The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1898-08-22

A very peculiar railroad wreck which
fortunately, did not result in even serl-
Gus injury to anybody. occurred yester-
day morning before s o'clock on the Bal
tlmore & Ohio main Hne Just west Of
Bellaire. In reality there were two
wrecks and one locomotive played
prominent parts In both.
The Columbus and Chicago express
made up of day coaches, sleepers and a
dining car, had left Bellaire on schedule
time, 7:l5 O'Clock Sunday morning, and
stopped at schlck & Turnbulls coal
mines, short distance west of Bellaire,
to coal up the engine. Upon the arrival
of the passenger train at the mines, q
"helper" engine. in charge of Engineer
Rrebbs, after having helped out west
bound freight train, started back for
Benwood Junction, and the engineer had
no information of anything being on the
track in front of him.
Through somebody's fault, a shifting
engine had started for schick & Turn
bulls mines soon after the passenger
train left Bellaire, and the two engines,
both running light without cars and at
a high rate of speed. came together with
a crash about midway between Bell
aire and the mines. The engineer Of
neither locomotive had time to check
the speed of his engine before they had
come together with a crash.
The engineers and firemen Jumped and
escaped with only slight bruises. Before
jumping, Engineer Krebbs, of the en-
CINE coming toward Bellaire. had re-
versed the lever but did not turn OF the
steam-posslbly because there was no
time to do it. Both engines were badly
used up, but came out OF the wreck less
injured than would have been expected
by a spectator.
The fact that Krebb's engine had been
reversed without the shutting of of the
steam, was the cause of the second chap
ter Of the wreck, or in reality was the
cause of the second wreck. Krebbs' en-
CINE, being reversed, broke away from
the wreckage and, before the astoniSh-
ed engineers and firemen could realize
what had happened, was sprinting away
down the track toward the passenger
train which It was known was coallng
at the mines less than mile distant
OF course the enginemen could do
nothing but hope that the runaway en-
CINE would come to grief on Its own ae-
count before 1t reached the passenger
train.
Their hopes were destined not to be
realized but, fortunately. the runaway
did not cause the disastrous wreck that
they feared would soon happen. In Its
semi-dEsabled condition the runaway
locomotive did not attain the speed of
which it was capable in good condition,
and It Is due to this that the conSe-
ouences were not momentous. How
ever the runaway was sprinting along
at a pretty good speed when It APP
preached the passenger train coailng at
the mines. Details Of what followed,
with the exception that the engine
crashed into the dining car and partial
Is wrecked It, are difficult to obtain, but
Il was said that the passengers in the
sleepers and day coaches were consider
ably shaken up. and that some were
bruised by being thrown out of their
seats. However, beyond these bruises
everybody escaped injury
Had the accident occurred half an
hour later when breakfast would have
been served in the diner, It Is altogether
likely that there would have been fatal
tiles to chronicle. The engine ploughed
several feet into the dining car, and the
tender of the locomotive was wrecked.
The attaches of the dining car were
located in the other end of the car and
escaped injury beyond some bruises.
An investigation into the responsible
" for the wreck Is now being made and
It will be fixed to-day. It appears that
the person responsible for sending out
the shifting engine while the freight
helper was on the track Is the one upon
whom responsibility for the wrecks will
fall.