A RUNAWAY TRAIN IN THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL REGIONS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3500, 25 September 1882, Page 4

A RUNAWAY TRAIN IN THE PENNSYLVANIA COAL REGIONS.

The terrible accident on the Cranberry Coal Road, at the Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Western junction, on Friday, was remarkable in many respects. The train, when made up ready to run down into the city, consisted of seventeen flat cars, all coal laden. Engineer George Wright had charge of the engine, David Morgan was conductor, and B. McLain fireman. Two lads named Aiken and Latshaw were stationed in the middle of the train, and a number of men and boys were on the last car. All the brakes were set tightly when the train drew away from the pit. A quarter of a mile distant it entered on the steep grade, and here all control of the train was lost. From that moment until the hind car jumped the track, two miles above the city, and was smashed into kindling wood, the speed gradually increased, and at that time it had attained a frightful velocity. How terrible must have been the force of the cars is plain to be seen. The trees and earth are torn up, and the cars, coal and all, seem to have made a clean jump of thirty or forty feet, and alighted among the trees. It was here that the greatest loss of life occurred. Two were killed outright, one died shortly afterwards on the spot, while some ten or a dozen others were bruised and mangled in a terrible manner, and a number of them have since died. On down, for almost a mile, the rushing train kept the track, though in many places where there are slight curves the ties are moved several inches from their former position, indicating how terrible must have been tbe strain upon the steel rails. At this point, where another short curve occurs, just outside the city limits, the force of the train bent the rails and made them curve just the reverse of what they were.. Ten rods below the spot a switch was reached, and the engine and all the cars, except the last two, passed safely over. These latter left the track a rod or so above the switch, and tore up the ties and broke the rails like pipe stems. From this down to the switch the rails are warped, and in some places large pieces are cut out of them, as if with a sharp knife, and the ties are bruised and splintered. At the point where the remaining cars left the track the wreck was piled high in a confused mass, the track and ties being torn up and all semblance of a raiiroad destroyed, f even persons were killed outright, and a dozen or more injured. It is calculated that the train attained a speed of seventy-five to eighty miles an hour, and the terror-stricKen men aboard were compelled to lie flat upon the coal in order to keep from being blown off, only to be dashed to pieces at the foot of the steep descent. —Boston Herald.