Railway Disaster in America.

Evening Star, Issue 7964, 20 July 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

Railway Disaster in America.

A terrible railway accident occurred on the Grand Trunk Line at Hamilton, Ontario, on Sunday, April 28. The fast express train from Chicago, bearing over 150 visitors to the Centennial celebration, left the track while crossing a switch, and within a few seconds twenty people were killed and many others injured. The train consisted of two luggage vans and seven sleeping cars. It was a little late, and was running at a high speed trying to make up lost time when the accident occurred just when it was rounding the steep grade which ends a double curve. There was a switch near the curve, and crossing this the locomotive jumped off the rails and plunged into a huge water-tank. It was nearly smashed into atoms. As soon as the engine left the rails the luggage vans came flying aiter it, passing completely over. Both the smoking carriages, which came next, fell crashing upon top of the locomotive, and the fire from the engine immediately put the train in flames, burning alive many of its occupants, who perished before aid reached them. The flames spread quickly to the sleeping carriages, which had been hurled in a mass upon the burning carriage. Most of the occupants were asleep when the crash came, and some were burnt before escape was possible, though the larger number vrere able to get out before the flames reached them. It is not known how many victims were left to the flames, penned in by the wreckage and unable to extricate themselves. Before it was possible to break in and rescue them from the imprisonment, the intense heat drove back the men, and in a fewminutes the unfortunate victims were burned before their eyes. It is said to have been a» frighful sight. The screams of the burning people could be heard above the roaring of the flames and the escaping steam. Carriage after carriage caught fire, and in an hour the whole train, with the exception of twosleeping carriages which did not leave the line, was burnt. Twelve passengers were seriously injured, and had to be taken to the nearest hospital. In the ruins of the smoking carriages seventeen charred bodies were found, and by nightfall eighteen, burnt beyond all recognition, had been taken from the wreck. There was great difficulty in securing water owing to the smashing of the j tank, and the fire held sway for many hours before a thorough search could be made through the ruins.