John Whipple of Cogan Station, flagman, and Robert Van Horn Jr., of New Berlin, front brakeman, were both fatally injured.

The farm where the accident occurred is off Armstrong Road, near Muncy SCI, and was owned by the Kenneth Eck family, who reported the crash after they heard and saw it from their home at 5:10 a.m.

A moving freight train smashed into the rear of a stopped train. Both trains were southbound for Harrisburg, the waiting train from Syracuse and the moving train from Buffalo.

The stationary train had been waiting for about 20 minutes near a siding for a northbound train, which was to go off the siding to permit it to pass, according to reports.

The stationary train’s two engines had 99 cars attached and the moving train’s two engines were hauling 91 cars.

The moving train was traveling at about 27 miles per hour, according to Conrail.

Volunteer firefighters from Clinton Township, Muncy and Montgomery worked in sub-freezing temperatures to free Joseph Barrett, a trapped crewman. Barrett was the engineer of the moving train. He was conscious and called out for help, which was fortunate since he could not be seen in the wreckage.

A crane belonging to Sprout Waldron Division of Koppers Co. at Muncy was brought to the scene to lift part of the engine wreckage to allow rescuers to free Barrett.

After Barrett was freed from the wreckage, firefighters had to use ropes to haul the litter up a 10-foot embankment, which was ice-coated in places, to where the ambulance was parked. He was taken to Williamsport Hospital.

Work continued all night at the scene with the aid of spotlights.

State police, railroad police and Clinton Township police also responded to the crash.

Corn and soybean were spilled from the wrecked cars, two cars were carrying liquid nitrogen, but were undamaged.

The Eck farm phone lines were damaged as well as the cornfields.

About 35 workers and various pieces of equipment were brought in from Mercer and Johnstown by subcontractors to do the work of clearing the wreckage.

In all more than 20 train cars were derailed, about 12 at the scene of the accident. Eleven of the cars went off the tracks about a half-mile west of the scene.

Some of the cars that remained on the track were on the overpass under which Route 405 runs.

Property damage was estimated at $1,304,200 by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The NTSB determined the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the engineer and front brakeman in the moving train to operate at a safe speed required by signal indication that would have allowed the engineer to stop the train short of the standing train.