It was 50 years ago this morning that a horrendous train wreck happened on the Boston & Maine RR at Swampscott, Mass., killing 13 people and injuring hundreds more.

A 4-car train of Budd RDCs, traveling at nearly 50 mph, rear-ended a train of conventional heavyweight coaches which was stopped while trying to determine signals which were covered with blowing wet snow during a blizzard.

The first RDC (B&M #6150) slid under and upended the last car of the stopped train, slicing the Buddliner open from end to end and tearing the roof completely off. The first 10 feet of the car was also sheared off and left beside the tracks. Both the engineer, Ernest Tourtellotte, and his fireman, Raymond Jones were killed, together with 11 passengers. Seeing the devastation wrought on the 6150, it is hard to imagine anyone surviving there.

Ten years ago we video-interviewed one person who did survive. Joanne Duffy was an 18 year old student on her way to Boston with her father who was employed at a bank in the city. They were sitting together in the first Budd car, about half way back on the righthand side. The last thing she remembered was a "commotion" in the front of the car. Then all went black. She woke up in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. She suffered a bad cut on the head , an eye injury and a broken collarbone. Her dad was much worse, and spent weeks in the hospital. He never rode a train again.

Last November a monument to the victims was placed at the Swampscott railroad depot by the local historical society.