “It was a real heart breaker for us as every time we hit this packed snow which was several feet high on track 8 directly in front of your Aldene station our caboose derailed and as engine 14 was running low on water as a last resort it was necessary for us to hand shovel our way out. Once on our own rails we had no more trouble.”

The CNJ pursued the RV for several months to make good on the damages to its derail. Clark responded, “Full responsibility for this derailment rests entirely upon our shoulders and I sincerely regret any trouble or inconvenience which we may have caused you. We hold our Engineer Froat and Conductor Davis equally responsible for this unfortunate derailment, however, when taking into consideration the adverse operating conditions which confronted them I am going to be frank enough to state that the undersigned gave both parties a clean bill of health as the difficulty, expense, time and trouble experienced were all secondary to later developments. As you know, this derailment occurred during a very heavy and blinding snow storm, in fact, just about the worst storm which ever hit this section of the country as the snowfall broke all existing records.”

Bitterly cold temperatures persisted that winter. The blizzard's snow didn't completely melt away until the following March.