The scenic Lehigh Gorge near Jim Thorpe was the site of a train derailment about 1:15 yesterday morning when four diesel engines and 15 cars of the Lehigh Valley Railroad freight train left the tracks and tumbled down a 14-foot embankment into the gorge, 4 miles north of Jim Thorpe.

The wreck occurred on a sharp right curve, a half mile north of the Ox Bow Bend in the gorge, where the Little Bear Creek joins the Lehigh River.

Approximately 1,200 feet of track was ripped out. The roadbed, which once carried the tracks of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, stopped the wrecked cars and engines from tumbling into the river, about 10 feet further down the embankment.