Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-03-01

Engineer Mahan Tells OF His Terrible
Fall ut Whitehall Trestie.


Edward Mahan. the B. & U. engineer
who was thrown with his engine over
a precipice about eighty feet high at
the long trestle work, near Whitehall
station, on the Wheeling division.
awhile ago, who was horribly crushed
and mangled by the fall, was Saturday
taken from the Homeopathic Hospital
at Pittsburg to his home in Glenwood.
DE has improved rapidly, and his physi-
clans say he has now passed the danger
line. Mahan was the engineer who
brought into Pittsburg the first train
over the Baltimore & Ohio road. He
had been in several accidents before,
but he thinks his escape from a horri-
BILE and awful death in the wild plunge
of his engine a week ago Saturday
night was simply marvellous.
Before leaving the hospital Saturday
Mahan told for the first time his story
OF the remarkable accident. He said:
1--WE were rounding the curve to the
approach OF the long trestle under a
fair head Of steam and at an ordinary
rate of speed. My fireman and myself
both seemed TO see the obstruction on
the track at the same time, and both
yelled Stop
''The obstruction was q huge stone
that think had Of its own accord rolled
down from the embankment to the left
of the track coming north. / take no
stock in the supposition that the stone
was placed on the track TO wreck US,
although it was in the right place 10 do
the most damage. reversed my engine
promptly, but before the reverse acted,
we struck the large stone with full force.
There was great crash, as though the
cars were piling over US, and the engine
seemed to plunge into the air. In the
plunge it kicked up behind and struck
the embankment TO the right Of the
track with the cow-catcher pointed
downward like a plow. That is all l
remember about it.
when the engine struck the en-
bankment l was lifted off my seat and
was thrown through my engine cab
right over the embankment and down
into the great guch below. / have an
indefinite recollection Of my flight
through space, but felt no pain, and
have no recollection of stopping. fell
as understand it upon made ground,
which had been carted around the first
pier of the trestle.
''Of course l have not been out there
since, but know the place. and from
what they tell me, l can see just where
l landed. They tell me was picked up
about so feet from where the engine
stopped after its headlong plunge down
into the ravine. | was light, you see,
and the sudden jolt threw me out into
the air, while the engine fell dead
weight.
Gas understand the accident, can't
reason how single passenger escaped.
BY its own force the train would have
run down the grade for miles, and /
cannot understand just how the train
kept the track when the tender broke
away and tumb led over the trestle. The
air brake operating, no doubt threw the
tender off, but IL was certainly miracu-
lous that the train did not go with 1t.
Such an accident is not known to rail-
readers. ! was the only one really
hurt, and here l am getting well.
While no one who knows any
thing about the place or who was
on the train can understand how
even one life was saved, the greater
wonder is how all escaped and only one
was hurt. 1t was the closest call an en-
gineer ever had, and no other train lpa
of people are likely to ever again get
off without even scratch ia such an
accident in such place."
at was an experience no one need
court. The awful shock, the shrill
noise OF escaping steam. the flashing OF
fire from the tracks and the crash Of
the ponderous machinery and cars went
out on the night air like death rush,
but we all escaped and we will be all
right in a few days."