Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-10-28
THE PLUNGE OF A TRAIN.
Retaining Wall Gives Way and It
Falls Into the Hudson River.


Terrible Disaster ON the New York
Central Railway = Twenty-iGight
Lives LOst-Many Persons In
jured-Story of the Wreck.
New York, Oct. 25.-Buffalo and New
York special No. 46, on the New York
Central & Hudson River railroad, due
to arrive in this city at 1880 o'clock Sun
day morning, was thrown from the
track at daybreak into the Hudson
river l " miles below Garrisons station.
Twenty-eight lives were lost. The re-
tanning 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, combination baggage and ex-
press car, a smoker, two ordinary
coaches and four sleepers. The engine
and two forward cars are submerged IT,
50 feet of water. Engineer Foyle and
Fireman Tompkins went down with the
engine. 1t is known that it was trifle
foggy, and that the track was mot 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 a heavy
passenger train, laden with human
freight. The section of the road was
supposed to be the very best on the
entire division. There was a great
heavy 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
CT used disaster, but now proved a 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 a tow. They saw the train
with it's light as it came flashing about
| the curves, and then saw the greater
| part of it go into the river. Some of the
| cars with closed windows tioated, and
the tug, whistling for help, cast off its
| hawser and started to the rescue.
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:
1.-The train is in the river. All our pas
sengers are drowned" In few min
utes Carr had dressed himself, and, get
ting a boat, rowed with the porter to
the scene. AS they turned a 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 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 oyer 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 that
lower end must have fought like fiends
for brief period, for the bodies, when
taken out, were a mass of wounds.
The total number of known dead is
10; the estimated number is %. Follow
ing is list of the dead so far as ascer-
tanned 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 O. Tompkins, fireman, OF
| East Albany, not recovered; II. 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.
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, in 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 York city; two Cinnamon, In hos
| pital at Peekskill.
A number of others were injured, but
up to late hour the list was incomplete
General Manager Toucey gave the fol-
Lowing statement as the cause of the
disaster:
| THE accident was caused by the bed of
the railroad being washed out in some in
| applicable manner. In this undermined con-
| dition the track sank as soon as the weight
| of the train was put on 1t, 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 k'nd and this piece of track
| was considered as good as any section Of