Morning journal and courier., 1892-09-12
news BY TELEGRAPH.
From ALI Quarters.
FATAL TRAIN COLLISION.
A Crash of Trains on the
Fitchburg Road.
tUNARDER AND SAILING VESSEL.
A Number Of Accidents by
Sea and Land.
cUNARDER AND SAILING VESSEL.
The FIRE ISLAND CONTROVERSY.
Return of the Peary Relief
Expedition.
TRAINS CRASH TOGETHER.

TRAINS CRASH TOGETHER.
A Passenger Train Struck by a
Through Express on the Fitch
burg Railroad-Six Killed, Nearly
Forty Injured Cars Piled Up in
Heaps OF Debris How the Col
lision Occurred - The Names of
the Victims.
Boston, Sept. 1.-THE horror of the
great Quincy accident was recalled last
night, when through express train west
bound on the Fitchburg railroad ran into
passenger train standing on the outbound
track at West Cambridge Junction, tele-
scoping the rear car, killing six persons
outright and injuring nearly forty others,
three of whom are reported to have since
died. Passenger train No. 131, due to
leave Boston at 1915, started on time.
When West Cambridge junction WAS
reached the engineer found it necessary,
owing to the dense fog, to run close to the
CROSS overs in order to see if he had the
right of way from the signal tower, which
is located close by. The passenger train
was said to be five minutes late, and about
the same hour the local passenger train
from Waltham, scheduled to leave there
at 1890, was due at West Cambridge
Junction also. The westbound train
which left Boston had come to full stop
in order that the eastbound train from
Walthsm, which had the right of way,
could paes that point before it crossed
over to the Watertown branch.
While standing near the cross-over the
express freight train, which was bound
west, came laundering along, and just as
the passenger started to cross to the Wa
tertown branch, the freight train crashed
with the result above described. The pas
senger train engine and the forward truck
of the smoking car No. 70 had crossed
over on the branch track, which left pas
senger cars 80 and 1853 on the cross over,
and 39, the fatal car, standing on the main
west-bound track.
Engine No. 200, to which the freight
train was attached, was a powerful eight
drive wheeler, of the mogul pattern.
When the engine struck the rear car, it
entered it like a wedge, splitting it into
two parts, each of which fell outward
upon tho tracks, while the roof of the car
lodged on top of the locomotive. The re-
coil from the collision drove the heavily
loaded freight cars backward, and al
though the two cars nearest the engine,
which were refrigerator car and Bur-
ton stock car were not injured, the ten or
twelve cars behind them wero smashed
into kindling wood. Several of these were
loaded with lumber, and this was strewn
all along the track. The cars were piled
upon one another in indescribable con-
fusion, completely blocking the tracks for
fully 100 yards.
As soon as the accident occurred word
was dispatched by telephone to the various
police stations in Boston, Somerville and
Cambridge asking them to send surgeons
to the scene. Among those who quickly
responded were Drs. Mccarthy and Dryer
of Cambridge.
The train dispatcher's office in Boston
was notified at once. Superintendent
Adams was quickly on hand and gave in
structions to have all the medical assist
ance available sent by special train.
DR.. W. A. Dunn and DR.. Collins, both
of the North End, went out on the special
train which left at :55.
Fifteen minutes later the wreckipg train,
consisting of the tool car and derrick car
was sent out, but owing to the fact that
man was forced to run on foot in advance
to do flag duty the relief and wreckipg
trains were slow in reaching their des-
tination. On arriving at tho scene they
found that six of the bodies had been re-
moved from the debris and were laid ont
in the West Cambridge passenger station.
These bodies were moved to the under
taking rooms Of A. E. Long, No. 23S
North avenue, Cambridge, as were the
bodies of two others removed later. By
l o'clock this morning all visible bodies
had been recovered and the wounded cared
for by willing hands. The pilot and cyl
inder boxes of the freight engine were
poked underneath the forward truck of
al -, Il
most impossible for any human being to
escape without injury who occupied seats
in that car. On the rear end of the ill
fated car a mans legs were dangling. the
trunk being found quarter of mile
down the track. The prevailing impress
sion was that it was tramp stealing q
ride on the pilot of the freight engine or
tucked away on the rear truck of the pas
senger car.
Tho rear brakeman of the passenger
train, who shortly before the accident was
sent back about 600 feet to notify the en-
gineer of the freight train of danger ahead,
states that he went back as directed and
signalled the freight and his signal was an
swered by two whistles, which is the usual
answer that all signals have been seen and
| noted. The reason for the collision, he
feels sure, was that the engineer of the
| freight train could not control his train,
| which was of thirty cars, the greater part
| of them containing lumber all very heavy.
The train was the" regular Saturday
| night western heavy freight, which was
unusually heavy last night. The train Is
| scheduled to leave Boston at O'Clock, but
last night did not leave until after 10 and
was running at the rate of twenty miles
| an hour when the collision occurred.
! c. F. Lawson, the engineer of the pas
| A. H.
Fitchburg, says:
ave left Boeton promptly on time a,
1915. We were delayed at Charlestown
and made our usual stops. At West Cam
bridge station we were held to wait for 6
train from the Waltham branch. The real
| brakeman was sent back according to or
ders. am sure he went back because
myself went back couple of cars to max.
of. 1t was foggy night and I knew h
could not take too many precautions. Thu
branch train had come on the main tract
and we had just started ahead when fel
the shock of the freight crushing into u
a couple of lengths from the West Cam
bridge station. The shock forced us aheat
some and then stopped. I cannot accoun
for the accident except that the night wa
so foggy that the engineer of the freight die
not see our signal until too late It mus
have been that the freight was under sucl
Roadway that she could not stop in time"
The complete list of killed and injured
as far as known, follows:
KILLED.
s J.Sullivan fifty years old, pawnbroke1
70 Norman street, Boston.
Leon ORaymond of Winchendon, brake
man on the freight train.
John Hudson, aged fifty-one years, Q
Watertown; leaves widow and eight chi
dren.
!. James Lane of East Watertown.
nf Mor1o a.