St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-08
THE MEN OVERWORKED.
Fatal Accident on the Baltimore
and Ohio Road.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Oct. THE
Cincinnati and st. Louis express, which
left the Baltimore & Ohio station in this
city at 10:45 o'clock last night, collided
with an east-bound freight train from
Martinsburg, w. Va, near Dickerson,
killing three train men and injur-
ing six others. By almost a miracle
the passengers all escaped uninjured.
A mile west of DickersOn station the
road makes sharp turn and then goes
down heavy grade in a deep cut, the
banks being ~ feet or more above the
level of the tracks. Around this curve
the train dashed just before midnight
and began its descent, gathering mo-
mentum every second. The freight
train, which had orders to remain ON
a switch at TuScar0ra, one mile beyond,
few minutes before left the switch
and was slowly toiling up grade. Sud-
denly there was flash of headlights,
and the trainmen ON the two engines
were appalled, at the coming disaster.
which they Immediately saw could not
be avoided. The two engines were al.
most upon each other, and the engi-
neers saw that nothing could be done
and that it was useless to apply the
brakes. Jump. boys" shouted Engi-
neer j. E. Welch, of the freight
train, as he sprang from his cab
to the side of the track, but his fireman,
j. B. VirtS, had not time to get from his
place at the furnace, and George Riden-
baugh, brakeman, who was also Oh the
engine, was so paralyZed with fear that
he was unable to heed the engineers ad-
monition. j. W. G. Hand, fireman of
the passenger train, jumped and es-
capped uninjured. In an instant
with such fearful velocity that
they stood locked together on the
track and formed base upon which
was piled in confusion pyramid
twenty feet high, consisting of three
wrecked freight cars, two express cars,
the mail car and baggage car. These
cars acted as buffer for the passenger
coaches attached to the WeSt-bOund eX-
press, and though the passengers were
violently thrown forward, they escaped
uninjured. The passengers immedi-
ately set to work to
EXTRICATE THE TRAINMEN
from the debris, and wrecking train
arriving a few hours later, assisted in
the work. At O'Clock this afternoon
the track was not yet free from debris,
although all the men had been gotten
out. The killed are William FL. Wiley,
postal clerk. of Fairmount, w. Va;
John Casey, postal clerk. of Washing
ton, and George Ridenbaugh. brake
man, of Berlin, Md. The injured are
Engineer Joseph Jeffries. of the
express train; j. B. Virts, fire
man of the freight; Thomas
Landon, conductor of the express train;
A. c. Crook, postal clerk; l.. W. Cor
don, express messenger, and III. M.
jackson, postal clerk. The bodies of
the killed were brought to this city, and
those Of Wiley and Ridenbaugh were
subsequently shipped to their late
homes. The injured men were conveyed
to their homes in Baltimore, with the
exception of A. G. Crook, who lives
in Washington. 1t is not thought
that any of them are badly in
jurcd except Virts, who was much
bruised, and Engineer Jeffries. who was
severely scalded on the head and neck,
and may die. Jeffries was found in his
to say, would have escaped totally I'M
injured but for the escaping steam. The
accident was due to a mistake on the
part of the freight train men. They
say they had orders to lay
on the switch at TuscarOra
and wait for two sections of
the Pittsburg express andlsthe express
train which caused the collision to pass.
They had been Oh duty continuous for
thirty-six hours, they say, and after see
ing the first section of the Pittsburg ex-
press pass had gone to sleep at their
posts to secure little sleep. They
awoke as the second section thun-
deIed by, and as it was running
on the schedule time of the Cincinnati
d st. Louis express they thought it was
the train which had just passed, and
therefore pulled out of the siding and
came down the single track. Senator
Voorhees, and Postmaster Dalton, of
the house of representatives, were On
the train on their way to Indiana.