The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-02
RAN INTO THE WASHoUT
A FREIGHr TRAIN ON THE NEJr
ENGLAND Road PILED UP.

Near the Scene of the Recent Bristol Flood
Accident-Caused by q Flood in Mine
Hiver-One Man KilIed-Loss Several
Thousand Dollars.
Bristol, Conn, March IA freight
train OF fifteen cars on the New Eng
land road went over an enbankment an
Forestville at an early hour this morn
Ing. and half of the rolling stock was
smashed into splinters. The accident
was due to a washout near Spile bridge
which spans the Pequabuck river about
| three-quarters of a mile from the spot
where twenty laborers were precipitat-
ed into the water and several drowned
during the freshet three weeks ago.
The trains cargo consisted mostly Of
coal, lumber and wire goods. The coal
cars are totally demolished The crew.
with one exception, escaped injury al
most miraculously. This man only suf-
fered slight cuts and bruises, and is
now being cared for at the Forestville
house. The locomotive now lies on its
| side inthe ditch at the foot of the em-
|
when the catastrophe occurred, and at
the time slight rain was falling and
heavy mist prevailed The engineer
could not see more than twenty feet
| ahead Of his train, and was upon the
| deadly washout almost without a min
ute's warning. AS the engine crashed
into the chasm the cars which were
following piled up one on top Of the
| INT tIn -.
pied over of it's own weight, part going
to one side of the embankment and the
other part landing on the opposite side.
1t is considered most fortunate that
the tracks became blockaded at once
else several of them would undoubted-
| ly have finally landed in the river
which, swollen to the very edge Of its
banks, was roaring by at a terrible
velocity. A gang Of 100 men have been
at work wrecking here since early this
morning, and at this hour, 4 o'clock,
/ they have just succeeded in raising the
locomotive to the top Of the embank-
ment. The men are all from Hartford.
The cars are still heaped up on one side
of the track, and one car loaded with
wire goods stands on its end in the
river on the other side Of the embank-
ment. The loss to the company will
be many thousand dollars.
The train which came to grief was an
extra, No. 1913, in charge of Engineer.
! William Hayden and Conductor Mer-
ritt. The head brakeman, George Corr
| nelly, was the only man injured. The
4 train left Bristol at 3:15 o'clock this
morning. At this hour there are seven
cars piled up in the ditch. The section
| of track washed away is 200 feet long
| and from the present appearances there
will be no traffic for at least twenty
four hours. The point at which the ac-
cident occurred is but few feet from
the river, and if the engine had fallen
to the other side both the engineer ana
fireman would have lost their lives.
The washout is due to the flood from
Mine river, which enters the Pequabuck
at this point.
At an early hour this morning the
| dam Of the Bristol Mining company
4 at Mine Pond was carried away by the
| swollen waters, and the immense vol
| ume played great havoc with every
thing in it's course till it emptied itself
in the Pequabuck river and greatly in
creased the current of that stream.
| which had already assumed alarming
proportions. On it's way to the larger
stream the wall of water in the Mine
carried away ten bridges and picked up
a dozen or more small buildings built on
the banks. The bridges were all con-
| structed os wood but some Of them
were new and had been recently built
at considerable expense. The cost Of
rebuilding them will run up into the
thousands Residents along the course
of the Mine say that sometime between
12 and / o'clock tremendous roar was
heard for a few minutes, and then
nothing but a gurgling sound could be
heard. 1t is thought that the unusual
sound was caused by the wall of seeth-
ing water let loose by the bursting Of
the Mine pond dam.
The head brakeman, William Cor
nelly, who was severely injured, died
this evening, and was taken to his homo
in Hartford.