Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-10-28
A TERRIBLE SIGHT.
TwENTY-slx PEOPLE KILLED ON
THE GRAND TRUNK.

Many Other BADLY injured. Some Fatally.
The Coaches Teicscoped and Then
Catch Fire--The Victims Were on Taeir
Way to the worlds Fair
BATTLE CREEK, Mich, Oct. 2i.-The
worst wreck of this year, horrible in all
its festures, occurred in the yards OF
the Chicago and Grand Trunk road
close by the round house in this city, by
which many persons lost their lives and
about 40 were injured.
A Raymond and Whitcomb special
train Of passengers from New York
and Boston was returning from Chi
cago. The train was in charge of Con-
ductor Scott Of this city and Engineer
Woolley and took orders at this station
to meet at Nichols the Pacific express
going west, which was nearly three
hours late The conductor or engineer,
or both, of the Raymond special dis
obeyed orders and passed Nichols sta
ton and collidel with the Pacific ex-
press coming west at the rate Of 80
miles an hour. The two engines were
driven into each other and are total
wreck. The engineers and firemen,
when they saw that collision was in
evitable, shut off steam. reversed the
engines, put on brakes and all Jumped
and escaped without serious injury.
The engineer OF the Pacific express was
Gil Cranshaw, and the conductor was
named Burk The latter was badly
hurt.
When the collision took place four
day coaches of the train going west were
comb etely telescoped. 1t was here that
the horrible sacrifice took place. The
second coach cut through the third
coach like a knife, and the roof passed
over the heads of the Inflated passen-
gers. Flames Immediately broke out,
completely entombing the victims in q
fiery furnace. The engine and bag
gage car OF the special We're badly
wrecked, but the coaches being sleep
ers. and the train moving slowly,
escaped serious injury and no one on
this train was injured. The Pacific
/ express was made up of l3 day coaches.
and the four that We're telescoped
caught fire. The passengers in the
other coaches were more or less injured.
and from one of them, No. 10, 25
charred bodies were taken out by the
\ firemen. They were pinched under
seates and iammed up against the end
of the coach by the next coach, which
( had telescoped it, and then burned like
rats in trap,
1 The scene of the accident was mile
/ from the fire station, and before water
could be turned on the cars were all de-
stroyed and bodies burned SO as to be
unacceptable. Nearly all had their
I heads, arms or legs burned off, As the
/ second coach crashed through it swept
/ the people in the north end of the third
car to the vicinity Of the stove. where
most of the bodies were afterward
found. The car Immediately took fro
and in an instant was all ablaze.
/ The yardmen and people living in the
vicinity rushed to the rescue as soon as
possible. One passenger escaped from
the doorway and others who saved
/ themselves smashed out the windows
and climbed through. Three only got
out of the left side and about six from
the right side of the coach. All the
others persisted The most horrible
sight was that of Mrs. Charles Van
Dusen of Fort Plains. n. Y. She sue.
ceeded in getting half way out of a
window, but her legs were so fastened
that those who ran to her assistance
could not rescue her. She was burned
to death before the eyes of the specta-
tors, half of her body hanging out Of
the window Before she persisted she
gave her name.
Altogether 90 bodies were taken out,
and this is supposed to be the total num-
Der OF the dead Most of the victims
were from the east, and were en- route
TO the Worlds fair The names of the
dead cannot be given. as the bodies arc
unrecoRnizable