Passaic City record., 1893-07-15
MANGLED TN A WRECK.
A TERRIFIC RAILROAD COL
LISBON AT NEWBURG, N. Y.
The Day Express Jumped Switch
Near the Station and Crashed Into
Freight Train in the Freight
Yard-A List of Those Killed and
Iniured-Heroic RescuerS.

u
Yard-A List of Those Killed and
Injured-Heroic Rescuers.
Six persons killed outright and twenty
two mangled human beings, three of whom
were fatally injured is the record of a rail-
way disaster at Newburg, N. Y. The Chica-
go Express, on the West Shore road, due
there at 2.04 p. m. was running forty miles
an hour when the locomotive left the main
track and running about 500 feet, collided
head on with locomotive No. 206, standing in
the yard ready to go out as soon as the ex-
press had passed.
The train was filled with people in five
coaches, one of them a Wagner. Coach No.
71-the third from the locomotive-struck
against freight car which stood on side
track The west side of the coach was torn
away and the passengers thrown TO the CEN
ire of the aisle. When the collision with the
locomotive came they were again hurled to
the rear of the car. 1t was in this coach that
nearly all the casualties occurred. The dead
are
Mrs Eliza Klemm. wife of Antoine Klemm, of
Highland Falls, n Y An unknown woman,
apparently about thirty-four years old, of
Hebrew cast of countenance. She had an
,open-faced gold watch, turquois eardrops, and
wore blue calico dress with white stripes.
Mrs Pauline Wright, Brooklyn. mother of
Mrs. Leopold Michael. Miss Ross Reilly,
West Park. n. Y. Addie Elberson, aged
three, of Setauket, Long Island; skull
crushed. Julia Michel, aged ten; fractured
skull and right leg broken.
The train was composed of locomotive No.
900, a baggage car, three passenger coaches
and Wagner parlor car. The train was
filed with passengers. Every seat in car No.
II which was attached to the baggage car,
was filed. At Cornwall, the first station
south of Newburg, the express was twelve
a., <no
train ran at the rate of forty miles an hour
between those points.
mile south of Newburg station and at the
end of bend in the line is the West Shore
Railroad yard. A freight train stood on a
siding in the yard ready to move on to the
main track and go south to New York City.
The nose of the locomotive of the freight
train was about $50 feet from the switch at
the main line. Engineer Fred Holland was
in the cab. The freight was not to move I'M
til the north bound express had passed.
james T. Quinn is the switchman at that
point.
The express came whizzing along, and for
some incomprehensible reason the switch
was open. so that the train ran on to the sid
ing, and was rushing into the engine of the
freight train. Both engineers saw the dan
ger. and though the time was short, Skelly
of the passenger train whistled down brakes
and shut off steam.
The distance was so short that Skelly's
precautions were of little avail. An instant
later his engine struck the locomotive of the
freight. By the awful force of the impact
both engines reared up and then dropped,
completely wrecked and enyelOped in
clouds of steam. The flremen and engineers
jumped from the cabs before the engines
came together and, though the men were
badly hurt, they saved their lives.
The weight of the cars behind No. II and
the immovability OF the freight train in
- s~.x@ s-kx 4
iron, huge slivers of wood and trucks were
piled up in the utmost confusion, while in
the middle of this mass of wreckage half q
hundred passengers were fighting for their
lives. The cries of the imprisoned ones. the
groans and shrieks of those who were
wounded were agonizing. Car II was 60
completely destroyed that nothing but the
wheels were unimpaired. panic seized
the occupants of the other cars, and in the
mad rush to get out many Of them had their
clothing stripped off. Many were SO scared
chat they broke the glass in windows and
crawled out head first and dropped to the
ground.
William H. Callihan, of the Pennsylvania
Coal Company's force, whose Office is near
by, telegraphed to Newburg calling for all
the doctors in town. Axes and levers were
procured and the work of rescue went OF
like wildfire. A row of workmen's cottages
to the left of the road were thrown open fol
the reception of the wounded who were not
badly hurt Those seriously hurt were laid
on the grass on the rightkside of the track,
where they were attended by the physicians.
The dead bodies of two women were found
pinioned under lot of broken seats. An
other dead woman was taken from under
the remnants of the front trucks. The
fourth dead woman was discovered beneath
the fragments of the rear end ofthe car. The
dead child was not found until two hours
later, when one of the companys wreckers
removing cars came upon the little one
crushed in between two cross ties.