The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-06-11
Men Killed in The Exeter
Accident.
DETAILS OF TERRIBLE DISASTER
AT FERNALD'S CULVERT.
Track Washed Out and Freight Train
Plunged Over Embankment Into Rain
Swollen Stream-Boston and Maine
Tracks Badly Blocked Up.

|
Swollen Stream-Boston and Maine
Tracks Badly Blocked Up.
| Wednesday night through freight No.
| 600 with Charles Rankin as engineer and
Conductor Eugene Thurston pulled out
Of Portland bound for Boston over the
western division of the Boston & Maine
| The train was heavy one consisting of
20 cars and mogul and besides the con-
ductor there were three brakemen, Ed
ward Clark, A. G. Young and Albert
Chandler and the engineer and fireman
Daniel King all of this city. 1t was a
wild night and by the time the train
reached Dover the rain was falling in tor
rents and in a way that threatened to
play havoc with the road bed before
morning.
But the train was late and had about
half an hour to make up between Dover
and Boston. While the rain continued
to pour down as if the flood gates of
heaven had been broken Engineer Ran
kin pulled open the throttle of his loco
motive and sped along through the night
at fast rate of speed. After passing
Newmarket the rain had let up to some
extent but was still falling in nasty
drizzle. The men on the train had no
| idea of the danger that lay in their path
and the night was so dark that it was
doubtful if the track ahead could be seen
beyond the yellow patch of light cast by
the headlight. Suddenly when the train
was about quarter of mile east of
Exeter the engine plunged downward
into gully that rushing torrent
of water had dug out beneath the rails
and with terrible lurch the locomotive
land seven cars rolled down over an en-
bankment of 40 feet. There was crash
that was heard for half mile around,
the hiss of escaping steam, the cries of
men in fear and pain, and then all was
quiet.
Conductor Thurston and Brakeman
Clark were in the caboose when the
crashscame and were hurled the length
of the car and for a time rendered uncon-
scious from the shock. When at last they
recovered consciousness the conductor
and brakeman crawled out of the car and
along the track toward the front of the
train. They found that the little brook
| that flows through what is known as
Fernald's culvert was raging, roaring
| flood and for distance of about 20 feet
had washed away the gravel embankment,
| leaving the rails practically held up by
the fish plates. Into this gully the loco
motive had plunged and had afterwards
rolled down the embankment.
By the aid of their lanterns the conduc-
tor and brakemans found Engineer
Charles Rankin killed at his post of duty
The fireman Daniel King was. also pinned
in the cab and badly scalded and burned.
The two brakemen, A. G. Young and
Albert Chandler, who were on the front
of the train when the crash came, were
also found dead, buried beneath the
wreck.
The conductor soon secured help and
word was sent to Exeter of the accident.
Meanwhile the fireman was removed from
the wrecked cab and later was taken to
the Cottage hospital in Exeter. Owing
to the difficulty of securing help it was
sometime before the bodies of the brake
man and the engineer were removed from
| the spot where they were found.
A soon as notice of the accident was re-
ceived in Portland the Boston wrecking
trains were ordered out for the scene
from Portland and Lawrence and in a
remarkable short space of time were out
on their way towards the scene of the ac-
cident. The night Pullman from Port
land which runs from this city to Boston
over the Western division was caught at
Dover and was there held up for orders.
The track on the western division was
completely blockaded by the wreck, and
it was some hours after the arrival of the
track was cleared sufficiently to allow of
the moving of trains in either direction
Meanwhile the traffic on the western di-
vision was suspended and before morning
1t was learned that another washout had
been discovered at Seabrook on the East
ern division and that track was also
closed to traffic.
In the wreck at Fernald's culvert IL
cars had left the rails and followed the
locomotive down over the embankment
These were piled in an undesirable
!heap and had nearly all been thrown off
the iron, and the large wrecking crews
which were put to work at day break
were able to make but very slow progress
in clearing the track.
The washout occurred at a spot where a
} small brook makes it's way beneath the
track and the heavy fall of ran had swol,
len the small stream so that it had flowed
its banks and had undermined the track
, for distance of 20 feet or more. The
embankment was of gravel and had easi
ly given way before the raging waters Of
the torrent, leaving the track entirely
unsupported.
There is double track at this point
and the one on the right going towards
} Boston was the one which had been un
dermined. The other track had not sutf-