River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1893-05-04
LOSING TIME ar a WRECK.
French Railroad Eng lneers Act in a Way
to Make Americans smile.


Disguised English engineer has
furnished an amusing account of the
wreck of the train de luxe which
leaves Paris every evening for the
Riviera This train consists of two
first-class cars. sleeping car, three
compartment sleepers and one first
class car in the rear. The train on
which the Englishman was travelling
was stopped at one of the stations of
the Belt line that encircles Paris, and
after waiting about ten minutes was
run into from behind by a local train.
which smashed up the rear car,
wrecked the one in advance and broke
the couplings and buffers of some of
the Others. In this country the front,
unchanged part of the train would
have been run on TO the next station
and the train made up there again.
Such a course, however, did not com
mend itself TO the French mind. The
stationmaster had gone to the theater,
the train officials declared they had no
authority 10 do anything at all and so
matters remained at "A standstill The
English engineer states that il was
an hour and half before any
thing whatever was done. At the
end of that time man in
blouse came along carrying a single
screw jack, aud a little later four or
five more men in blouses showed up
with a number of paraffine lamps. Then
a gesticulating contest occurred; there
being no one in authority. the men in
the blouses, the guards on the train and
fhn ,N-n,aaIal 80
STRAIT how the thing should be done.
Finally they decided to divide the train
between the fifth ana sixth cars. Two
of the buffers were smashed and the
other two were interlocked. A sledge
hammer was produced and one of the
intelligent artisans made himself very
warm trying to smash one of the inter
locked buffers. Eventually the train
was divided and at the next station was
made up again, so that three hours and
fifty minutes behind its usual time it
left for the south. This accident oc-
Cured ten minutes after the start
while the train was still in Paris. so
the delay furnishes an interesting com
ment on the management of the line.
II would be interesting to know how
viduals with a single screw-jacll were
in putting the damaged coaches
straight
Just how long it would take an
American wreclSing crew to remove
that wreck, il is. of course. impossible
to say, but it would certainly be only
short time. The efficiency, however of
an american wrecking gang is easily
shown by comparing two bridge fail
ures. The hrst took place near Terre
IIaute, Ind. recently, when two trains
collided and wrecked the bridge
on which the accident occurred. This
had span of one hundred and twenty
two feet and was forty-two feet above
the water, which was twenty-five feet
deep at this place. The bottom of the
river was filled with wreckage of two
freight engines, sever cars and their
load of freight. and the iron bridge
Yet in two days trestle had been put
up solid and strong enough TO allow all
the traffic To be handled without delay
until an iron bridge could BE- built in
its place. For the second illustration,
the Moenchstcin bridge failure in Swift
zerland in June, 1891 is quite applica-
BILE. since the terrible loss of life attend
ing it makes its main features still clear
to anyone interested in railway or
bridge affairs. This structure was one
hundred and thirty-eight feet long and
only bout eighteen feet above the very
shalluv gravel bed of the river it crosses
/ The accident occurred at 2::I0 p. ~,
June IA. by June 10 the combined wis
dom of the railway, canton and mill
tary engineers on duty had decides
that wooden truss bridge would be
the best means of carrying a temporary
track across the stream, so a very pretty
park of wagons for field &c egraphy
ard general engineering work was
brought up, houses built. and in about
two weeks train service was again re-
sumed. This difference of time BE-
tween two days and two weeks is a suf-
ficient indication of the skill and com
mon sense of our railway engineers. =
st. Louis Globe Democrat.