The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1858-12-04
r,o,n =. c,,inn.,, t,,,e,e. 18th.


A Railroad E.siss %, ssss Travels-Ths Nest
RemarkabIe Lesp On Recssd!
One Of the most remarkable incidents
which we have been called upon to record OF
late, occurred at the depot Of the Little Mi
ami Railroad yesterday morning about SIX
O'Clock. 1t certainly has no fellow, in oil
its details, in railroad annals. The facts
connected with it are as follows:
About fifteen minutes before six O'Clock
the engine "Washington'' belonging to the
Marietta and Cincinnati road, started down
the track some half or three quarters Of q
mile for the purpose Of bringing the empty
cars to the depot preparatory to making up
the 3 Is train, the engine under the control
Of man employed about the yard, and not
the regular engineer. About half q mile
from the depot, the man in charge discovered
an engine Of the Little Miami road backing
down to the depot for the purpose Of taking
out the morning train for Cleveland. Fear
ing collision, the person in charge of
the Marietta engine reversed, and jumped
from the machine. A minute after, the two
engines came together, when the impetus
given to the Marietta engine together with
the force of the reversed power, started it
towards the depot with the velocity of a
rocket. The down grade gave it additional
Roadway, and it bounded along the track like
tiend incarnate, belching forth fire and
smoke to the distance of twenty or thirty
feet from the track, and literally bounding
from the iron rails, threatening destruction
to everything that impeded its progress
Experienced judges of the speed of railway
trans, who saw this engine on its lightning
travels, say that it could not have been going
ut less race than seventy to one hundred
miles an hour! Its final bringing up shows
that their calculations could not have been
far out of the way.
Upon the track in the depot, the morning
train consisting Of some four or five cars,
had been made up, and about one hundred
passengers had already taken their seats
On came the engine with the speed of des-
| tructive whirlwind directly upon the track
leading to the train, until within about four
Or five rods from the depot, when the fortu
nate accidental change of switch drove it
upon the other track. Almost before the
persons standing by could realize that an en-
CINE had entered one END of the depot, the
IRON steed had bounded through the entire
length, demolished an eighteen inch brick
wall, tmbers and all, at the rear, leaped
across two road tracks-one about ten feet
below the other without touching either, and
imbcded itself in a huge pile of coal in the
yard of }. Cochnowner! The distance leap
cd, from the wall of the depot to the lamp
of the engine, could not have been less than
seventy fire feet! All this distance, through
the demolished wall Of the depot, it dragged
the tender loaded with wood, without break
M the couplings.
But for the fortunate change in the switch,
which threw the engine upon the opposite
track To that on which the Cleveland train
WIS standing, the loss of life must have been
terrible. The force which rent brick wall
| eighteen inches thick, for circle of fifteen
or twenty feet, would have smashed the cars
upon the track into fragments, and a fearful
destruction OF life and limb must have fol-
lowed. lad the person In charge of the en-
! rne not become frightened and jumped
when he reversed the machinery, the acct
dent would have been avoided and the fact
cnforces the necessity Of permitting none
but experienced men to handle machinery
which possesses SO much power. The regu-
! lar engineer would have known that he was
runnin" upon the time which belonged to
the Cleveland train, and would not have
started out.
Christopher Bonnev, car cleaner at the
depot was also on the Washington" Jump
ed off after the engine got under good head
way, and was very badly injured. lie was
the only person who WIS hurt. The engine
AID tender were damaged to the extent of
some four Or FIVE thousand dollars.