The morning call., 1893-02-27
FOR NINE MILES.
Peculiar Franks of a Train
in the Sierras.
MOST MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.
With an Axle and Two Wheels Gone
a Passenger Train Runs Many
Miles Through Snow.
Special to THE MORNING CALL

TRUcKEE, Feb. 26.-One Of the most re-
markable accidents in the history of rail-
roading occurred to train Thursday morn
ing. When the train reached Summit it
was discovered that two wheels and an
axle were lacking. In all other RESPECTS 1t
was very respectable and orthodox train.
There had been no jar or disturbance ON the
trip. and nothing to indicate that every
thing was not according to Marquis OF
Huntington rules. But under an iron car
the rear end of truck was dragging or
skating along on the rails, and two wheels
were non est.
When the search for the missing para
phernalia began the mystery deepened.
They could not be found near the Summit,
nor within mile of the Summit, nor could
they be found at all. 1t is said that in the
search telegram was actually sent TO the
yardman at Truckee 10 know if he had
made up the train and withheld the regula-
tion number Of wheels. He solemnly dis
claimed having "held OUT any wheels at
all, and the search continued. No. g. the
eastbound overland. was stopped at Sum-
init until the searchers could report prog
ress, for 1t was readily admitted that
although train had pulled into the station
without enough wheels a passenger train
might have difficulty in picking up an extra
pair on the road.
The derelicts were ultimately located at
Lake View, some miles from Summit, ami
were found to be innocently side-tracked,
regardless Of the usual formula of orders
From Lake View to Summit it was per-
fectly apparent that one end of an iron ar
had actually tobogganed its devious way
without any assistance from those wheels.
But when the Truckee wreckiDg train was
sent out the mystery deepened. for there
were uDmistakable evidences that tn
wheels had become detached from the truck
at Cold Stream Bend, nine miles from the
Summit. and that when they separated from
the train the forward wheels OF the same
truck left the track.
The detached wheels were simply pushed
along by brakebeams and other similar in
fuences for a number of miles until, tired
OF the sport. they had gone off at tangent
at Lake View and taken rest. The two
forward wheels Of the truck had mean
time amused themselves by running on
the firm ice which incases the lies, and by
cutting off nearly all the bolts which fasten
the fish-plaes to the rails.
For nine miles one end of that iron car
mad ignored rails entirely except at Lake
View siding. Here the two remsing wheels
of the truck had endeayored to sideirack,
and their spoor and a badly bent coupling
pin showed that they succeeded in getting
four or five feet away from the main track
before the couplings yanked them back on
the main line. When they did come back
the wheels landed squarely on the rails, and
kept there for distance of three hundred
yards, when they again went skylarkiug
along the frozen ties and renewed their fun
with the bolts of the fish-plates.
= Only on the frozen Sierra, and only near
the summit at that could two wheels and a
sliding truck support the end of heavy
car. The ice alongside the track FORMS a
roadped that is practically rs substantial
as the hundred-pound steel rails which form
the track. The entire damage caused by
this most miraculous accident will not ex-
ceed S75 Had the train been derailed there
might have been serious loss of property
and probably Of life.