Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1857-02-12
4 Wild Locomotive and John Giipin
Engineer.


The Lancaster (Ohiss Daily Express
describes very singular accident on the
Columbia Railroad as follows:
This morning about one o'clock. a
frightful accident occurred on the Phila-
dell phia Railroad near Christians, which
resulted in the demolition Of two passen-
ger cars belonging to the train and the
injury Of two or three ladies' who were
in the rear car-one of them very seri-
ouslv,
The particulars, as we have learned
them from passenger, are as follows:-
The express train, which left Philapel.
phla last night at | o'clock. came on as
far as Psrkesburg. without anything OF
note occurring. where they stopped 10
wood and wnter. The train. composed OF
baggage car and Two passenger cars. was
drawn by freight locomotive. the recent
storm having disarrnnged the schedule
which assigns particular locomotives 10
each train. After they left Parkersburg.
aud had proceeded. as our informant
thinks, not more than a mile. the passen-
gers inferred from peculiar motion OF
the cars that they were off the track, and
it was subsequently discovered that this
inference was correct.
The conductor drew the ropes attached
10 the signal bell SO violently that II
broke, but the engineer either did not
understand the signal. or paiden atten-
tion to it. e~
On the train went. whizzing over the
snow track, now and then humping over
on exposed cross tie-on past Pennine-
tonville. round the curve and over the
bridge at Christiana. until about half a
mile this size the ladies car becams de-
tached and capsized On still the s,ea m.
horse galloped, evidently pleased at the
feat of railrosding without the use of
rails, and no doubt in love with the dsi-
yer who thus gave il loose reign without
ever looking back TO see whether his train
kept up, until about half mile from the
point where the ladies' car became de-
tached, the second cal also went over,
breaking :he coupling. and smashing the
rear. end Of the car ell to pieces. We
forgot to enquire whether the engineer
stopped even then. or whether he got
stopped at all: but we trust it will be the
last John Gilpin race he will be allowed
10 ride. with such valuable weight to car
Iry, unless he can give more satisfactory
explanation ofhis conduct than we can
hypothecate for him. m
The most singular feature of this acci-
dent is thst. no lives were lost, and but
few persons injured.
One account says that but one lady
was Injured. another that there was three
OF hem-but the wonder Is that all were
not msimed or killed. The truck wheels
and other fragments of the broken cars
were scattered along the track for the
distance Of mile, the cars being almost
entirely demolished. When it was first
discovered that The cars were off the
track the passengers were in great terror,
all rose to their feet, but they passed so
smoothly over the Christians bridge, that
they concluded that they must be on the
track. and had just fairly seated them ;
selves VIXEN the crash came upon them.
The cars,it appears. were thrown. OF
the track by the breaking OF a rail. and
the train must have run four miles be-
fore the engineer found out that there was