The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-06-14
Scene of the DeIuge.

that the passen gers who remained in the
cars through the food and until the fire,
were saved. while their companions who
attempted to flee were overwhelmed and
drowned, and that through it all one To-
comotiYe stood, and still stands, COM
paratively uniniured in the center &c 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-valye, all
ready to go ahead as soon as a track is
built down to it. 1t is No. 1909, fifty
four-ton eight-driv5r class of Pennsyl.
7ania railroad locomotive. George Hnd-
son was its 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
giant force played with masses Of iron as
a child might play with pebbles, begins
with bridge or "A piece of 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 aud
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 bridge that is standing
from the railroad bridge to South Fork.
1t is a light, iron structure, and the abut-
ments are not unusually heavy. That it
should be kept there when every thing
else was twisted and tom to pieces IS one
of ba Pros lro 1F
Near bv ore 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 fiv Q
or thirty cars that are uninjured. APP
| parently, they could move off as soon as
| that wonderful engine, No. 1899, 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
/
/ cars themselves unharmed. 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 debris 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 SC
| tightly that twenty men with ropes and
/ axes worked all day without clearing ali
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 a section of thu
left track has been lifted clear over th,
| right track, runs along there for shor
| distance, then twists into its proper
| place again Even stronger than thi
| tracks, the water has played with tR'
rails, where they. have been torn loose
from the ties. The rails are Of steel anG
Of the heaviest weight used. They weri
| twisted like willow boughs in spring
freshet in a 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 a fish
plate coupling them 10 the next rail an
/ tAe 4Idefu6hIs are sun AAAtcA bg tAs
! plates Natural law would seem to show
that the first place where they should
have broken was at the joints.
Tnere is little TO indicate the late pres
| ence Of a railroad from here to the upper
part OF the Conemaugh. The little piai
into which the gap widened here. and II
which stood the bulk OF the town, il
wiped ont. There is not the slightest in.
dieafion that the center OF the plain wa
any thing but fiood-wasned gulch il
some mountain egton.
at the upper end stands fantastic col
lection &C ruined railroad equipments
rhres trains stood there when the nooi
sReps down the YalleE, The outside On