Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-09-28
UNPARALLELED in RAILROAD
ING.
An Engine ExplOdes while I'm Motion
ana Leaves Clear Track for the
Trains which Runs Mile.


AfI'0of'Aee (Wfs9 Repa'blicGa-Sentinel, Sept q.
Passengers who arrived in the city yes
terday morning gave the particulars of
an accident which occurred Tuesday
morning at 6: :45 o'clock on the Northern
Wisconsin division of the Chicago and
Northwestern Railway, one mile south
of Oconto, and which is the most extra
ordinary in railroad history. The north
bound passenger train, with very large
number OF passengers, was running along
at not less than twenty five miles an
hour when her locomotive exploded with
gigantic force. II was seated in the
smoking car, the third from the
engine" said John +. Jerrard,
a passenger, ''snd knew by the
loud report and the heavy shock to
the train what had happened l was
talking at the time with Mr. Whitney, OF
Pensaukee, and, springing up, said,
The boiler has explodedr and l expected
in the next instant that the train would
be smashed into kindling wood. At
almost the same moment mass of rub
bish from the explosion fell upon the top
of the car, which ratified loudly, but did
no other damage. OF course, in mo-
ment the sensation of danger was passed,
as the train ran smoothly along, except
peculiar and unnatural sound from the
front of the train, which seemed TO
move along without any perceptible
diminution of speed. | concluded that
my impression that the boiler had ex-
ploded was erroneous, as everything
seemed to be then all right and gentle
man remarked that torpedo had pr0ba
bly, been exploded under the tram with a
e. snf
mad run down and crossed the bridge
across the Oconto river, when the
brakemen suddenly set the brakes
with great exertion and brought
the train to halt. Up to this
moment no one on the train knew
what the actual situation was except Ii
mail agent and baggage men, and the
were unable for some reason TO Dut OF
the brakes to stop the train. The train
was finally brought to a stand still. 1t
was then found that the four forward
trucks OF the engine were loaded hand
somely upon the tender, which. was in
tact. 1t was evident that not an indi-.
vidual on the train as it stood there, was
injured, and the fact that the majority of
the passengers did not know that any
thing had occurred until they were told,
as the report was not heard very far back
and many were asleep. But the engineer
and f1reman-there was but one voice,
'"They are dead" Some of the rassens~ =
gers and the train men ran back, and
were utterly amazed to find them stand
ing by the wrecked engine, but little the
worse for the dreadful shaking up. After
careful examination of the whole
ground the following conclusions
were reached by me and many
others: First, that the explosion had
been most terrific; that at the
time of its occurrence the engine was
lifted from its connection with the
tender and violently wrenched clear OF
it; that at the some moment the COW
catcher was thrown downward, as a
matter of course. and as was shown by
the three ties being rooted up and
broken in two nearly in the centre, and
at the same point by the side of the
track lay the nose OF the badly domaIa.
liZed cowcatcher. This must have
occurred as the engine was thrown
forward into the air with the most
terrific force, as was fully established by
its being hurled 180 feet forward and
along little to the right of the track
before it struck the ground, where it
buried itself half out of sight in the mud.
OF course this thirty ton mass of iron
must have turned complete somersault
in the air, at which time the forward
trucks were dropped upon the tender,
where they are now lying. The grass
and bushes are blackened and
dead by the escaping steam underneath
the track where the engine flew through
the air. The huge machine took itself
and all its immense rubbish, the result
of the explosion, absolutely out of the
way and left clean track for the train
to pass along, and, strange to say, the
rails at the point of the broken ties were
scarcely disturbed. But the fireman and
engineer were carried along IN the cab
and landed with it, or very near. One
pair of trucks on the mail car jumped
the track at the point where the cxplo-
sion occurred and ran in that situation
one mile, passing over the bridge at the
Oconto river in that way, and another
odd freak, passing a switch a moment
before the train was stopped, they ran
on again, and no great damage was done
except to tear off the heads of all the
spikes from one side of the rail for the
whole distance, breaking nearly all the
bolts which connect the ends of the rails
together, all this without one life being
lost or any one seriously injured. Who
can cite anything like it in railroads to-
day?"