Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1899-08-01
inquiry INTO VHEA.
Railroad officials lNYe.tl tin the
Disaster Near LackaNa N.
WHY TaE..G v. AS NO SIG &AL
The Thirty Persons who Were IN
iured All Doin% Well Now 'he
Only Dead SO Fnr H"ihs
Enmineer and Fireman.

Jersey City, Aug. It'll" Erie Kan
road company has started an inquiry IN
to the railroad wreck which occlli
near I.ockovuxen last Saturday III Eht.
While il is coulendeA that the land'i!ue
which was the primary cause for '''e
wreck was hardly avoidable, In view OF
the heavy rains and the formation u tl'V
soil. the Erie officers intend 10 inquire
into the manner in which the veStpule
train crashed into the freight train when
had lust short time before been wreck
ed as the result of the landslide.
The vestibule train. it is claimed, WouIu
NOT have run into the wreck If 1t had
haen proncrly tagged. The meager re-
norts thus far received by the Erie DIN
GERS declare that all the crew of the
freight train either tumbled down the
embaul<mcnt in the wreck or were MUIR
ed and had no chance to signal the yestl-
bule train approaching in the rear. me
Erie has large force of men at WORK
on the wreck, repairing tn" road, clear
ing away the rubbish and Strengthening
the damaged embAnkment.
The 80 persons who were injured in
the wreck are doing well. The only
deaths that have resulted from the smash
M so far are those of Engineer Stephen
Outwater and Fireman Frank Sells of
the eXprcss, who were killed outright.
The injured will probably all recover
The debris of wrecked freight and pas
senger cars still litters the sides of the
roadbed where the wreck occurred. The
disaster was one of the worst in the ms
tory of the Eric road. and the wonder Is
that the death list was so small.
A big storm came up on Saturday night
lust after darkness fell, and the rain
came down in torrents Small creeks,
swollen by the Hood, overiloWed their
banks and became rivers. The rain ZOOS
ened a mass Of earth and stone from a
small mountain which overhan&S the
Erie tracks between Shohola and Lacka-
waXen, and the mass slid down on the
tracks.
Raining For Hours.
The rain had been falling for 2l2 hours,
and it is believed that the land slide oc-
Cured about II o'clock. Ten minutes
full tilt into the obstruction. The pilot
of the locomotive struck tree which had
been swept down across the track. he
locomotive was dorailod and landed il a
diagonal position across the west b1lDd
track The fast freight was going east
and was made up of go loaded cars.
The locomotive ii ag on the edge Of an
embankmeut which Uses 100 feet from
the bank of the Delaware river. The ac-
cident had hardly happened before I'm
gineer Beruaid Shea OF the freight train
saw the headiiE.t of the express train
flying toward h;;A on the west bound
track. The express left jersey City at
80 O'Clock and consisted of seven ears,
three of them sleepers. Shea blew the
locomotive whistle several times, but in
the pouring lain and roaring wind its
sound was deadened, and the Tying. 81 la'a'
senaer l0G0Mo. s,g.sSssa4 f's~ tl3i .3si
comotive at F43Y9 IRE n#s1 sAh4 81
Of IT,, ,s.4&9a&tos a92'' s2FRd #@a1tSRous
.fxlgnt 'focjni6tiyp,a ana tnt ipSssengel
cars came right after le0ping over the
two locomotives
The Cleveland sleeper Kalmia was split
in half and the passengers scattered right
and left. The force of the collision
threw Engineer Shea from his locomotive
TO The bottom of the steep emhankment,
aud his fireman, Powers, jumping on
the opposite side. escaped uphurt. En-
einper CutWAter and Fireman Sells of
the express died at their posts, the
oharred bodies being taken ont of the
wreck hours later. Fire started the in
slant after the wreck occurred, prcsulla-
bly, from the explosion Of the illuminate
ng gas tanks and all except two of the
passenger cars were burned.