Morning journal and courier., 1880-04-07
owl Train accident.
Road Bed Gives AWay-Forty Passen- gers-NO One Hurt-Quick Resump KSnu~ nF FHfr~nn

owl Train Accident Road Bed Gives AyVay-Forty Passen-
 gers-NO One Hurt-Quick Resump
 tiOn of Schedule Time.
 The express mail leaving Boston at 10 p.
 m., Monday evening, Hartford POT m. and
 due in New Haven at 3:20 and New York at
 5. yesterday morning, was wrecked at
 point some three miles north of West Meriden
 and short distance below the Hartford Ice
 Company's ice houses The train wrecked is
 one of the heaviest that runs over the road,
 carrying large amounts of express matter, and
 an exceptionally heavy mail though the pas
 senger traffic is not so heavy as on the mid
 day trains. There were on this train, Con
 ductor Dickerman's, an engine, No. 75 the
 "Planet' Engineer Bradford-and tender,
 two Adams express cars, postal car-Con-
 necticut,-a baggage-oar, smoking car, one
 passenger coach, and three sleeping coaches.
 In the cars were an unusually small number
 of passengers, forty or fifty in all. The train
 was going at speed of about 9 miles an
 hour. The engineer Mir. Bradford, feeling 8
 strange motion to the engine, attempted to ap-
 ply the brakes. 4 sudden lurch threw him to
 one side. He reached again and put on the
 brakes and shut of steam. The trouble was,
 however, owing to the sinking of the earth
 under the track. The cause of the accident
 vas the giving away of the embankment to
 the east of the tracks, at point few rods south of tho large ice houre of the Hartford
 Ice Company. The land here is low and it is
 kept flooded with water that in wintsr ice
 may be cut. Ths tracks are perhaps twelve Fa o1,r hot a4h wrong with the ics house machinery, and for the first time in several years it became nec- essary to draw off the water that formed the pond to the east of the track. This caused the embankment to crumble and both the east and west tracks to settle. In an instant the entire train was wrecked, and the road-bed and rails for distance of 15 or 20 roads were gone, and partly buried out of sight in sand and water. The locomotive stuck to the rails. The hind wheels of the tender got off The first car, one loaded with 1 express matter, had turned complete somer- sault, was thrown from the trucks and landed on the side across where tho east track once had it's resting place. The next car. also an express, was also thoroughly shaken up and was thrown down an embankment distance of about twelve feet. Following this was 8 mail car, which was also thrown some dis tance from the track, after being loosened | from it's trucks. This car landed bottom up 1 in pool of water, one end of the car being | thrust some distance into the mud. The bag | gage car, the next to follow in the wreck, was | lifted bodily from the truck and went against the side Of the mail car with considerable suddenness. When 1t ended its flight through | the air one end rested on the mail car and the other on the ground The smoking car found a resting place, after leaving it's own set of
 trucks, on the trucks which had previously 1 done service for the baggage car. The pas senger coach and two of the sleeping cars | were derailed and loosened from their trucks and went crashing against one another with ! considerable force, but ether than shaking up l the passengers very unpleasantly and smash | ing the somewhat, no great damage was | done. Some Of the passengers asleep in the ! sleeping car were not aware that an accident had occurred until quite 8 long time after the accident. Conductor Dickerman and Palace l Car Conductor Powers went into the car i greatly fearful of finding scene which would | dismay them, but to their joy no one was hurt, | and the pleasant side to this accident is the 1 happy result, as far as the passengers were 1 concerned, not one of whom was injured. | This extraordinary circumstance, considering l the nature of the accident, is partly attributable to the fact \ that the cars were provided with the Mil l Ter coupler and buffer, so that ''telescopiug," | one of the horrors of old time railroading, | was au impossibihty. Some of the employees ! on the train were slightly injured. Conductor | Agent Martin at the time of the accident, re- l ceived number of slight bruises, the sever \ est being one in the small of the back which l occasioned him considerable annoyance. En- gineer Bradford was bruised somewhat and had one leg slightly injured. H. B. Smith, one of the express messengers, was slightly cut \ in the head and received several bruises, but f none of serious nature. These injuries are | the most severe, and even these are not seri- ous in the least. The passengers in the for | ward cars were considerably shaken up, l enough so to apprise them all that s'some- l thing had happened and they s'piled out of l the cars in 8 manner more lively than cere | monious It was dark as Erebus and the passen- gers were of course much excited at first. | All the employees went to work as soon as | possible and rescued first the occupants of | the mail and express cars, whom they feared I had been killed. They were gotten out of the | cars in safety, and then the other cars were I searched, and there was g feeling of relief, both among employees and passengers, when | it was ascertained that not a soul was injured f so as to require the assistance of surgeon. l When the passengers had calmed down and began to accept the inevitable situation they | fixed themselves as best as they could in the | sleeping cars, which were thrown open for | their accommodation.
 The first thing to be done now was to get | the news to New Haven and Hartford. But the telegraph wires were down. The tender | of the engine was got back on to the track
 and away sped Engineer Bradford with the
 Planet to this city. Arrived here, the few at
 the depot expecting the owl were quite aston ished to learn that the solitary Planet, with out any of it's train had come down. Word was telegrapned to Hartford and Vice Presi- | dent Reed from this city, and Supt. Davison | from Hartford each went to the scene I with 8 wrecking train. With such busy time as there is constantly on the Consolidated road time is money and there was no time to be lost. Soon after day
 break the first relief train arrived from Hart l ford, and the work of removing the debris
 and the arranging for the laying of temporary l tracks which can be used until the necessary repairs of road-bed and track are made was | begun. The west or down track on which the
 accident occurred, has sunken about four feet and is twisted all out of shape. The ground where the accident occurred is made ground, and some 20 or 25 years ago there was sink | ing of the track at the same spot, but & very solid road bed was built up upon it. The | trains up and down were of course delayed, l and passengers, mails and baggage had to be I transferred. Officer Kennedy informs us | that st half past four all trains were again | running as usual.
 The Monday Elections.