Skip to main content
AvonDisastersTransportation

The 1918 Avon Train Wreck

By December 22, 2022January 4th, 2023No Comments

Avon, Connecticut:

One of the worst derailments ever in Avon, occurred on August 2, 1918. At about 3:30 PM a northbound freight train was wrecked on a twenty-five foot embankment between the Avon Railroad Station and the West Avon Road viaduct. The cause of the wreck was thought to be a defect in the brakes. The train uncoupled and eight cars were derailed. Six of these fell upon a house owned by the Ensign-Bickford Company and occupied by Sezarino Oliver, an employee, and completely demolished it. No one was in the house at the time. The Oliver family posed for photos while workers from the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad cleaned up the wreck. Freight and passenger rail came through the Town of Avon from 1850 until 1991.