Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1899-09-18
ONE CAR vANISHIsS
LEAVES THE MIDDLE or A TRAIN. AND
THE CONDUCTOR rs BAFFLEo-
Train Couples Again, and Completes
It's Journey without Leaving it's
Loss Charles Bragnell
the Conductor Tells the Story.

The most remarkable of all railroad
accidents occurred on the Chicago a.
Alton railroad near Atlanta, ILL.,, when
a loaded car jumped out of freight
train and lodged IN a ditch and the
train coupled up and reached it's des-
fination without the crew either know
ing that an accident had occurred or
missing the car from the train.
Charles Bragnell, of Roodhouse, ILL.,,
the conductor the train, tells the story.
He says:
When I delivered my train was
told ! was a car short i thought a
mistake must have been made in
checking me up. I was called up for
an explanation. The clerical records
showed plainly enough that had TAX
en- out of East St Louis a car OF hard
coal that had never delivered. had
lost it some place between East 81.
Louis and Bloomington. ! couldn't eX-
plain IT, We had made up "A heavy
train. put two engines in front of II
and caboose behind ii, and when |
delivered il would have sworn thar II
stood just as we had made 1t up, and
that every car left or added along the
line was accounted for.
..The next morning one of the pasSen-
ger crews reported a coal car wrecked
in the ditch near Atlanta. When ii
was looked up it proved 10 be the car
| had lost. Che superintendent asked
me why | had not reported the wreck.
1t was news to me and il was news to
the whole crew We knew nothing
about il. 1t seemed impossible that il
could have occurred and not have been
seen. but il did III had read of such
thing happened upon another road |
would not have believed it.
1.-The ear that jumped out of my train
was tire eleventh behind the engine. 1t
was loaded with hard coal and | sup
pose we were running something over
twenty miles an hour when the car
jumped out. The train VS. coupled up
with automatic couplers, and when the
car left its place the twelfth car, just
behind 1t, came up and coupled on at
the rear of the tenth car"
The Chicago a. Alton experts have
agreed that this remarkable loss of a
ear out of the middle of rapidly-run-
ming train of twenty-one loaded ears
can he explained in but one way. The
fiange of front truck wheel upon the
car wrecked is broken, and just below
where the car lodged the ties are
track The couplers catch with what
is commonly known as 1.-The indian
grip" catching automatically. When
the fiange of the coal car broke. it is
reasoned. the car left the track at that
end and uncoupled itself from the car
ahead by pulling one of the couplers,
or hands. below the plane of the other.
At the same time the coupler at the
other end sank below the plane of its
mate and uncoupled the car there, and,
hy some peculiar wrench, the uncou-
pied car was shot out of the train and
fell fifty feet from the track, while the
trainmen were all unconscious how
near they had been to a bad wreck
and death.
1t is related among railroad men that
an occurrence very like that at Atlanta
happened years ago on the Lehigh Val
lev. where a car left its train and rolled
down a long embankment and into n
thick underbrush just leafing in early
summer. The trainmen did not see the
car go and it was not known that they
had lost it until the train was checked
up and a car proven missing. In lit
tie while the greening vegetation en-
tirely hid il and the disappearance OF
the car OF valuable merchandise be-
came the chief mystery OF the road,
When the leaves fell in the autumn the
car was found and the freight which
filed 1t was recovered with very little
loss. The lost car of the Lehigh was
not. though, as remarkably lost as the
Chicago a. Alton car, for the Lehigh
car was the last upon the train and
could easily escape. while the Chicago
& Alton car left the middle of the
train.