The idea to stretch the railroad route into Cape May County and eventually to the Wildwoods did not come to fruition easily after it was conceived in 1852.

The major objectors were the captains and owners of the steamship lines who saw the trains as competitors that would take away some of their passengers and their profits. Squabbling took place about different routes among the politicians, businessmen and entrepreneurs and caused delays. Leaders were claiming that economic conditions were too unstable for a project of this magnitude.

It was not until 11 years after the engineering report of William G. Cook, representing the Camden and Amboy Railroad, that trains began to appear in 1863 during the heart of the Civil War.

In the Wildwoods, which were to come into their own as municipalities in the latter part of the 19thth century and the early 20th. The man credited in history as being the catalyst for the arrival of the first railroad on the island was Frederick Swope, a Philadelphia real estate man who in 1879 purchased property from another developer, Humphrey “Hump” Cresse, one of many Mayflower descendants who lived in this county.

Sensing the potential of the future and ever the entrepreneur, Swope incorporated the Anglesea Land Company in 1882, began to sell property and took a clue from other train oriented destinations

Encouraged by other rail successes in the county, Swope arranged for the Anglesea Railroad to be built, the line extending from the West Jersey Railroad junction at Burleigh to Anglesea at First and New Jersey Avenues.

By 1903, Swope’s early judgment was confirmed. In that summer it was not unusual for 16 trains to wend their way on a Sunday to the Wildwoods. A Philadelphia newspaper reported that only Atlantic City of all the seashore resorts surpassed Wildwood in the number of rail passengers.

Typical of the early success was a Memorial Day excursion from Philadelphia for one dollar a round trip. In addition to the seashore’s usual virtues the trip also offered the 14th annual memorial service honoring naval heroes.

Successful as the trains were in bringing increased tourism to the Wildwoods, there was not always sweetness and light between the railroad people and those who were in charge of the local governments and tourism. Complaints were made about irregular and unsatisfactory service and that the transportation fee was too high.  The railroads countered with an answer often heard today in other tourism circles. They had to maintain the summer prices to make up for the losses that happened when few showed up in the dead of winter, they replied.

Perhaps the biggest negatives with the arrival of the railroad were the train wrecks that followed. The biggest in the county occurred in 1906 on the 14th of the unlikely month of November when most tourists had long gone home from their annual vacation.

The three coaches and the engine of the express train of the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad were moving along the tracks about halfway between Burleigh and Grassy Sound near the drawbridge at around 10:30 that morning at about 25 miles per hour  when suddenly there was a jolt and the engine and the tender, or the coal car, left the track, drawing the passenger cars off with them. The engine and the cars separated as they plunged down the embankment, the cars finally settling against some telephone poles. The engine, its engineer staying at the helm, eventually came to a halt somewhere on the embankment.

The panicked passengers, some temporarily sandwiched between seats, managed to escape safely, not without injuries, however, as they climbed through the train’s shattered window and suffered cuts en route.

“It is regarded by all in the accident as nothing less than a miracle that many in the overturned cars were not killed,” reported The New York Times.

Soon when passersby noticed the accident the call went out for physicians to come to the scene. Some of the injured were taken to a hospital in Camden, others to Wildwood for treatment there. Among the seriously injured were brakemen Harry Newcomb whose face and leg were cut and Frank D. Springer who was unconscious when the passengers found him. The list of injured also included a famous name in American history, Benjamin Franklin. This, of course, was not the Benjamin Franklin of another time period. It was another brakeman for the train who suffered a bruised shoulder.

The engineer of the runaway train, a man identified as Bowers, brought the separated engine to a standstill after its rocky descent. He was uninjured.

One of the passengers was Thomas Hammebill, a rope manufacturer who had a business at 30 North Delaware Ave. in North Wildwood. An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer said his wounds were on his leg and “his right ear was nearly torn from his head.”

The cause of the crash was attributed by some to rotten wood although the train company denied that allegation.

Passenger Frank Schenorit, a jeweler who suffered a leg injury, added fuel to the fire when he commented on the accident to the Inquirer.

“The whole thing happened so suddenly that I hardly knew what took place,” he said. “As soon as I could regain my feet I made my way out of the car as best I could and paused to look at the scene.

“I found upon examining the broken timbers of the car that the wood was absolutely rotten. The wreck was undoubtedly the fault of the company.”

Today, of course, the days of the Iron Horse have long passed in Cape May County. No longer are there commuting trains here. But there are reminders of the big days of the railroad. Some of the tracks are still there, to be seen as automobiles cross intersections where gates once blocked traffic as trains passed by or gatemen stood there with stop signs that gave the trains the right of way in a different time, a different era.

(Information in this article was researched at the reference department of the Cape May County Library in Cape May Court House.)