The Worthington advance., 1897-10-28
THE PLUNGE OF a TRAIN.

The PLUNGE OF A TRAIN.
Retaining Wan dives Way and Ii
Falls Into the Hudson River.
TeFribles Disaster On the New York
Central 4 Railsvnaay wy aayls--,1Twenty-Eeisht 8 =, ) Il
Lives Lost-alany Persons In
jured-stOryssofs the Wreck.
Z New York, Oct. 25. Buffalo and New
York special No. 46, on the New York
Central q Hudson River railroad, due
to arrive In this city at 1880 O'clock Sum
day morning, was thrown from the
track at daybreak into the Hudson
river 11s miles below wGarrison's station.
Twenty-eight lives were lost. The re-
taining wall along the river had been
undermined by high water in the river,
and the track caved under the weight OF
the train. The train consisted of the
engine, a combination baggage and ex-
press car, smoker, two ordinary
coaches and four sleepers. The engine
aud two forward cars are 'submergedi il.
so feet OF water. Engineer Foyle and
Fireman Tompkins went down with the
engine. 1t is known that it was tritie
fcggy, and that the track was not Wis
ible, but if there was any break in the
lines of steel, it must have been of very
recent happening, for only an hour be-
fore there had passed over it heavy
passenger train, laden with human
freight. The section of the road, wal
supposed to be the very best on the
entire division. There was a great
teavy retaining wall all along the bank.
What seems to have happened was that
underneath the tracks and ties the
heavy, wall had given away, and when
the great weight Of the engine struck
the unsupported. tracks it went crash.
ing through the rest of the wall and top.
pied over into the river:
Then there happened. what, on the
railroad at any other time would have
caused disaster, but now proved very
blessing. AS the train plunged over the
embankment the coupling that held
the last three of the six sleepers broke,
and they miraculously remained on the
broken track. In that way some 60 lives
were saved. OF eyewitnesses there were
none except the crew of tug boat pass.
ing with tow. They saw the train
with its light as it came flashing about
the curves, and then saw the greater
part of itgo into the river. Some of the
cars with closed windows tloated, and
the tug, whistling for help, cast off its
hawser and started to the rescue.
e A porter jumped from one Of the
cars that remained on the track and ran
into the yard of Augustus Carr's house,
near. which the accident occurred and
stood screaming for help and moaning:
"The train is in the river. All our pas.
sengers are drowned" In a few min.
utes Carr had dressed himself, and, get.
ting boat, rowed with the porter to
the scene. AS they turned point in
the bank they. came upon the express
car and the combination car floating
about 20 feet from shore, but sinking
every minute. One man was j taken
from the top of the car and efforts were
made to rescue those inside. A few
were gotten out. the passengers left
upon the track making a human bridge
to the. shore to take the wounded on.
The day coach and smoker had gone
down in the deeper water and rescue
was impossible. In the latter coach
the conditions must have been horrible,
The car turned completely over and the
passenger end of it was in the deep wa
ter while the baggage end stood up to-
wards the surface. The men in thar
lower end must have fought like fiends
for brief period, for the bodies, when
taken out, were mass of wounds.
The total number of known dead is
10; the estimated number is 20. Follow.
ing is a list of the dead so far as ascer-
tained up to midnight:
E. "A. Greene, Chicago: Thomas Reilly,
st. Louis: A. G. Mckay, private secretary
to General Superintendent Van Etten; John
Foyle. engineer, Of East Albany, body not
recovered; John @. Tompkins, fireman, OF
East Albany, not recovered: H. G. Myers,
of fremont, N. Y.;woman. unidentified;
woman, unidentified; Giuseppe Paduano,
of New York; S. Becker, of Newark. N, Y.
unknown man, died while being rescued
Fong. Gin and seven unidentified China
men,. q ~ & q. ~ 8 ae r. - 4. s. -
Among the injured are the following:
Conductor E. O. Parish, of New York,
knocked unconscious. severely bruised:
Frank J. Degan, 239 west Thirty-fourth
street, New York city, body bruised and
face cut; Tong Lee, badly bruised and suf-
fering from shock, in hospital at Peekskill
Herman Agner. Of Peekskill baggageman,
bruised and head cut; - Shaw, express
agent, New York, slight bruises; John E.
Ryan, 294 Barrow street, Jersey City, badly
lacerated arm and leg, in hospital at
Peekskill: Clarence Morgan, of Aurora, N,
Y, broken shoulder, TN hospital at Peeks-
kill; w. s. Langford, Bayonne, N. j.,
body bruised: Charles Buchanan. John
Smith and John Flood taken to Flower hos
pital, New Yorkcity; two Cinnamon. in hos.
pital at Peekskill..
a number of others were injured, but
up to a late hour the list was incomplete
General Manager Toucey gave the fol-
lewing statement, as the cause of the
disaster: ,. -
''The accident was caused by the bed OF
the railroad being washed out in some in
explicable manner. In this undermined con-
dition the track sank as soon as the weight
of the train was put on it, and, the en-
bankment giving way, the train was, OF
course, precipitated into the river. Such
conditions as this we have never looked for
Trains have been running over this spot
for years and years without accident or diff
ficulty Of any kind. and this piece of track
was considered as good as any section OF
the railroad. Not only was the roadbed
the hardest kind Of an embankment, but 1t
was strengthened by a retaining water wall
Of solid masonry three feet thick"
Other railroad officials were of the
opinion that quicksand foundation OF
some kind below the water line was
responsible for the sinking of the road,
bed. ' -.