James was the son of James Wesley and Ann E. Banker. He was killed at the age of 51 in a train wreck. He and Lila were the parents of Alvin Elsworth, Mildred, Ethel Mae (married Olin Reece Sisco), Lillian, Lorena, and Howard.
----------
ames Banker was a conductor for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) railroad line who died in the line of duty at one of the worst train wrecks in Warren County, New Jersey history.
The Rockport train wreck was a train accident that occurred in Rockport in Mansfield Township, New Jersey, about three miles outside of Hackettstown, New Jersey, on June 16, 1925. A violent storm washed debris onto a grade crossing, derailing a Lackawanna Railroad (DL&W) train. The crash killed 42 passengers and five crewmen and injured 23 others.
James' story is chronicled in excerpts below, written by his great-grandson Terry Leon Sisco:
"Conductor James Banker, now into his second day filling in for the ill co-worker was responsible for the seven cars, the DL&W employees, the cargo and most importantly,
its passengers. He was assisted by a head brakeman along with a flagman by the name of Judge who was stationed in the rear of the train. There were also several porters on the Pullman sleeping cars.
James was on the eastbound passenger train known as Extra 1104. It was called Extra because it was a non-scheduled special run of German-Americans on an excursion from Chicago, Illinois to Bremen, Germany. Each year travel agent Leopold Neumann arranged this trip of mid-western Germans to visit the fatherland from which they or their ancestors had emigrated years earlier. The DL&W train would take them to Hoboken, New Jersey where they would board transatlantic steamer, "Republic" awaiting to take
them the remaining distance to Bremen. The designation of "1104" was given because this was the number permanently assigned to the massive steam engine.
Trailing behind Engine No. 1104 were two coaches and five Pullman sleeping cars, all of steel construction. All 182 passengers, mostly from Chicago were aboard and the porters were loading the final bags for the Monday, June 15, mid-morning departure. The Chicago travel agency had nailed large banners on the sides of the cars emblazoned with "See the Old Country Again."
Two experienced railroad men took charge of the train at the Scranton station. Up front, Engineer Frederick Lyons Loomis was in charge assisted by a “fireman” whose job it was to shovel coal into the firebox of the engine, maintain the steam pressure of the boiler and to keep the cylinders on the drive wheels oiled while the train was underway.
This final portion of the trip would take them southeast from Scranton through Moscow, Gouldsboro, and Pocono Summit. It would then continue down through the Delaware Water Gap at East Stroudsburg crossing the Delaware River exiting Pennsylvania into New Jersey. From there it would head on an easterly route through Hackettstown, Morristown and on into Hoboken where the passengers would board their awaiting ships. The rains intensified as the train left Scranton at approximately 10:15 p.m. Hackettstown, New Jersey is nestled among the historic Revolutionary War farm towns and villages with names such as Great Meadows, Liberty, and Washington. It marks the halfway point between the agrarian tranquillity of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania to its west and the modernity of New York City fiftytwo miles to the east.
The same storm front that drenched Binghamton hours earlier stretched all the way east to the Atlantic Ocean. Hackettstown was hit with a violent thunderstorm the evening of Monday, June 15. A lick of lightning made a direct hit on the Williams and Hibler Lumberyard (now the site of Blue Ridge Lumber). The ensuing fire, fuelled by the stacks of lumber lit the dark night sky of Hackettstown like a flickering candle lights a darkened room. Most of the townsfolk worked unsuccessfully to quell the blaze that eventually burned the lumberyard to the ground. Yet, unbeknownst to anyone, the storm had also set the stage for another, more deadly disaster."
The Rockport Crossing is the point where the DL&W track crosses rural Hazen Road in Rockport, New Jersey. In 1925, the state completed the purchase of 492 acres for a pheasant farm where Hazen Road slopes steeply towards the tracks.
Due to the poor weather, Engineman Frederick Lyons Loomis was travelling at approximately fifty miles per hour when his engine No. 1104 began to derail from the track twisting out of control. There was no way for him to see or know that the torrential downpour had washed debris across the track at the Rockport Crossing. With the tracks covered with five to six inches of dirt and gravel there was nothing to keep the steel wheels of the front engine truck, the first set of wheels of the engine on the tracks.
At 2:24 a.m. the engine ploughed through the crossing but the pony tender with its wheels off the track clutched the frogs of a switch derailing the engine and causing the coach cars to jump the tracks and begin a staccato bone jarring tap dance along the wooden ties of pine and oak. The forward inertia twisted and tossed the steel frames of the cars as if they were mere toys. Frederick Lyons Loomis never had time to apply the brakes.
At 2:25 am, on the morning of Tuesday, June 16, 1925, engine 1104 came to rest on its side. The first two cars, the coach cars filled with fifty people decoupled and came crashing across the steam engine. The first car came to rest across the boiler of the engine while the second coach car came to rest across the rear of the boiler. The impact of the collision practically ripped all of the steam fittings and valves away from the boiler permitting the pressurized steam and hot water to spew upward like a geyser into the two passenger cars resting above. A New York Times article later appropriately dubbed the first coach car as the “Death Car.
Grand-daughter Dorotha Sisco Thomas remembers hearing the story that James Banker was seen walking down the tracks with his conductor’s lantern aglow, perhaps in a state of shock from severe scalding shouting, “My God, would someone please help me.” James Nathaniel Banker died nine days later on June 25, 1925 at the age of fifty-two."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Others who worked for the Lackawanna Railroad who perished with James on the ill-fated train wreck.
Engineer Frederick Lyons Loomis
Trainman James Scanlon
Porter Oscar "O.J." Daniels
----------
ames Banker was a conductor for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) railroad line who died in the line of duty at one of the worst train wrecks in Warren County, New Jersey history.
The Rockport train wreck was a train accident that occurred in Rockport in Mansfield Township, New Jersey, about three miles outside of Hackettstown, New Jersey, on June 16, 1925. A violent storm washed debris onto a grade crossing, derailing a Lackawanna Railroad (DL&W) train. The crash killed 42 passengers and five crewmen and injured 23 others.
James' story is chronicled in excerpts below, written by his great-grandson Terry Leon Sisco:
"Conductor James Banker, now into his second day filling in for the ill co-worker was responsible for the seven cars, the DL&W employees, the cargo and most importantly,
its passengers. He was assisted by a head brakeman along with a flagman by the name of Judge who was stationed in the rear of the train. There were also several porters on the Pullman sleeping cars.
James was on the eastbound passenger train known as Extra 1104. It was called Extra because it was a non-scheduled special run of German-Americans on an excursion from Chicago, Illinois to Bremen, Germany. Each year travel agent Leopold Neumann arranged this trip of mid-western Germans to visit the fatherland from which they or their ancestors had emigrated years earlier. The DL&W train would take them to Hoboken, New Jersey where they would board transatlantic steamer, "Republic" awaiting to take
them the remaining distance to Bremen. The designation of "1104" was given because this was the number permanently assigned to the massive steam engine.
Trailing behind Engine No. 1104 were two coaches and five Pullman sleeping cars, all of steel construction. All 182 passengers, mostly from Chicago were aboard and the porters were loading the final bags for the Monday, June 15, mid-morning departure. The Chicago travel agency had nailed large banners on the sides of the cars emblazoned with "See the Old Country Again."
Two experienced railroad men took charge of the train at the Scranton station. Up front, Engineer Frederick Lyons Loomis was in charge assisted by a “fireman” whose job it was to shovel coal into the firebox of the engine, maintain the steam pressure of the boiler and to keep the cylinders on the drive wheels oiled while the train was underway.
This final portion of the trip would take them southeast from Scranton through Moscow, Gouldsboro, and Pocono Summit. It would then continue down through the Delaware Water Gap at East Stroudsburg crossing the Delaware River exiting Pennsylvania into New Jersey. From there it would head on an easterly route through Hackettstown, Morristown and on into Hoboken where the passengers would board their awaiting ships. The rains intensified as the train left Scranton at approximately 10:15 p.m. Hackettstown, New Jersey is nestled among the historic Revolutionary War farm towns and villages with names such as Great Meadows, Liberty, and Washington. It marks the halfway point between the agrarian tranquillity of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania to its west and the modernity of New York City fiftytwo miles to the east.
The same storm front that drenched Binghamton hours earlier stretched all the way east to the Atlantic Ocean. Hackettstown was hit with a violent thunderstorm the evening of Monday, June 15. A lick of lightning made a direct hit on the Williams and Hibler Lumberyard (now the site of Blue Ridge Lumber). The ensuing fire, fuelled by the stacks of lumber lit the dark night sky of Hackettstown like a flickering candle lights a darkened room. Most of the townsfolk worked unsuccessfully to quell the blaze that eventually burned the lumberyard to the ground. Yet, unbeknownst to anyone, the storm had also set the stage for another, more deadly disaster."
The Rockport Crossing is the point where the DL&W track crosses rural Hazen Road in Rockport, New Jersey. In 1925, the state completed the purchase of 492 acres for a pheasant farm where Hazen Road slopes steeply towards the tracks.
Due to the poor weather, Engineman Frederick Lyons Loomis was travelling at approximately fifty miles per hour when his engine No. 1104 began to derail from the track twisting out of control. There was no way for him to see or know that the torrential downpour had washed debris across the track at the Rockport Crossing. With the tracks covered with five to six inches of dirt and gravel there was nothing to keep the steel wheels of the front engine truck, the first set of wheels of the engine on the tracks.
At 2:24 a.m. the engine ploughed through the crossing but the pony tender with its wheels off the track clutched the frogs of a switch derailing the engine and causing the coach cars to jump the tracks and begin a staccato bone jarring tap dance along the wooden ties of pine and oak. The forward inertia twisted and tossed the steel frames of the cars as if they were mere toys. Frederick Lyons Loomis never had time to apply the brakes.
At 2:25 am, on the morning of Tuesday, June 16, 1925, engine 1104 came to rest on its side. The first two cars, the coach cars filled with fifty people decoupled and came crashing across the steam engine. The first car came to rest across the boiler of the engine while the second coach car came to rest across the rear of the boiler. The impact of the collision practically ripped all of the steam fittings and valves away from the boiler permitting the pressurized steam and hot water to spew upward like a geyser into the two passenger cars resting above. A New York Times article later appropriately dubbed the first coach car as the “Death Car.
Grand-daughter Dorotha Sisco Thomas remembers hearing the story that James Banker was seen walking down the tracks with his conductor’s lantern aglow, perhaps in a state of shock from severe scalding shouting, “My God, would someone please help me.” James Nathaniel Banker died nine days later on June 25, 1925 at the age of fifty-two."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Others who worked for the Lackawanna Railroad who perished with James on the ill-fated train wreck.
Engineer Frederick Lyons Loomis
Trainman James Scanlon
Porter Oscar "O.J." Daniels
James was the son of James Wesley and Ann E. Banker. He was killed at the age of 51 in a train wreck. He and Lila were the parents of Alvin Elsworth, Mildred, Ethel Mae (married Olin Reece Sisco), Lillian, Lorena, and Howard.
----------
ames Banker was a conductor for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) railroad line who died in the line of duty at one of the worst train wrecks in Warren County, New Jersey history.
The Rockport train wreck was a train accident that occurred in Rockport in Mansfield Township, New Jersey, about three miles outside of Hackettstown, New Jersey, on June 16, 1925. A violent storm washed debris onto a grade crossing, derailing a Lackawanna Railroad (DL&W) train. The crash killed 42 passengers and five crewmen and injured 23 others.
James' story is chronicled in excerpts below, written by his great-grandson Terry Leon Sisco:
"Conductor James Banker, now into his second day filling in for the ill co-worker was responsible for the seven cars, the DL&W employees, the cargo and most importantly,
its passengers. He was assisted by a head brakeman along with a flagman by the name of Judge who was stationed in the rear of the train. There were also several porters on the Pullman sleeping cars.
James was on the eastbound passenger train known as Extra 1104. It was called Extra because it was a non-scheduled special run of German-Americans on an excursion from Chicago, Illinois to Bremen, Germany. Each year travel agent Leopold Neumann arranged this trip of mid-western Germans to visit the fatherland from which they or their ancestors had emigrated years earlier. The DL&W train would take them to Hoboken, New Jersey where they would board transatlantic steamer, "Republic" awaiting to take
them the remaining distance to Bremen. The designation of "1104" was given because this was the number permanently assigned to the massive steam engine.
Trailing behind Engine No. 1104 were two coaches and five Pullman sleeping cars, all of steel construction. All 182 passengers, mostly from Chicago were aboard and the porters were loading the final bags for the Monday, June 15, mid-morning departure. The Chicago travel agency had nailed large banners on the sides of the cars emblazoned with "See the Old Country Again."
Two experienced railroad men took charge of the train at the Scranton station. Up front, Engineer Frederick Lyons Loomis was in charge assisted by a “fireman” whose job it was to shovel coal into the firebox of the engine, maintain the steam pressure of the boiler and to keep the cylinders on the drive wheels oiled while the train was underway.
This final portion of the trip would take them southeast from Scranton through Moscow, Gouldsboro, and Pocono Summit. It would then continue down through the Delaware Water Gap at East Stroudsburg crossing the Delaware River exiting Pennsylvania into New Jersey. From there it would head on an easterly route through Hackettstown, Morristown and on into Hoboken where the passengers would board their awaiting ships. The rains intensified as the train left Scranton at approximately 10:15 p.m. Hackettstown, New Jersey is nestled among the historic Revolutionary War farm towns and villages with names such as Great Meadows, Liberty, and Washington. It marks the halfway point between the agrarian tranquillity of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania to its west and the modernity of New York City fiftytwo miles to the east.
The same storm front that drenched Binghamton hours earlier stretched all the way east to the Atlantic Ocean. Hackettstown was hit with a violent thunderstorm the evening of Monday, June 15. A lick of lightning made a direct hit on the Williams and Hibler Lumberyard (now the site of Blue Ridge Lumber). The ensuing fire, fuelled by the stacks of lumber lit the dark night sky of Hackettstown like a flickering candle lights a darkened room. Most of the townsfolk worked unsuccessfully to quell the blaze that eventually burned the lumberyard to the ground. Yet, unbeknownst to anyone, the storm had also set the stage for another, more deadly disaster."
The Rockport Crossing is the point where the DL&W track crosses rural Hazen Road in Rockport, New Jersey. In 1925, the state completed the purchase of 492 acres for a pheasant farm where Hazen Road slopes steeply towards the tracks.
Due to the poor weather, Engineman Frederick Lyons Loomis was travelling at approximately fifty miles per hour when his engine No. 1104 began to derail from the track twisting out of control. There was no way for him to see or know that the torrential downpour had washed debris across the track at the Rockport Crossing. With the tracks covered with five to six inches of dirt and gravel there was nothing to keep the steel wheels of the front engine truck, the first set of wheels of the engine on the tracks.
At 2:24 a.m. the engine ploughed through the crossing but the pony tender with its wheels off the track clutched the frogs of a switch derailing the engine and causing the coach cars to jump the tracks and begin a staccato bone jarring tap dance along the wooden ties of pine and oak. The forward inertia twisted and tossed the steel frames of the cars as if they were mere toys. Frederick Lyons Loomis never had time to apply the brakes.
At 2:25 am, on the morning of Tuesday, June 16, 1925, engine 1104 came to rest on its side. The first two cars, the coach cars filled with fifty people decoupled and came crashing across the steam engine. The first car came to rest across the boiler of the engine while the second coach car came to rest across the rear of the boiler. The impact of the collision practically ripped all of the steam fittings and valves away from the boiler permitting the pressurized steam and hot water to spew upward like a geyser into the two passenger cars resting above. A New York Times article later appropriately dubbed the first coach car as the “Death Car.
Grand-daughter Dorotha Sisco Thomas remembers hearing the story that James Banker was seen walking down the tracks with his conductor’s lantern aglow, perhaps in a state of shock from severe scalding shouting, “My God, would someone please help me.” James Nathaniel Banker died nine days later on June 25, 1925 at the age of fifty-two."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Others who worked for the Lackawanna Railroad who perished with James on the ill-fated train wreck.
Engineer Frederick Lyons Loomis
Trainman James Scanlon
Porter Oscar "O.J." Daniels
----------
ames Banker was a conductor for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) railroad line who died in the line of duty at one of the worst train wrecks in Warren County, New Jersey history.
The Rockport train wreck was a train accident that occurred in Rockport in Mansfield Township, New Jersey, about three miles outside of Hackettstown, New Jersey, on June 16, 1925. A violent storm washed debris onto a grade crossing, derailing a Lackawanna Railroad (DL&W) train. The crash killed 42 passengers and five crewmen and injured 23 others.
James' story is chronicled in excerpts below, written by his great-grandson Terry Leon Sisco:
"Conductor James Banker, now into his second day filling in for the ill co-worker was responsible for the seven cars, the DL&W employees, the cargo and most importantly,
its passengers. He was assisted by a head brakeman along with a flagman by the name of Judge who was stationed in the rear of the train. There were also several porters on the Pullman sleeping cars.
James was on the eastbound passenger train known as Extra 1104. It was called Extra because it was a non-scheduled special run of German-Americans on an excursion from Chicago, Illinois to Bremen, Germany. Each year travel agent Leopold Neumann arranged this trip of mid-western Germans to visit the fatherland from which they or their ancestors had emigrated years earlier. The DL&W train would take them to Hoboken, New Jersey where they would board transatlantic steamer, "Republic" awaiting to take
them the remaining distance to Bremen. The designation of "1104" was given because this was the number permanently assigned to the massive steam engine.
Trailing behind Engine No. 1104 were two coaches and five Pullman sleeping cars, all of steel construction. All 182 passengers, mostly from Chicago were aboard and the porters were loading the final bags for the Monday, June 15, mid-morning departure. The Chicago travel agency had nailed large banners on the sides of the cars emblazoned with "See the Old Country Again."
Two experienced railroad men took charge of the train at the Scranton station. Up front, Engineer Frederick Lyons Loomis was in charge assisted by a “fireman” whose job it was to shovel coal into the firebox of the engine, maintain the steam pressure of the boiler and to keep the cylinders on the drive wheels oiled while the train was underway.
This final portion of the trip would take them southeast from Scranton through Moscow, Gouldsboro, and Pocono Summit. It would then continue down through the Delaware Water Gap at East Stroudsburg crossing the Delaware River exiting Pennsylvania into New Jersey. From there it would head on an easterly route through Hackettstown, Morristown and on into Hoboken where the passengers would board their awaiting ships. The rains intensified as the train left Scranton at approximately 10:15 p.m. Hackettstown, New Jersey is nestled among the historic Revolutionary War farm towns and villages with names such as Great Meadows, Liberty, and Washington. It marks the halfway point between the agrarian tranquillity of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania to its west and the modernity of New York City fiftytwo miles to the east.
The same storm front that drenched Binghamton hours earlier stretched all the way east to the Atlantic Ocean. Hackettstown was hit with a violent thunderstorm the evening of Monday, June 15. A lick of lightning made a direct hit on the Williams and Hibler Lumberyard (now the site of Blue Ridge Lumber). The ensuing fire, fuelled by the stacks of lumber lit the dark night sky of Hackettstown like a flickering candle lights a darkened room. Most of the townsfolk worked unsuccessfully to quell the blaze that eventually burned the lumberyard to the ground. Yet, unbeknownst to anyone, the storm had also set the stage for another, more deadly disaster."
The Rockport Crossing is the point where the DL&W track crosses rural Hazen Road in Rockport, New Jersey. In 1925, the state completed the purchase of 492 acres for a pheasant farm where Hazen Road slopes steeply towards the tracks.
Due to the poor weather, Engineman Frederick Lyons Loomis was travelling at approximately fifty miles per hour when his engine No. 1104 began to derail from the track twisting out of control. There was no way for him to see or know that the torrential downpour had washed debris across the track at the Rockport Crossing. With the tracks covered with five to six inches of dirt and gravel there was nothing to keep the steel wheels of the front engine truck, the first set of wheels of the engine on the tracks.
At 2:24 a.m. the engine ploughed through the crossing but the pony tender with its wheels off the track clutched the frogs of a switch derailing the engine and causing the coach cars to jump the tracks and begin a staccato bone jarring tap dance along the wooden ties of pine and oak. The forward inertia twisted and tossed the steel frames of the cars as if they were mere toys. Frederick Lyons Loomis never had time to apply the brakes.
At 2:25 am, on the morning of Tuesday, June 16, 1925, engine 1104 came to rest on its side. The first two cars, the coach cars filled with fifty people decoupled and came crashing across the steam engine. The first car came to rest across the boiler of the engine while the second coach car came to rest across the rear of the boiler. The impact of the collision practically ripped all of the steam fittings and valves away from the boiler permitting the pressurized steam and hot water to spew upward like a geyser into the two passenger cars resting above. A New York Times article later appropriately dubbed the first coach car as the “Death Car.
Grand-daughter Dorotha Sisco Thomas remembers hearing the story that James Banker was seen walking down the tracks with his conductor’s lantern aglow, perhaps in a state of shock from severe scalding shouting, “My God, would someone please help me.” James Nathaniel Banker died nine days later on June 25, 1925 at the age of fifty-two."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Others who worked for the Lackawanna Railroad who perished with James on the ill-fated train wreck.
Engineer Frederick Lyons Loomis
Trainman James Scanlon
Porter Oscar "O.J." Daniels
Family Members
Siblings
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
