The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-10
NARROW ESCAPE ON THE RAIL.
Some Remarkable Instances Narrat-
ed by Railroad Men.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
There is no question that well authenti-
Gated eases are on record where disastrous
wrecks of railroad trains have been avert
ed by almost seeming miracles. James E.
White, general superintendent of the Rail-
way Mail Service at Washington, relates
the particulars. of a remarkable jump of
twentyeight feet made by a locomotive.
AS Mr.. White tells the story, 1t was on the
LIST of September, 1892, when New York
and Chicago mail train on the New York
Central which was behind time and run
ming at a very high rate of speed, reached
New Hamburg, where twenty-eight foot
draw of a bridge was open, Which open
space 1t is claimed the engine cleared and
landed safely on the main portion of the
bridge, the rest of the train going down
through the opening. While the engine, it
is said, made the leap of twenty-eight feet
in safety, the engineer and firemen, not
having time TO jump, were both killed. John
II. Cain, a postal clerk, was killed, and
NJ. Il. Towney clerk in charge, was Sc
riously injured, the other postal clerks es-
Gaping unhurt,
While none of the local railroad men
know of any locomotives that are as good
jumpers as Whites or that do the bound
ing jockey act, some of them know of mir
aculous and hairbreadth escapes. Carlton
Paris, of the old Ohio and Mississippi for
many years and more recently with the B.
and O. S. W., tells that he and Ed Swift a
number of years ago were riding on a
train over the Ohio and Big Sandy road
when an accident was narrowly averted.
But let Paris tell the story:
THE road was about the toughest. at
that time I had ever ridden over. There
nn
Swift and l were in the forward coach
talking to the conductor when the solitary
sleeping car passenger came staggering
In and said: Mr.. Conductor, your ROAD
is so rough 1 can't sleep in my berth. 1
have been pitched out of my berth twice
in the last aqqaFter of an hour. There
must be something the matter.
1.-The conductor picked UP his lantern
and said: Come on and I'll go back with
you and see what's wrong Swift and 1
sat where we were talking and very soois
we saw that the bell cord was being very
violently pulled and the engineer was
whistlng for brakes. The train finally
came 10 a standstil and Swift and l
kept our seats and kept on talking. As,
after five minutes or more, there were no
signs of the train going ahead we con-
Guided to go back and see what was the
cause of the delay.
1.-The conductor and trainmen were
grouped about The sleeper with their LAM
terms and we soon found out that the
sleeper had left the track and had been
running over the ties for how far we never
knew. The night was pitch dark and it
was raining very hard. 1t took the men
at least three hours 10 get the sleeper on
the rails again. The wheels were very
near the end OF the ties and had the train
gone loo yards further the sleeper would
have been off the ties and over a high
embankment."
Frank Martin of the Missouri, Kansas
and Texas said:
81 remember of a disastrous wreck be-
ing almost miraeulously averted on the
Memphis and Little Rock road along about
1883. A passenger train was travelling at
high rate of speed when the engine
threw a piece of rail about three feet long
out of the track. This piece Of rail was
thrown at least twenty-five feet from the
track. Strange as it seems, the tender,
baggage car, coaches and seepers went
over this place where the rail was out
and gained the rail again without one of
the cars leaving the track, except when
the wheels went down onto the ties at one
end of the broken rail, only 10 mount the
rail again al the other end of the track.
About all the inconvenience the passen-
gers experienced was a slight shaking"
Assistant General Passenger Agent Ryan
said:
Il remember two instances when the
lives of engineers and fremen were saved
by a seeming intervention of Providence.
A number of years ago a new trestle was
being put in, and false works had been
erected TO permit of the temporary pass-
age of trains. The worl1men had failed
TO put in some necessary bolts. The first
train that came along was freight. AS
soon as the engine struck the false work
it gave way and down went the engine.
The fall was one of fiftyefeet, and in fall
ing the engine made a complete revolu-
ton, and ahghted on the ground upon its
wheels right side up, and the engineer
and fireman both escaped injury although
they were probably pretty badly Jared by
the fall.
THE other case I know of is that of a
train running at a good speed, when the
engine ran into a large rock that had
fallen on the track just az the mouth or
a tunnel. The impact caused the tender
to bend up from the rear end and form
a protecting hood over the engineer anG
fireman in the locomotive cab. and they
were uninjurei Had this not occurred.
they would either have been badly injured
or had their lives crushed out"
Another passenger man said yesterday:
when l was a sleeping car conductor
on the old Bee Line, about thirty years
ago the train was late, and we were CO.
ing along at a pretty lively gait. We
were within about five miles of Indian
apolis when the engine and four cars
jumped the track, and we thought there
would be a smash-up, but before the train
| could be stopped every wheel was again
on the rails without the least damage be-
ing done to any part of the train or any
of the Da Spuparc borringr the FRIGHT xua q n
| had"