The Portland daily press., 1899-04-21
STATE OF MAINE,


In Board of Railroad Commissioners.
On the 9th day of April, A. ID. 1899,
the Board of Railroad Commissioners re.
| ceived notice by telegraph from MIR. II.
W. Davis superintendent of the Portland
and Rochester railroad, that the boiler of
u locomotive in service on that road had
exploded when near Nestbrook station on
said railroad. The board went to said
station, examined the location, and made
| arrangements for an investigation to be
| held the next day at 10 O'Clock a. m, at
said Westbrook. Previous notice had been
given to EbeE n. Perry, ESQ.,, q coroner
of Cumberland county, who had COM
| menced action in the matter. that tho
board of railroad commissioners would
| investigate the accident.
Hon. George Libby, county attorney
for the county of Cumberland, appeared
for the state and took part in the proceed
ings. stephen q. Perry Of the firm of \.
anu II. sb. Cleaves appeared for the
rail- DAD company.
On tho morning OF the sixth of April.
| the full board met at the roundhouse of
| the Portland and Rochester railroad and
examined the locomotive that had tesn
| injured rs aforesaid the day tefore,
known rs the Presumpscot and nun bered
one.
They found the inside shell OF the fire.
box on the engineers side torn from the
outside she'll and blown to the opposite
side, tearing of portion of the crown
| sheet, bending 1t to IA lap, the said inside
shell torn from the don sheet; the stay
| bolts down to the mud ring broken. hut
the sheet still connected TO the mud ring.
The broken stay bolts at once indicated to
the board that many of them had been
broken for some time, and those broken
by the explosion, showing considerably
reduced area of good metal at point of
fracture The conclusion then and there
hrf,
colts were the immediate cause of the eI
plosion, was fully corrobora,ed by the
testimony of the experts, subsequently
chosen, as well as by other testimony.
At ten O'Clock of said sixth day of
April, the board met ut the Municipal
court room of thu City of Westbrook. the
counsel aforesaid and Coroner Perry be-
ing present. The board heard all the
| testimony then to DO heard or known. An
| adjournment of the hearing was made to
the West Ent hotel, In the City of Port
land for Monday the tenth day of April,
| A. D., 1899, at two O'Clock in the after
| n on. Experts had been agreed upon by
| the board, the county attorney, and the
railroad company, to examine the toiler
and report in writing at the Aforesaid ad
| journed meeting
Tue beard met at the West End hotel
according TO the aforenamed adjournment
ana heard suGh testimony as was pre-
nted, and accepted the report OF John
W. Estle and Frank l.. Hitchings, both Of
said Portland, who had been aforesaid
chosen as experts.
The testimony showed that the loco
motive was built by the Portland COM
| pany in the year 1886. That In March,
| 1898, SAID locomotive, having beau in
collision that had injured her front fiue
| sheet, had been extensively repaired by
said Portland compsny, part OF which
| rsnairs was nav front ilue sheet ana a
f II set OF new tubes, the expense therefor
b>ing more than twenty-six hundred
dollars. Quite number of new stay bolts
were put IN at that time. but the board
is very strongly inclineh to the belief,
judging from the condition of the rent
over the fractured ends of the broken stay
bolts. that many of them were in such
broken condition at the time of said re-
pair, or before. BE that ms it may, the
board is confident that the explosion was
the Tt suit of the largs number of broken
stay colts found just above the water leg
so called. in the llare Of the outside shell,
On the engineers side, and this confidence
is strengthened and fully corroborated by
the report and testimony of the afoIe-
men tioned experts and by other testi-
Inony.
Testimony was introduced as to a leak.
the day before the accident, in one stay
bolt in the tirebox, and of notice to the
foreman and mast-r mechanic OF such
leak. While such leak may not indicate a
broken stay bolt, it is warning of
danger that should be needed.
An examination by any of the methods
in common use today would have de-
tected more or less of the stay bolts found
broken, which had been broken for some
months.
We are aware of the fact that those in
charge of this and all locomotives of the
company may have been less watchiul
than they otherwise would have been, he
cause this particular locomotive had been
| SO fully repaired by the Portland company
at a comparatively late date, especially
the boiler, which had been repaired by
having new front tube sheet, and new