, 1892-02-12

Graphic Account of the Simpson
Hill Runaway.
Conductor Doyle Offers to Sacrifice
Himself for Others.
A Twenty Mile Dash Without
Serious Results.

The Laramie Republican gives the fol-
lowing graphic account of the Simpson
hill runaway Tuesday. THE LEADER
published a brief account of the accident
the morning after it happened, but here
is the story in full:
A singular accident happened yesterday
morning to first 10" freight train on
Simpson hill. But for the merciful inter-
%vention of Providence 1t must have re-
suited in a great loss OF life as well as the
destruction of thousands of dollars worth
of property. As it was, there was not a
single dollars worth of damage done.
Early yesterday morning Conductor Ed
DOYLE, with a train OF thirteen heavily
laden cars aud one empty, left the Lara
mic yards. bound for RawlIns. Engineer
| Paterson on engine 146l. was pulling the
train. All vent as usual until Simpson
was reached. At this point Engineer
Paterson. finding himself running short of
water, cut off from his train, leaving it
standing on the hill, and pulled out for
Percy. the nearest water tank.
The helping engine which is kept on
the hill went down, and the engineer
finding it impossible to pull the train up
alone, took six of the cars and started up
the hill, accompanied by Conductor
Doyle's two brakemen. The conductor
himself remained in charge of the hind
end, which, Of course, had all brakes set.
Engineer Walter Marsh, on No. S's
engine, was at once sent down to pull up
the rear section He called Doyle over
from the caboose for the purpose of coup
ling on to the engine. DOYLE started TO
couple on. but finding it necessary to use
a pin on the Jennings coupler he stepped
aboard the engine to get one. He had no
sooner left his train than the air leaked
out and the cars started down the hill
with no one on board.
The train had not been at a ~standstill
over forty minutes, aud the remarkable
thing in connection with the affair is that
the air should play out in so short a time.
Railroad men say that the air should
have been good for two hours at the very
least, and stamp the present instance as
almost without a parallel in r~ailroading.
The runaway had gone but a short dis
lance when its momentum became awful.
Engineer Marsh, of course, followed it,
and Conductor Doyle, fearful that his
train would crash into passenger No. /,
which he knew was not far behind, offered
to take the desperate chance of having
his life crushed out by attempting to
jump from the engine to his train.
Engineer Marsh was, however, fearful of
such an undertaking, SO he followed the
train at a safe distance until he arrived at
Carbon. AT that point Doyle rushed into
the telegraph Office and wired the news
along the line.
The second section of No. 10 had side
tracked at Carbon for No. s, and was con-
sequently all right.
Jack Herring, on a freight train, had
just time to pull into Allan, a station
about twelve miles from Simpson, when
the runaway dashed by at the rate of fifty
miles an hour, and it kept on going until
it reached a point about three miles east
of Medicine Bow, when 1t stopped after
having travelled over twenty miles without
having met the slightest obstacle.
Passenger No. l luckily had not reached
Aurora when the accident happened, and
she was held at that point until the dan
ger was over.