Centre Hall reporter. [volume] (Centre Hall, Pa.) 1868-1871, 1871-02-17
The Hudson River RaIIroaa pIsnstcr.

down on the outside track for New Ham
burg, and, when iust entering the bridge
the axle of one of the cars broke, hut
the cur somehow held on. until dashing
along the beams and treStles Of the draw
bridge, il there got overturned ON the
lctt-hand track, up which the Pacific
passenger train from New York was then
rushing NJ an express speed. There was
no time to signal. and the locomotive of
the passenger train ran into the over
turned freight car, which It smashed TO
pieces,
Instantly iho oil hlased mp, snveloping
the locomotive in fire and smoke. \
few seconds and another oil-oar took fire
and the flames spread With lightning rap
idity mhl the beams and pillars Of the
draw-hridge. and all the freight cars cN-
cept the three last, which were uncodp-
led and got cut Of reach Of the fire, sur
mounted 10y dense cloud Of smoke, shot
up fram the tangled mass of ears and
the burning bridge, and ht up the frozen
river and the SnoW-cOverSd hills for miles.
The agonized cries of distress and Wild
cries of alarm, and the shrieks of the
diving rose upon the nighs air and smote
upon the hearts OF the few spectators,
who were compelled 10 witness, without
being able 10 render the slightest asSls-
tanee, the appalling calamity. The IN
hammshle liquid Was running IN every
direction, and the ears Of the express
train we're soon ON fire, hut fortunately
the inmates OF the two last cars had time
10 set out and escape. Is did also the
fireman, who jumped over the emhank-
ment and got away, though seriously
bruised.
The druwbgidge. weakened by the IN
tense heat. the shock and the great
weight, suddenly gave way, and the loco
motive, an eXpresS-car and Pullman 5
sleeping-car, were precipitated into the
deep channel, leaving two burning, but
empty, pasScnger-cars standing On the
New York side Of the chasm. Nothing
could he done to rescue those who had
gone down into tho dark current, and
when morning davned those unfortuuates
were entombGd beneath solid mass Of
ice.
Hundreds of men set 10 work recover
ing the bodies, IL was painfully slow
work, covered AS the engulphed carriages
were by the Ice and dl5riS OF the bridge,
and immense beams OF timber on fire.
+ Al 81 O'Clock only twenty-five bodies had
/ been recovered, most Of them charred
and distigured so as 20 defy Identification.
! They were OF all ages and sexes, but the
greater portion were men from the sleep
ing-car containing passengers bound foT
/ St. Louis ana Buffalo.
Crowds of idlers thronged round the
scene Of the disaster, Watching the men
cropping for bodies, and gazing down in
TO the rushing tide. On the ice near the
holes, through which search was made,
/ lay wheels and axles and pieces Of iron,
curiously bent and twisted from the heat,
and "A miscellaneous pile Of fragments oi
the TWO trains. The ice was of = brown
ish hue, for several hundred yards at
each side stained from the burning pc
I troleum. The beams and uprights OF
the bridge which vet remained were
. burning and smoking, and the terribly
combuStible oil still sent up fire and
smoke from crevices In the piers. The
Hudson WAS covered with parties going
. TO OF returning from the scene of the dis
aster skating or SleighIng.
{ Nicholas Fallan, the fireman who was
on the engine Of the express train, states
that his attention was first called 10 the
I probabilities Of An accident. rs the train
neared New Hamburg, by seeing two
red lights and a white one-the latter
swinging Simmons, the engineer,
whistled a. down brakes, and called out
to MIN to put on the patent brakes,
which he did, and then jumped from the
train.
The officers Of the Hudson River Rail
road Company state that the disaster oc-
CURED about l05 o'clock p. NJ. An extra
freight train, loaded with oil, was APP
preaching the New Hamburg Station,
and mad Just cleared the wooden bridge
over Wappinger's Greek, when an axle
of the tenth car from the engine broke,
and that chr and fourteen behind il were
Z thrown across the up-track. The railing
Of the bridge was broken, and the Ears
were piled upon each other, and were
thrown about in every possible position.
just NJ this moment the se 'ond Pacific
{ express, which left New York at o'clock,
came laundering along the up-track az q
speed Of about thirty miles an hou-.
The darkness was intense, but the en-
gineer. hearing the shouts of the men on
the freight trnln, suspected that some
thing was wrong, and attempted 20 bring
his own train to a stop. This was, how
ever, Impossible, and in another instant
/ the engine dashed furiously into the
wreck of the freight train. and "a terrible
scene ensued. The oil, with which the
/ freight train was loaded, was thrown
around in every direction, and IN a few
seconds the two trains were speedily in
veloped in flames. The engine of the
express train plunged into the creek,
crushing through the ice, and dragging
with II the tender, two baggage-cars and
sleeping-car, in which were twenty
five persons, and, with the exception OF
nine, who jumped out, all are supposed
10 have perished. The flames spread
rapidly, and the employees Just had time
10 uncouple thellast two Of five sleeping
cars, and push them back by hand, and
thus save them from the complete dis
tructiOn which overlook those in adj
vance. Some of the occupants were
consumed by the burning oil, and others
were drowned. The engineer, J. II.
Simmons, going down with his engine,
must have been instantly killed. The
bridge was totally destroyed.
The intense cold made the work OF
searching for the dead very severe. The
thermometer stood blow zero, and ice
was forming rapidly over the surface OF
the chasm IN the ice where the cars had
gone down. The removal of the dead
from the wreck was a soul-sickening,
] horrible work. Each corpse brought tU
light, instead of inuring the spectators
10 the ghastly hideodsness Of these poor
remnants OF humanity, increased their
painful sympathetic anguish and filed
them with dread Of the possible horrors
still to be encountered. Mangled bv the
wreck, mutilated by the fire, their fea-
tures, where at all preserved, stamped
with an inefiaceable expression of agony
and terror beyond the power of depic-
ton in words, those ghastly corpses were
/ things of terror in themselves. The
eharred body OF mother, still clasping
| the shrivelled remains of her two child
rem 10 her blsckened breast, was drawn
forth, md then the headless body Of
another woman, the body of a man
with the extremities consumed by fire, n
mangled mass Of shapeless, distorted
fragments Of a man, once the engineer,
now so dreadfully disfgured that its
once having been human being seemed
doubt, then more bodies with arms,
heads, and legs burned off, frightful
things, beyond recognition. But why
continue here this dreadful recital; let it
be left in mart at lenst to imnoiI nlinn