New-York tribune., 1900-09-03
KILLED ON PLEASURE TRIP
THIRTEEN VICTIMS OBJ RAILROAD COL
LISION IN PENNSYLVANIA.
READING EXCURSION TRAIN BOUND FOR
ATLANTIC CITY CRASHES INTO
MILK TRAIN.

MILK TRAIN.
Philadelphia, Sept. 2-Thirteen persons killed
| and over thirty others injured is the appalling
| record Of a rear end collision between an ex-
! curslon train and a milk train on the Bethlehem
| branch Of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail-
way this morning at Hatfield. Penn, twenty
| seven miles north of this city. The killed are:
| ACKERMANN. - Philadelphia
BACHMAN. Richard. aged forty. South Bethlehem
BLACKBURN. William. Amber.
DAY. Thomas. Allentown
EHRET. Ira aged twenty, South Bethlehem
EHRET. William. aged twenty-five. South Bethlehem.
KAELIN, Godfrey, Teford
KAELIN. Miss Mamie aged fourteen Telford
LANDIS Harold, Hatfield.
MGONIGLE. Charles, Allentown
MILLER, Robert, aged twenty-one. South Bethlehem
MoRDAUNT Joseph. aged twenty-two South Bethlehem
SHERRY Miss Annie. aged twenty-one South BetbIe-
hem, ~
Those most seriously injured are: John David
Philadelphia, engineer OF excursion train skull
! fractured. condition critical; Albert J. Wagner
Philadelphia, fireman of excursion train con-
tusions Of chest and legs, serious; Wilson Cross
land, South Bethlehem. baggage master of milk
train. head lacerated serious; Michael J. Tighe.
Allentown, legs crushed and burned. serfous.
Abraham Transue. jr., South Bethlehem deem
scalp wounds confusion of back and internally
injured, serious; Mrs William Burkhardt South
Bethlehem. injured internally; Miss Gertruda
Burkhardt. South Bethlehem both legs broken.
Miss Carrie Bachman. daughter of Richard
Bachman, who was killed, chest crushed serious
wellington H. Rosenberg, of LansdaIe, q
representative in the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives, was the milk train He had
his jaw broken. and was also internally inIured
His condition is serious.
FIRST SECTION OF EXCURSION TRAIN
The wrecked train consisted of ten dav
1Ia
excursion made up Of persons from Bethlehem
Allentown and surrounding towns to Atlantic
City. This section carried only those who lived
in Bethlehem and Allentown, and left the Union
Station in Bethlehem at Cos a. m exactlv
! thirty-fve minutes behind the milk train. The
latter train consisted Of two milk cars and two
passenger coaches. and had stopped at every
station on the road from Bethlehem on the wav
to Philadelphia. At 6:45 the milk train drew
UP at the milk platform at Hatfield, and in less
than two minutes the special excursion train
running at the rate of thirty-f1ve miles an hour.
crashed into the rear OF the milk train
The locomotive ploughed through the two mas
senger coaches. and the milk car immediately In
front also badly wrecked. Four persons
Godfrey Kaelin, his daughter, Mamie Harold
Lands and William Blackburn in the passenger
cars Of the milk train, were almost instantly
killed. Fortunately there were few persons on
this train.
The excursion train was a picture of in
describable horror. The locomotive was a mass
of bent and broken iron. and firmly held the
bodies of its engineer and fireman beneath its
weight Behind the engine. six of the ten cars
were also a mass of wreckage. The first car
was broken in two. and the other five cars
were thrown on their sides, completely demol-
ished. Nine persons were killed in the first two
cars, and the others in these coaches were
badly manned Many were pinned down by
wreckage. and had to be freed by the use OF
axes.
NEARLY ALL KILLED INSTANTLY.
With three or four exceptions the dead were
killed instantly; the others died on the way
to the hospital. All the injured were first taken
to a shed at Hatfield Station, and the dead
were removed to a barn. Messengers were sent
to the nearby villages for physicians. and re-
lief train was telegraphed for from Bethlehem.
With fifteen doctors and half dozen nurses
special train was sent from Bethlehem. but be-
fore it reached the scene of the wreck. it was
signalled to return to Bethlehem. as a special
train carrying nearly all the injured had started
for the hospital at that place On the run from
Hatfield to the hospital three of the injured
persons died
The special train arrived at Bethlehem at
IL 80 and was met by fully five thousand per-
sons. all eager to get a bit or news OF the wreck
or trying to learn whether friends were among
the victims. The news OF the wreck had reached
Bethlehem at o'clock. All the police of the
town were at the station but IL was with dinl-
Guilty that the injured removed to the
ambulances and other vehicles which conveyed
them TO the hospitals.
SECOND SECTION OF TRAIN FIAGGED
The second section of the excursion, made up
OF persons from towns other than Bethlehem
and Allentown. started soon after the first sec
tion but tagged before II reached Hatfield
AS 1t could not get through on account of the
blocked tracks it was returned 10 Bethlehem