Dec 26, 2003 By Joyce Koballa 3 min read

CONNELLSVILLE – A Christmas Eve shopping trip to Pittsburgh 100 years ago turned deadly for 70 people when the Duquesne Limited train in which they were returning home wrecked along a section of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad near Dawson when a wooden beam from a passing freight train fell onto the tracks. According to newspaper accounts, the passengers were crushed by the heavy engine and scalded by escaping steam. “Most of those killed were in the smoker, no women being injured-several Connellsville people among the dead,” one article stated.

In addition to local residents, those listed among the dead were from New York, West Virginia, New Jersey and Maryland.

While 90-year-old George Pratt wasn’t born yet, he said he learned of the Dec. 24, 1909, disaster from his father, who was just 10 years old when it happened.

When it comes to the railroad industry, Pratt’s wealth of information is right on track.

The tragedy is just one piece of history from the area’s railroad industry that Pratt is accustomed to sharing in relation to his experiences as a fireman and engineer for the B&O Railroad from 1941 to 1975.

Pratt, born and raised in Vanderbilt, said his father and a friend actually went to the scene, which occurred at Laurel Run, one mile west of Dawson and seven miles west of Connellsville, near Linden Hall.

Although the wreck of the Duquesne Limited occurred before his time, Pratt was very familiar with another train accident along the B&O that took place Aug. 28, 1950, being that it was his first year as an engineer for the railroad company.

The head-on crash, said Pratt, involved two engines that collided along the tracks near Sodom, just outside Connellsville toward Dawson.

Pratt said the accident occurred when one of the tracks was out of order and the dispatcher told one train engineer to re-route without informing the operator of the train traveling in the opposite direction. “They hit head on at the curve,” said Pratt.

While Pratt has witnessed his share of train casualties throughout his 34-year tenure with the B&O, he is still haunted by the time a train he was operating hit 24 automobiles and left seven people dead.

Pratt said although he applied the brakes and whistle, it is impossible for a train to stop on a dime, especially when it is traveling at speeds up to 100 mph.

“You know what’s going to happen…it’s a strange feeling,” said Pratt.

In taking the good with the bad, Pratt said his 34 years on the railroad have left him with a legacy of memories that he is releasing to the West Virginia Railroad Museum by donating his collection of photographs and videotapes.

So far, Pratt has provided the museum with more than 500 pictures that include lithographs and copies of water paintings of steam engines by renowned artists such as Howard Fogg and Ted Rose that account for Pratt’s favorites.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Pratt.