Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-17
DEATH IN THE SNOWDRIFT
FIVE ENGINES TELEscOPED ON THE
 NEW YORK AND HARLEM.

Rushing Into the Mounds at the Rate of
 Forty Miles an Hour-Four Men In-
 stantly Killed and Five Others seri-
 ously Injured.
 NEW YORK, March 17.-A fearful acci- lent occurred yesterday afternoon on the Harlem railroad, about one mile west of Colemans Station near Sharon, N Y. Five engines and snow blow plunged into heavy snowdrift, ,thiclly packed by the storm til a rocky cut The blow and the first en- sine were engulfed in the drift and the other lour engines were heaped ill a shapeless mass, with four victims dead among the ruins, and i've others-an employees of the railroad nore or less seriously injured.
 Up to yesterday no accident occurred, and 5he railroad was being opened rapidly. Yes erday morning five engines, snowplow and 5wo cabooses containing laborers started from lovers Plains, ill charge of Conductor Feeney, Lo open the road to Sharon and beyond. On vent the engines and blow toward Sharon, bhe powerful locomotives scattering the snow ike heaps of feathers before them. In the open space the drifts quickly disappeared be- fore shovels and piow. At length rock cut was reached, about one mule north of Cole mans station. This cut is excavated out of the solid rock, barely the width of car, ASOo snow had filled it in places almost level with the top, and was packed into an almost solid mass, which the slow thaw of the previous day had only rendered harder to penetrate.
 Into this cut the engines and snow blow charged at a rate of not Iess than forty miles an hour. So great was the power of the five locomotives that the first, with the snow blow, penetrated the frozen mass and were buried within its bosom. But there the tun- neling ended. The first engine and blow were brought to a sudden stop, and the rear en- gines-their great momentum broken without a seconds warning or a chance to down a brake-crushed into each other with a roar like thunder. They were jammed and heaped and intermingled in a way that even the worst collisions have Sc dom witnessed, and from out of the awful scene of wrecked and broken iron, hissing steam and grimy smoke came the cries of the dying and the injured
 Engineer George Fowler was killed almost instantly. His body was crushed almost be- yond recognition. Conductor Feeney was also killed, and Thomas Riley, fireman, and Charles Ortton, brakeman for Feeney; John D. Cameron and Luther Gates, engineers, were probably fatally injured, while Peter Bruhl and Frederick Strang, fremen, and Conductor Fenn were badly, but it is thought not fatally, hurt
 l wounded were taken out first, and it was no easy task The condition of the wreck may be imagined from the fact that engine Mo- S8 had nothing left sound but the wheels All other parts of it were crushed, twisted and bent beyond any possibility of future use The other engines were damaged beyond all recognition as locomotives
 The full list of the dead and wounded is as follows:
 Killed-Thomas Feeney, conductor, of White Plains; George Fowlar, engineer, of White Plains; Thomas Riley, fireman, of Dover Plains; Charles Ortton, brakeman, of White Plains.
 Injured-John D. Cameron, engineer, of Chatham, badly injured about the head Peter Bruhl, fireman, of 2,3O5 Second avenue, New York city, injuries unknown. but proba- ply not serious; Luther J. Gates, engineer, of New York city, injuries unknown, but ser ious; Frederick Strong, fireman, White Plains, badly hurt about the head and back: - Fenn, conductor, injuries unknown.