On Monday morning, December 5, 1921, a horrific head-on collision between two passenger trains of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad occurred at this site in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, killing 26 people and injuring 70 others. Most of the casualties came from communities served by the rail line, especially Churchville and Southampton. The accident was caused when the crew of northbound Train 151 to Newtown failed to confirm and obey a written train order issued at the Bryn Athyn station. They did not realize they were to take the siding and allow two southbound trains, Numbers 154 and 156, to pass before continuing. Train 151 left the siding after the first train had cleared the line but while Train 156 was still heading south on the single-track line. The collision took place on a blind curve through a deep rock cut, the worst possible spot on the line. The wooden construction of the passenger cars contributed to the high death toll because, after the engines collided, hot coals from the fireboxes of the two steam locomotives set the cars on fire, trapping many victims in the wreckage and flames. Rescue was made more difficult by the inaccessibility of the site and the snow on the ground. Local doctors were summoned by the Bethayres telephone operator, and fire companies from Bryn Athyn, Hatboro, Willow Grove, Huntingdon Valley, Southampton, and Jenkintown responded. Many of the more seriously injured were taken to Abington Memorial Hospital. In February 1922 at the county courthouse in Norristown, the engineer and conductor of northbound Train 151 were tried for criminal negligence in failing to follow railroad rules. A jury found them guilty but recommended mercy, and the judge sentenced both men to jail terms. They were pardoned two months later by the Governor after the Board of Pardons received 30,000 signatures pleading for mercy. In the aftermath, the Interstate Commerce Commission directed the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and other U.S. railroads to begin replacing wooden passenger cars with all-steel construction, and because the manual train-signalling system had contributed to the crash, the railroad was also directed to install an automatic block signal system. The site later became known as Death Gulch, and a monument at the North and Southampton Reformed Church in Churchville honors a number of those killed.
