Transport: Bustleton Special

Last week for more than two hours a Pennsylvania Railroad train was “lost” near Philadelphia.

The train was a special from Atlantic City to Philadelphia, with three cars attached for Bustleton. This suburb, 17 miles from Philadelphia, is on a short spur off the New York-Philadelphia mainline. Bustleton-bound were 20 delegates returning from the 51st triennial General Convention of the Episcopal Church at Atlantic City. At Philadelphia their cars were attached to a switch engine, shuttled off to Bustleton. From the dispatcher at Holmesburg Junction, 13 miles out, went word that the special had passed “on time.” Then it vanished.

Two hours later it was still missing. Philadelphia dispatchers appealed to police. Out to find the train went motorcycle officers and a radio patrol. A block from the Bustleton station they found it stalled. A wheel of the engine had jumped the track. The station, unused for years, had no telephone. The passengers had walked home.