Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-04-07
"a Wild Bide.

Since the terrible railroad disaster at
Tehachapi q few weeks ago travellers
board the trains of the Southern Pacific
Railroad with considerable fear, which
is not alone confined to them, but is
participated in by the mail agents and
other employees, who, like the passen-
gers, are placed at the mercy of any
reckless engineer or brakeman. Scarce.
" aday has passed recently but what
the narrow escape of trains from de-
%struction are reported on the Southern
Road, the latest instance being the
miraculous escape of the express and
passenger train which left this city last
Monday morning. The story as told bv
n who was on board is in substance as
follows: The train arrived at Tucson
considerably behind time, and it was
proposed to make up the lost time be.
tween Tucson and Deming. The other
side of Tucson is a low, swampy u
try known as the ciewega. It extends
for several miles south of Tucson, has
considerable of q down grade and the
track forms q series of sharp curves.
AS soon as the train left Tucson and
got fairly started on the down grade the
engineer pulled the throttle open and the
train went down the slope at a frightful
rate of speed, which increased with
each revolution of the wheels. The en-
gineer attempted to slack up and D
piled the air-brake, but the brake was
evidently out of order, as it would not
work. After several unsuccessful at
te,mpts to check the speed of the train,
the now thoroughly alarmed engineer
whistled for brakes. The occupants of
the cars were panic-stricken and the
shrieking of the whistle added to the
confusion. The two brakemen and the
conductor applied the hand brakes as
quickly as possible, but the train had
attained such q velocity that they had
no effect and in rounding the sharp
curves the cars rode on Two wheels.
After the runaway train had travelled
about five miles and struck a slight up
raise the speed of the train slackened
and it was brought to a stop. An ex-
animation showed that nobody was hurt
and the railroad officers, after the usual
custom, tried to hush the matter up.
Attached to the train was a special
cal containing A. A. Beam, the Division
Superintendent, and other railroad Off
GERS. At the time the train began to
run away the party were eating dinner,
but soon the swaying motion Of the a
caused them to stop, and when the
crockery and edibles commenced to
tumble about the brave railroad officers
became alarmed and fled into the for
ward coaches. Considerable damage
was done in the special car, seats being
overturned, lamps broken, etc. In the
baggage, mail and express cars, which
have no exits but doors in the sides of
the cars, the men calmly awaited the
crash of the wreck, which they mo-
mentarily expected.
Why these cars have no end doors
has always been a puzzle, and since the
disaster at Tehachapi the men running
on them are urging the necessity of the
company to provide some way where in
case of an accident they can get out. 1t
has been claimed, and not without rea-
son, that had the mail, baggage and
express cars been provided with end
doors, SO that those inside could have
access to the brakes, the Tehachapi
disaster would not have occurred, as
the men would have applied the hand
brakes.-San francisco Chronicle.