The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-08-28
RAN INTO A WASHOUT
And Engine Precipitated to the Bottom
Thirty Feet Below.
MEN ARE BURIED UNDERNEATH
The Engine and Their Bodies Have Not ss
Yet Been wheeling
Lake Erie Running Around the
Wreck Over the Pam
handle

nanuio
As a result of a washout train lS3 on
the Wheeling and Lake Erie jumped
the track about a mile north or Gosh
octon about 2 o'clock Friday morning
and the lives Of Engineer Doyle and
Fireman Dilger were crushed out.
Train 1873 Is one Of the fast through
freights on the Wheeling and Lake Erie
running from Cleveland to Zanesvllle'
and last evening passed through Can
ton about $3.50 on it's southern journey
pulled by engine 149.
During the progress Of heavy rain
storms and for several hours there-
after trains are usually given SLOW
orders in order to be on the watch Tor
washouts and as the storm was or un-
usual severity, last night, In the Vicin-
ity Of Coshocton, In fact almost
cloud burst, train 1873 was under such
orders to proceed slowly. The accident
happened at a place, the officials say,
where a washout would be one OF the
last things thought of and the engineer
thinking that he had passed the dan
gerous places may have been running
faster.
At the place Of the wreck the Wheel
ing and Lake Erie parallels the Pitts
burg, Cincinnati, Chicago and st. Louis
railway, better known as the Pan
handle. The road bed of the Wheeling
is upon a high embankment and on the
south side of the track is an embank-
ment and on the north side and about
thirty feet below are the tracks Of the
Panhandle. At this point the Pan
handle has a gravel pit.
The rain must have down this en-
bankment in large volumes and with
great force and undermined the road
bed. When train 1873 came along the
track underneath gave way and engine
149 now lies at the bottom Of the wash
out, thirty feet below its tracks. Other
freight cars followed and they were
stacked up promiscuously along the
track and on top Of the engine. Neither
engineer nor fireman had any warning
and went down to death with the en-
gine. Engineer Doyle must have jump
ed as his body was found this morning
which evidently was not the case with
poor Fireman Dilger, whose body lies
under the engine and has not been re-
covered as yet.
The tracks were not cleared this
morning and will probably be a late
hour this afternoon before trains are
running over that portion of the road.
A temporary track may be built around
the washout in order to let trains run
through. In the meantime Wheeling
trains are using the tracks Of the Pan
handle crossing, which is about three
miles from Coshocton. Superintendent
van Dpsen, Of the Cleveland division
of the Wheeling left at an early hour
this morning for the scene and Will
direct the work of clearing the tracks
and investigate more fully the cause
of the accident.
Engineer Doyle lives in Cleveland and
leaves a wife and family to mourn his
loss. This run was not Doyle's regu-
lar run and he was running extra In
the place of Engineer Benjamin c.
Jones of S09 East Fourth street, in
this city. This is Jones regular run
but at present he is laying Off for
few days.
The remainder of the train crew were
in the caboose at the time of the acci-
dent and escaped without injury.
Mr. Dilger lives in Louisville and is
son of George Dilger, of that town. He
had resigned as fireman and was to
have made his last run on next Sun
day night. Train No. 104 due in Can
ton at 9:45 a. m. was one hour late in
reaching the city today. The delay
was occasioned at Coshocton where the
train was transferred to the Panhandle
tracks In order to run around the wreck.
Trainmen on the train said they would
probably have to use the Panhandle
tracks for several days as they thought
their own could not be put in condition
before that time.