Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1897-10-29
Passenger Train on the Now
,. .,: York Central Dashed Into
l5 a Deep Cavein.
Engine and TWO Forward Cars
Submerged in About Fifty
Feet of Water. 81, w. I
Number Of Dead TWenty-oiCAt
and More May Be Added
to tho List. ..i.

NEW YORK, Oct. 25.-Buffalo an'
New York special No. ~, on the New
York Central and Hudson River rail
road, due to arrive in this city at 1880 d
NJ, was thrown from the track into tn
Hudson river one and half miles be
low Garrisons station. Twenty.eigh
lives were lost. The retaining wal
along the river had been undermined
by high water in the river aud tn
track caved under the weight OF tn
train. The train consisted of the en-
CINE, combination baggage and ex
press car, smoker, two ordinary
coaches and six sleepers. The engine
and two forward cars are submerged II
50 feet of water. Engineer Foyle and
Fireman Tompkins went down with
the engine. All the sleeping car passen
gers escaped. A man named Williams
of Buffalo died after being rescued from
the river, his arm having been torn OF
Graphic Story of the Wreck.
The New York Central train left
Buffalo and had progressed for nearly
nine.tenths of the distance towards Its
destination. The engineer and his
fireman had just noted the gray dawn
breaking in the east and the light
streak Of red betokening the suns ap'
pearance, when the great engine,
q servant on the rails, a devil of,
plunged into the depths of the river.
Neither engineer nor fireman will ever
tell the story Of that terrible moment,
for with his hand upon the throttle,
the engineer plunged with his engine to
the river bottom, and the fireman, too,
was at his post. Behind them CAME
the express car, the combination car
and the sleepers and these piled on top
Of the engine.
1t is known that it was trifle foggy
and that the track was not visible, but
it there was any break III the lines OF
steel it must have boon OF very recent
happening for only all hour before there
had passed over it q heavy passenger
train laden with human freight.
Neither is there an explanation ready.
All is conjecture.
Heavy
This section Of road was supposed to
be the very best on the entire division.
There was a great heavy retaining wall
all along the bank, and, while the tide
was high. it was not unprecedented.
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
toppled over into the river.
Then there happened what on the
railroad at any other time would
have caused disaster, but now proved q
very blessing.
AS the train plunged over the en-
bankment the coupling that held the
last three of the six sleepers broke, and
they miraculously remained on the
broken track. In that way some go
lives were saved.
OF eye witnesses there none except
the crew Of q tug boat passing with
tow.
They saw the train with its 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 foated, and the tug, whistling
for help, cast off its hauser 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 where the accident occurred, and
screamed for help. In a few minutes
Carr had dressed himself and, getting
boat, rowed with the porter to the scene.
AS they turned q point in the bank they
came upon the express car and combina.
ton car floating about 20 feet from
shore, but sinking every minute. One
nau 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
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 water while the
baggage end stood up towards the sur
face. The men in the lower end must
have fought like flends for brief
period, for the bodies when taken out
were a mass Of wounds. u. Il
The closing scene of the first day Of
this tragedy IL drawn around common
car that stands near the scene OF the
accident where nearly score Of
Badly A1uttlated Bodies.
none Of them yet claimed by friends,
are lying in . long row. gruesome evi. |
dence Of the disaster, the greatest that
has ever occurred on this railroad.
Poughkeepsie was the last stopping
place Of the train before the disaster at
$40 Z. m. '. s
The day coach contained IS or 20 pas.
ssngers, many. Of whom were women
and children. How many Of them 81.
capped is not known, but at least 10 were
q killed in this car. Behind
the coach were the six sleepers, with
about 66 passengers. The total cargo Of
human freight consisted Of over hun