Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-06-13
Scene of the DELUXE.


| that tlio passengers who remained in the
| cars through the flood and until the fire
were saved, while their companions who
| attempted to flee were overwhelmed and
drowned, and that through it all one To-
| connective stood, and still stands, COM
| parative1y uninjured in the center Of the
! wreckage.
| This disaster and the story of one of
the most marvellous freaks of the food
| is barely outlined. That locomotive
| stands there on its track now with its
| fires burning smoke curling from the
| stack and steam from its safety-valve, all
ready to go ahead as soon as track is
built down to it. 1t is No. 1909, fifty
| four-ton eight-driver class Of Pennsyl-
vania railroad locomotive. George Hud-
son was it's engineer, and Conductor
Sheehy had charge of the train. They,
with all the rest of the crew, escaped by
fight when they saw the food coming.
| The limits of the playground where a
giant force played with masses of iron as
a child might play with pebbles, begins
with bridge or a piece of a bridge about
thirty feet high that stands high and dry
upon ordinary abutments at Woodvale.
| The part of the bridge that remains
spanned the Pennsylvania tracks. The
tracks are gone, the bridge is gone on
either side, the river is gone to new
channel, the very earth for a hundred
yards around has been scraped off and
swept away, but this little span remains
perched there twenty feet above every
thing, in the midst of a desert of ruins.
| the only piece of a bridge that is standing
from the railroad bridge to South Fork.
| It is light. iron structure, and the abut-
| ments are not unusually heavy. That it
should be kept there when every thing
| else was twisted and torn to pieces IS one
of the queer freaks Of this food.
| Near bv are the wrecks of two freight
trains that are standing side by side
where the food caught them. The lower
| ends of both trains are torn to pieces, the
cars tossed around in every direction,
and many of them carried away. The
| whole of the train on the track nearest
the river was demolished. Its locomotive
is gone entirely. Perhaps because the
other train acted as escort or buffer for
the second one, the latter has twenty hv 9
or thirty cars that are uninjured. APP
parently, they could move off as soon as
that wonderful engine, No. 1909, that
stands with steam up at their head, gets
ready to pull out. A second look, how
ever, shows that the track is in many
places literally washed from beneath the
cars. Some of the trucks also are turned
half way round, and are standing with
wheels across the track. But the force
that did this left the light wooden box
cars themselves unframed. They were
loaded with dressed beef and provisions.
| They have been emptied to supply the
hungry in Johnstown.
In front of engine No. 1909 the water
| played some Of its most fantastic tricks
| with the rails. The del ris of trees, logs,
| planks and every description Of wreck
| age is heaped up in front of the engine
| to the headlight and is packed in so
| tightly that twenty men with ropes and
| axes worked all day without clearing all
| away. The track is absolutely gone from
| the front of the engine clear up to beyond
| Conemaugh. Parts of it lie about every
| where, twisted, turned upside down,
stacked cross wise, one piece above an
other and in one place section of the
| left track has been lifted clear over the
| right track, runs along there for a short
| distance, then twists into it's proper
place again. Even stronger than the
| tracks, the water has played with the
| rails, where they have been torn loose
| from the ties. The rails are of steel and
| of the heaviest weight used. They were
twisted like willow boughs in spring
freshet in country brook. One rail lies
| in the sand in the shape of letter IS"
| More are broken squarely in two. Many
| are broken within a few feet of fish
plate coupling them to the next rail an d
the fragments are still united by the
plates. Natural law would seem to show
that the first place where they should
have broken was at the joints.
There is little to indicate the late pres
| ence of a railroad from here to the upper
part of the Conemaugh. The little plai n
into which the gap widened here. and in
which stood the bulk of the town, is
wiped out. There is not the slightest in
dication that the center OF the plain was
any thing but food-washed gulch in
some mountain region.
At the upper end stands fantastic col
lection OF ruined railroad equipments.
Three trains stood there when the food
swept down the valley. Che outside one