Train wrecks were a constant worry in Hamburg Township, though they were not common. As trains became common in the 1800s, accidents shook communities around the world, and worldwide time zones were established in part to coordinate train schedules and minimize accidents. Railroads became a dynamic presence in Hamburg Township when two railways were built through the area in the 1880s. On October 25, 1893, a northbound freight train struck an unstable stretch of rail near Zukey Lake; the engine rolled into a swamp and caught fire. Fed by a cargo of oil and coal, the Lakeland train fire lasted three days, and the charred shell of the locomotive was left to disappear into the landscape nearby.