Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1897-09-16
PERISH IN A WRECK.
TWENTY-FIVE MANGLED AND
BURNED IN COLORADO.
Awful Head.End Collision Occurs
Between Passenger and Freight
Trains = Some Victims Caught In
Debris and Roasted to Death.
Co1lided on a Curve.

The most disastrous railway wreck
that has ever happened in Colorado oc-
Cured Friday morning mile and a half
west of Newcastle. A Denver and Rio
Grande passenger train, west bound, col
lided with a Colorado Midland stock
train going east, wrecking both engines
and several cars in both trains. Shortly
after the collision fire broke out in the
ruins. The mail, baggage and express
cars, smoker, day coach and sleeper were
burned. "A number of passengers who
were not killed outright but who were
pinned in the wreckage and could not be
extricated persisted in the flames. There
were about 200 passengers. 1t is esti-
mated that twenty-five persons were kill
ed and as many more bruised, scalded and
burned, of whom at least six are likely to
die of their injuries.
The accident occurred at the worst pos
sible point. Two minutes later the en-
gineers could have avoided the wreck,
as each could have seen the approach of
the others train. The trains cO1lided on a
curve or bend round a mountain, and
there was no opportunity to avoid the
wreck or even to slacken speed. The
surviving trainmen say the trains were
not running fast, but the fact seems to be
that both the passenger and freight were
going at full speed-about twenty miles
an hour for the passenger and the freight
ten or twelve.
The Rio Grande Junction Road, on
which the wreck occurred, is a joint track
operated by the Denver and Rio Grande
and Colorado Midland companies. 1t is
single standard gauge track seventy
seven miles long, running from Newcastle
to Grand Junction, connecting the two
roads with the Rio Grande Western. The
road is on the west bank of the Grand
River and nearly all the way are high
bluffs on one side Of the track and the
stream on the other, it being from fifteen
to twenty feet below the track.
Reported Cause of the Accident.
One report as to the cause of the acct
dent is to the effect that Conductor Bur-
bank of the Colorado Midland stock train
made a mistake of ten minutes in hgur-
ing on the time when the Rio Grande pas
senger train passed Newcastle, and that
therefore he was chiefly responsible for
the disaster. Engineer Ostrander of the
stock train could either confirm or deny
this report if he We're alive.
The passengers in the day coach Jared
the worst. Out Of Twenty-Five people in
that coach only six are now known to
have escaped. AS in all similar accidents,
the engine men were first to lose their
lives. Engineer Ostrander went down
with his hands on the lever. Robert Hol-
land, fireman on the passenger, was so
badly hurt that he died. Engineer Cor
don of the passenger may live, although
he is badly injured and at first was
thought to be fatally hurt. He was thrown
over Il barb-wire fence by the force of the
collision. Hines, the Midland fireman,
was SO badly hurt that the doctors who
examined him said he could not recover.
He was shockingly burned. James kee-
nan, the postal clerk, will not live. He
was terribly scalded.
Two express messengers on the Rio
Grande train saved their lives, but their
escape was thrilling one. The express
car of the wrecked passenger train was
entirely consumed, with it's contents.