The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1900-03-21
one CAR YANISHES
LEAVES THE MlDgt E OF A TRAIN, ANr
Is THE CONDUCTOR is BAFFtEo.

rs THE CONDUCTOR IS BAFFLeO'
Train Couples Again, and Completes
Is Its Journey WITHOUT Leaving It's
II Loss Discovered Charles BragnelI
the Conductor Tells the Story.
] The most remarkable of all railroad
accidents occurred on the Chicago x
Alton railroad near Atlanta, ILL.,, when
a loaded car jumped out OF a freight
train and lodged in a ditch and the
train coupled up and reached its des
tination without the crew either know
ing that an accident had occurred or
missing the ear from the train.
Charles Bragnell, of Roodfouse, ILL.,,
the conductor the train, tells the story.
He says:
when | delivered my train l was
told ! was a car short. / thought q
mistake must have been made In
checking me up. l was called up for
an explanation. The clerical records
showed plainly enough that l had tax
en- out of East st. Louis car OF hard
coal that had never delivered. had
lost it some place between East ST.
Louis and bloomington. l couldn't ex-
plain it. We had made up heavy
train. put two engines in front of IL
and Il c;thoose behind 10, and when l
delivered it would have swornnthat il
stood just as we had made II up. and
that every car left or added along the
line was accounted for
THE next morning one of the psssen-
ger crews reported coal car wrecked
i'll the ditch near Atlanta. When Ii
was looked up il proved to be the car
had lost The superintendent asked
me why | had not reported the wreck.
1t was news to me and il was news to
the whole crew We knew nothing
about it. Ii seemed impossible that II
could have occurred and not have been
seen, but it did. If | had read of such
thing happened upon another road !
would not have believed 1t.
"rhe car that jumped out of my train
was the eleventh behind the engine. 1t
WAS loaded with hard coal and Esup
pose we We're running something over
twenty miles an hour when the car
jumped out. The train ws coupled up
with automatic couplers, and when the
ear left its place the twelfth ear. just
behind 1t, came up and coupled on at
the rear of the tenth car"
The Chicago & Alton experts have
ear out of the middle of rapidly run
ming train of twentyAonea loaded cars
can be explained In bat one way. The
fiange of front truck wheel upon the
ear wrecked is broken. and just below
where the car lodged the ties are
marked as though by car Off the
track The coS9lers catch with what
is commonly known rs the Indian
grip catching automatically. When
the iange of the coal car broke, IL Ia
reasoned, the ear left the track at that
end and uneoupled itself from the car
ahead by pulling one of the eoupiers.
or hands. below the plane of the other
At the same time the coupler at the
other end sank below the plane of Its
mate and uncoupled the car there, and.
by some peculiar wrench the uneou
pied ear was shot out of the train and
fell fifty feet from the track, while the
trainmen were all unconscious how
near they had been to bad wreck
and death.
It is related among railroad men that
an occurrence very like that Mt Atlanta
happened years ago ON the Eehigh Val
ley. where car left its train and rolled
down Il long embankment and into a
thick underbrush just leafing In early
summer. The trainmen did not see the
car go and it was not known that they
had lost 1t until the train was checked
up and Il ear proven missing. In lit
tie while the grecning vegetation en-.
tirely hid ii and the disappearance OF
the ear of valuable merchandise be-
came the chief mystery of the road
When the leaves fell in the autumn the
car was found and the freight which
filed it was recovered with very little
loss. The lost ear of the Lehigh was
not, though, as remarkably lost as the
Chicago \ Alton ear, for the Iehigh
car was the last upon the train and
could easily escape, while the Chicago
Il Alton car left the middle of the
train.