Nashua hasn’t seen a major train derailment since 1950s

NASHUA – There hasn’t been a major derailment in downtown Nashua since 1954 – and compared to that disaster, which happened almost exactly 55 years ago, Tuesday’s accident was relatively minor.

On Nov. 12, 1954, the Red Wing, a Montreal-to-Boston train, derailed as it entered Union Station, which at the time was the major passenger station in Nashua.

Union Station was located at the intersection of Temple and East Hollis streets, where the Nashua Diner now stands, a few hundred yards south of Tuesday’s accident.

According to 1954 press reports, the second unit of the two-diesel locomotive came off the tracks and five cars of the seven-car train derailed, killing a Manchester woman and injuring two dozen passengers. The wreckage penetrated the walls of buildings on both sides of the track. It was later determined that the train was going almost 70 mph as it approached the station, where the speed limit at the time was 30 mph.

The only other major derailment downtown occurred July 19, 1943, when more than 80 people were hurt after the third car of a 12-car train derailed, dragging six other cars off the tracks.

That accident occurred about three miles south of Union Station.

The worst train accident in city history, however, wasn’t caused by a derailment.

On Dec. 7, 1960, a train struck a propane truck at the Hills Ferry Crossing, at the east end of Hills Ferry Road off Concord Street.

The Wrenn family was making a propane delivery after church: the father, mother and two children, ages 3 and 1, were killed.