Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-10-23
RAILROAD Heaaoa.
An Engine Runs Into q Caboose On the
Hoosac Tunnel Road.
Nineteen Ham Shockingly Sealdsd and
Burned-Several Supposed Fatally
Injured.

there was . terrible accident on the State
(Hooeac tunneD road At As A. NJ. A caboose
loaded with workmen Was run into BY . en-
CINE and nineteen men were badly scalded
and jammed. The only man Who escaped
was standing on the top of the caboose and
jumped.
A North Adams special says: A caboose
full of workmen on the way to Charlemont
ran into Troy and Boston engine backing
down on the main track At Gas Saturday
morning. Fifteen or twenty men we're burned
and jammed in between the debris and blood
was spilled all along the track. The injured
men were taken home. The only man in the
party uninjured stood on the caboose and
jumped of. The injured men laid on the
ground some minutes before anything was
done to assist them, and those not fatally in
jured will suffer much from exposure. The
North Adams doctors were busy most of the
forenoon attending to the injured. This is
one of the most disastrous accidents that has
ever happened on the Hoosac tunnel or state
road a. il is sometimes called.
NORrH ADAMS, Oct 81.
A terrible accident to the cabOOse of work
ing men of the North Adams freight yard &C.
Cured this morning, in which % men we're
injured, several OF them fatally. About 80
A. NJ, engineer Charles Wells and Joseph
Boseley left North Adams depot on the en-
CINE Deerield of the States road, pushing q
car loaded with twenty-five men who were
going to work ut different places. The en-
CINE and caboose with q heavy human freight
started for the tunnel, and had gone about
half way, when the caboose, which was
in front, collided with the Troy & Boston
CINE of the Deerfield. and driving . seven
teen foot fiue straight through the furnace
door.
The cabOose was raised from the trucks
and carried to the COW catcher of the engine
Deerfeld. The front of the engine was torn
in two, and streams of hot water flew into
the caboose. The men not hurt in the col
lision were burned badly, and only few es-
capped without injury. The boiler of engine
Deerfield was examined June 4th, and found
to be all right, so its explosion is unaccOunt-
able. There was but little damage by the
collision, and none would have been sc iously
hurt but for the explosion of the engine
Deerfeld's boiler. Three doctors arrived on
the scene, and made an examination of the
men injured. As John Hogan was crossing
the railroad track to see the accident, he was
struck by the Deerfield & North Adams train,
and will not recover.
The doctors have nearly completed their
Vi Tic IucH anu
All are scalded and many with cuts, bruises
and broken bones. One died this afternoon
and as many as eight others will not live.
Joseph Basley, fireman Of engine Deerfield,
whose eyes were burned out and face, arms
and body scalded, died tonight in terrible
agony. Leaves widow and three small
children. The explosion of the engine was
caused by the drawbar bursting In a plate
of the fue sheet of the engine. The steam
blew open the door of the caboose and filled
the car in which were 35 men crowded close
together. Many were unable to reach the
doors, and in he confusion which followed
many bones were broken, the boiling water
and steam burning off the mems clothes, and
in moment they were fearfully burned,
many of them getting badly bruised and cut
in their efforts to get out. All the injured
were carried TO houses.
All day long the doctors and officers have
been crowded with anxious friends beseech-
ing them to first attend their injured. As
nearly as can be learned the injured and
dead are as follows:
Dead-Joseph Basley, fireman.
Injured-(harles Wells, engineer, burned
slightly, will recover; John Flyun, foreman
of laborers' gang, burned about the limbs
and head and cut in several places, will
probably recover; John c. Madden, aged 90,
burned on back and sides, dangerous; John
NJ ado en-, scalded seriously, and it is thought
received internal injuries, may recover; Pc
ter Barry, another foreman, badly cut about
the face and read in the collision and fear
fully scalded, his face not recognizable and
will probably die, aged IS, has wife and ten
children; Thomas Quinn, scalded face, arms
and neck and scalp wound, will live; J. j.
Peckham, master bridge builder, not seri-
ously hurt, but badly scalded about the
shoulders and face; C. L. Van Hansen, tel
egrapher. aged %. Of Valatie, N. Y, skin
burned all over badly, desh on limbs burned
face and neck burned, not dangerously in.
jured; Charles S. Patterson, burned about
the limbs and breast, probably recover;
John Mallory, seriously burned about the
breast and abdomen, aged IS, has large fam
lily; John Dempsey, not dangerously burned;
John Young, scalded and otherwise injured,
carried home and kept under the influence Of
opiates. condition doubtful; Amasa Camp
bell, James Enwood. John WEIGH.
James Bolger. James Wall, Cornelius Shea,
Jacob and Edmund Basellon, Thomas Con.
nor. John and Theodore Pitt, William Nc
Donald, Hugh Cornell, and Timothy Crow
lev, all burned about the same, but not very
seriously.
Thomas FlAvin, Patrick Murray, James
Houlihan, and Thomas Driscoll, young men
employed on the road ~ repairmen, were
badly hurt and are huddled together in q
small boarding house here. They have been
attended by several physicians, and some say
that Flavin will die. He 10 badly burned and,
it is feared, internally scalded. Other phys
icians say that these four men will die
Telegraph operator Haywood, who sat in
the engine cab, was thrown through window
and escaped without injury.
Manager Locke states that the accident
vas caused BY engine 20 becoming uncoupled
from its cars and coming back to the yard on
the eastern main track, which it should not
have done. 1t was very foggy, and the en-
gineers we're unable to see one another's To-
comotives. The locomotive was pushing q
caboose to the switch, and the collision, which
was very light, hemmed the csboose between
the two engines, and the drawbar Of the ca
bose, - has been previously stated, jammed
. hole through the front plate of the fiue
sheet. The road instructions are: when
an employee backs car into the yard, to 60
around BY the west track and flag % be goes. !"
The Troy Boston engineer had no right to
bring his engine around BY the east track,
and did it in direct violation of the rules.
This action Of Engineer Watson of the Troy
{ Boston, is principally the cause of the &C.
cident- 1t is not known that anyone ever
took an engine around that way before.
NoRru ADAMS, Oct %.
The victims Of the accident are dying