The sun. (Wilmington, Del.) 1897-19??, 1897-10-26
GREAT RAILWAY HORROR,
Increases as Time Lays the
Facts Bare.
INVESTIGATION TO BE MADE.
How the Accident Occurred...Fifty
Persons May Have Been
killed--.The Com.
plete Details.

New YORK, Oct. 25.-The revelation n
at the scene of the horrible wreck a
Garrisons on the New York Centra
Railroad increase the horrors of the
calamity. Conjecture alone can be re-
sorted to to form an estimate of those
who perished. There may have been
but twenty as the original report had it,
but there may as we'll have been fifty fol
aught that any one knows, and indeed
it is likely that the number of dead will
be swelled to fifty when the facts become
fully known. y
Frantic relatives of these who were
thought to be passengers are crowding
about a scene which is silent in it's tor
ture and misery. At the bottom of the
river, covered by fifty feet Of water, lie
the splintered fragments of two sleeping
cars, from which some escaped, and in
which many doubtless were drowned or
escaped only to be swallowed by the
river. One sleeper, the Glen Alpine, has
been raised, its side entirely torn off,
No bodies were found in it, bat who
the passengers were or how many of
them were saved, it is impossible to tell.
All eye-witnesses agree that the screams
and cries Of the passengers indicated that
there were many times more than the
number thus far accounted for.
Further details are being received of
the wreck on Monday morning. The
story of the wreck is as follows: At a
quarter past 8 o'clock, on Monday morn
ing train 46, New York and Boston
special left Albany, and started across
the bridge on its journey south. All the
way from Buffalo little things which are
ordinarily Of no moment, had worked
together to hold back the trains, which
should have preceded this one.
The Montreal express was delayed at
Troy to'take on the baggage and scenery
Of James J. Corbett's show. Number 46
again took the right Of way and pro-
ceeded on her journey. On it sped
through the quiet hours of the night and
past slumbering villages, not one Of the
passengers thinking that doom was SO
near at hand.
A little less than two miles below the
town Of Garrison there is a great curve
cut out from the hills by the eddying Of
the river. It is called Corbin's Basin.
1t has been known as danger spot for
years, and track hands have been work
ing there, bracing up the retaining wall,
which separates the made ground from
the river.
This was the fatal spot. Here the
deep channel bends close to the shore.
Under the shadow OF the sleeps there are
seventy feet of water, and the high tides
which have lately formed the topic of
among the river men had
weakened the retaining wall.
1t was twenty-thrre minutes of 6
o'clock, when the ringing OF the engine
bell announced the passing of Garrison
station. The hour of doom was near.
One mile was passed, and the second
was nearly finished, when there was a
great crash and shock, swapping of
iron and crunching of timbers. and the
fated train, leaping clear of the track,
plunged over the narrow bank outside the
rail into the river. The express car,
hauled on by the strength Of the engine
and driven by the great weight of the
5rain behind it, measured its length
again and again before it disappeared in
ruin. Behind it the combination
smoker and baggage car running rear
foremost went under.
In the smoking compartment OF this
,ar were twelve Cinnamon, Of whom
'nly two escaped. Shaw, agent of
Express, Ackert, the bag
,ageman, and Smith, the expressman
we're talking. The shock threw them to
he floor in a heap. They struggled to
heir feet, and Shaw, rushing to the tool
ool rack in the smoking compartment,
eized All axe and cut hole in the wood
work Of the car, through which, he and
lis companion made their escape. En-
'ineer Foyle and fireman Tompkins went
lown with the engine.
Ex.champion pugilist, James J. Cor
'ett, whose troupe were on the express,
,nly a short distance behind the illfated
rain, was at the scene of the wreck, and
lided in the work of rescue.
At daylight yesterday morning force
# men on Il derrick float, anchored off
he scene of the wreck and began sound
ng for the engine. The sleeper Glen
Alpine, was raised upon the derrick