The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1873-07-30

The Terrible Accident Sunday Morn.
Ing on the Il. Il o. Railroad
East Of AltamOnt.

The TeHrlDle AcctdcnI SuApay morn"
Ing on the u. Il o. Railroad,
East Of AltamOnt.
From tho Cumberland NcwS.)
Probably the most fearful and destruc-
tive "run-in" ever known on the Balti-
more s. Ohio Railroad, and certainly one
attended by greater destruction OF lie
and property than any for years past, &C.
CURED about 6 o'clock yesterday morning
on the seventeen. mile grade, about two
miles east oil Altamont and fOrty.three
miles west OF this city. a convoy" Of
trains OF cars loaded with stock, grain,
cotton, tobacco and miscellaneous mer-
chandise, were on their way east, when'
shortly after leaving Altamont, engine
No. 431, Of which Luke COnoway was en-
giueer, from some accidental cause be,
came unmanageable and ran away. Oh
course, as the grade at that point is very
considerable, the train In a few minutes
had attained very high speed, stated by
some of our inGormants TO have been at
the rate oil fifty miles On hour. The en-
GINGER blew bis whistle for brakes, but the
speed of tho train was not slAckcned. In
another instant he heard the engineer OF
the train ahead Of his blow down
brakes, denoting that his train was
also running too fast. Knowing that
the forward train would decrease It's
speed or stop altogether, Engineer Como
way saw that q terrible collision was in
eVitable, and called 10 his fireman 10 tol'
low him, he clambered over the tender
~, - &ha Ooro nO6 rov tOxuorl lbn rnnr nj
the train. The fireman, whose name VIC
have been unable to learn, threw himself
on his face on the running board" on
top Of the car next the locomotive, and
braced himself for the coming crash, en-
treating the engineer to follow his exam
pie. ConoWRy, however, paid no atten.
ton TO his remonstrances, but ran on TIL
he reached the middle Of the train, where
he attempted to put on break, At this
moment the locomotive struck the for
ward train, crashing with terrific force
through twelve or fourteen cars and
throwing the remainder Of the train oil
the track. The cars In the rear train
piled up on one another and ran of the
track, iDjuring some Of them considera'
bly,. The track for halt mile was scat
tered with the broken cars and their con-
tents: Several cattle were killed, while
corn, cotton and tobacco were strewn oil
over the road bed.
When the locomotive struck, engineer
Conoway was thrown into the air, hurled
head foremost TO the ground, and instant
~ killed. He resided in WcsternpOrt
where no leaves q vile and family. The
car to which the fireman had chung ran
up and followed 1t through the forward
train, getting badly broken in the general
crash, but the man escaped uninjured. In
the "caboose" cor Of tho forward train
were T. Burke, conductor, Ed. Cornery,
brakeman, and three drovers-Mr. Mar.
tina, Of Barbour county, Mr.. Elliott, Of
Harrison county, and Mr.. Reynolds, Of
Mineral county, West Virginia. Messrs
Martina and Elliott were instantly killed
brakeman Cor1ery had his leg broken
and received other injuries, and conduc'
tor Burke and Mr.. Reynolds each re-
cGived severe cuts and bruises. MIR
Burke resides in Piedmont, and hos {
family; Mr. Corncry is young man RnC
unmarried. lie also resides at Piedmont
It is reported that the reason why MIR
COnoway's signal for brakes was not re-
sponded to was that the brakemen were
asleep. We believe they escaped uDhurt
and II the rumor above alluded 10 is cor
rect, their feelings on hearing that en-
gineer Conoway lost his lie in desperate
attempt to supply their places must have
j been anything but pleasant.