The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-09-29
WRECK RESULTS.
Six Are Killed in Collision Of
Freights at Window, MINI.
Fire Adds to the Horrors.

From the Sioux City Journal.
The dead are:
Carl Rasmussen, engineer, Siou,
City.
T. L. Roberts; fireman, Sioux City
John Roberts, grocer, St. James.
Fireman Stratton second train
St. Paul.
Brakeman, head train, St. James.
Unknown passenger.
Injured;
Chas P. Yeomans, engineer, Sioux
City, seal p wound. not serious.
| George Merrill, fireman., Sioux
City, leg cut, body bruised.
Frank Few, engineer, st. Paul, leg
broken, internal injulies.
The bodies of engineer Rasmussen
and John Roberts were not recover
led. The body of fireman Roberts,
horribly mangled, was pulled from
his burning locomotive. Stratton
was fatally crushed and when extri-
Gated from the debris moaned pitt
ously. He fingered unconscious un-
til six o'clock in the morning, when
he died.
The bodies of the dead which have
been recovered from the wreck, are
lying at an undertaker's place in
Window.
The wreck is in valley, the slopes
of which rise on either side for dis
tance Of four or five miles. The
bridge is at the bottom of either
grade, and at the south there is a
sharp curve at the end OF the bridge
which obscures the vision of an ap-
preaching engine at a distance as
short as one train length. Both
trains in this wreck were specials.
The head train, of which Yeomans
was the engineer. had forty loads and
had been lying on sidetrack on the
north side of the bridge for more
than an hour. The conductor re-
ceived the clearance and started to
pull out for the north. The train
was SO heavy that his engine, another
| of the ponderous "hog" pattern,
could not bulge the train, and Sec
ond engine was ordered out to push.
This engine was placed at the rear
! of the caboose. If the train had TAX
en- standing start for the hill ahead
of it, there would have been no acci-
dent. Instead, however, it backed
across the bridge and part way up
the hill on the south side to enable
the two engines, the one in front and
the one in the rear, to obtain a run
ming start for the hill on the north
side. The fatal mistake was made in
this train backing into the next block
of the signal system without giving
notification and receiving permis-
sion.> The double header approach
ing from the south at speed Of fifty
! miles an hour on down grade, had
been given clearance for this block
into which the train on the bridge
had backed. The two engineers in
the cabs of the two locomotives were
squirting for the hill ahead, the same
as were the engineers of the first
train. The head train had moved
onto the bridge when the double
header following rounded the curve
a train length behind. Both engine
eers saw their danger and gave their
trains the air and reversed the en-
gines. This, it is said, reduced the
speed of the train to thirty miles an
hour, but the three engines leaped in
to the air for an instant and when
they fell the bridge shook violently
and collapsed. Within a minute the
Ipile of cars, which tumbled on top
of the engines, was burning.
The engineer and fireman of the
pushing engine in the head train
train were Yeoman and Strat..oa' The
unfortunate Rasmussen and isoberts
were on the first engine of tie dou-
BILE header ard, and Frank Few Of
St. Saul, was at the throttle of thu
rear engine. When the collision
came all Of the men in the cabs jump
ed The distance from the floor O
the bridge to the surface of the rive
is twenty-five feet. Few struck il
shallow water and fractured his leg
His body grazed the bridge or engin'
as he went down and he was badl,
bruised, and the fall injured him ser
iously. It was presumed that Rus
mussen did not clear the bridge anC
. was buried beneath his engine. Rob
erts was pinned down by his tender
Roberts, the grocer of St. James, ant
a brakesman of the head train, wer
in the caboose just ahead of the EN-
gine, which was pushing and had NJ
opportunity to escape. They wer
caught like rats in trap and if the,
were not crushed by the fall, the:
were drowned or burned.
It was said last night that ther
were other passengers in the caboose
but the truth of this report could no
be learned.
Areport from Window last nigh
said that the officials had decide
\ that the engines were total loss an
, that an investigation had showed tn
utter uselessness of attempting to f
Z them for the road again, one pilot an
the top of a sand box are all that
,s to be seen Of any Of them. They wei
be allowed to remain in the rive
locked in their iron embrace. M
Stuart is reported as having said the
> would not make even good scrap.
fence has been built around the wrec
and the grading for new bridge hs
began. The building of the ne
structure will occupy several weeks.
Conductor Williams, of the ira!
which was struck, fed after the ace
dent, after telling conflicting stori
as to it's cause.
A watch belonging to one of Il