WOODBRIDGE TOWNSHIP, New Jersey — For many commuters, the evening Tuesday, Feb. 6, 1951, was a normal day at Exchange Place in Jersey.
At 5:10 p.m., Pennsylvania Railroad train No. 733, an express train nicknamed “The Broker,” so nicknamed as it regularly hauled throngs of Wall Street workers, pulled out of the station. The Bay Head-bound train had roughly 1,000 passengers on board.
If there was anything noteworthy, it was the additional passengers, typically Jersey Central commuters, who crammed into the 11-car train, with locomotive No. 2445, a 4-6-2 steamer of the K4 class, at the front. The Central was out of service thanks to a six-day work stoppage…