St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-04-18
A SHORT LINE CRASH,
Two Milwaukee Trains Meet
on One Track Near Chest
nut Street.
Three rAen Injured, and a
Train Load of People
Shaken Up.
Two Massive Engines Are AL.
most Entirely De-
moliShed.
Miraculous Escape of the En-
gineer and Fireman Of
the Freight.

A disastrous accident, miraculOusly
unattended by loss of life, occurred
shortly before midnight on the Milwau-
kee short line, just above the Chestnut
street crossing. The colliding trains
were the last Milwaukee passenger to
Minneapolis and a freight train. AT
the point of the accident there is
siding from the main line. The
freight was running out of this
siding and had the right of way. The
passenger train had left Chestnut
street depot, steam was being put on to
run up the heavy grade characteristic
of this portion of the line, and the engi-
neer says he had the right of way. At
all events, there was no evidence of
danger signal, the short line be-
ing worked under the block
system. With no thought
of danger the two trains gradually near
each other, one with its dull. heavy
load of merchandise, the other with Its
precious freight of laughing, joyous, UNI
thinking men, women and children. All
at once the engineers of the two trains
are Mortified by the danger ahead of
them. They reverse steam. There
is Kissing, grating noise and
crash! the yells of frightened
passengers are drowned in the
rushing, believing noise Issuing from
the bowels OF the mighty loco
almost burrowed themselves into
the earth. The passengers frantically
rush from the cars, some rush up the
side of the embankment, others are in
clined to run back to st. Paul. while q
few more courageous make for the
spot where the two engines ara
lying, snOrting, as it were, at each
other. The scene was weird one.
Vast volumes of steam rise up and con-
trast awfullv with the dreaded black
ness OF the heavens above, while
on the one side looms up
the white, sand-colOred cliff, and on the
other can be seen in the still moonlight
the mnrky waters of the Mis-
isissippi. All is confusion. Men
shout; women scream. o. Gommu-
street depot, and from thence several
men are dispatched to the scene of the
disaster. Otheas quickly follow from
the Milwaukee yards. The feaas that
life has been lost is found
to be without foundation, and
that beyond severe shaking and few
scratches which the engineer and fire.
man ard some of the passengers from
the Sanity City received, there have
been no great injuries of a personal
nature. But the wreck! The sight
was truly awful. The two engines had
virtually hewn through each. other
How the engineer and fireman of the
passenger train escaped with the inju-
ries they sustained Is marvellous.
Their engine having cOllided with the
freight, and having cut the cOlliding
engine almost in two. it dashed into the
rocky part of the embankment. The
front part of the locomotive was
smashed to atoms; and there they laid
one engine on it's side, imbedded in the
embankment, and the other with its end
pointing heavenward, and the guiding
wheels burrowed into the roadbed. All
of this engines works were strewn over
the line. None of the passenger
cars left the line, but
four of the freight cars
were smashed to pieces. The car
running behind the freight en-
CINE was thrown in front of the
locomotive. 1t had been pulled by a
All in all, the scene was one of awful
grandeur and, to any one who saw, the
greatest wonder was how anyone of the
passengers escaped.