Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-02-01
A TERRIBLE WRECK
SKATERS A TOWN AND KILLS
FIVE PERSONS.
Freight Cars of the Jersey Central
Get Beyond Control, Dash Wildly
Down a Pennsylvania Mountain
Side to Ashley, Causing Explosion.

Down a Pennsylvania Mountain
Side to Ashley, Causing Explosion.
Five men were killed and seven in.
jured, so far as is known, by wreck
and explosion Of a car of dynamite
Thursday, JAM 25 in the yards of the
New Jersey Central Railroad at Ash
ley, Pa. A runaway train dashed down
the mountain into the Ashley yards.
There car of dynamite exploded,
wrecking the roundhouse and several
engines and cars. The dead are:
Michael Bird. brakeman William
Buckley. brakeman; Frank McLaugh.
lin, brakeman; two engine wipers,
names unknown.
The injured are: William Brown,
night foreman; Michael Coyle, flag
man; John Rehig, driver; John Rouf-
ley, driver; Thomas Row, brakeman.
Two unknown men, both fatally in
jured.
An extra fast freight train. with
twenty-four cars, was sent out Of
Mauch Chunk about seven o'clock,
and at Laurel Run, four miles from
Ashley, where the heavy down noun.
tain grade commences, the train got
beyond control. How this happened
cannot be learned.
The train gained speed as it rushed
down the mountain, and as it neared
Ashley was going at terrific rate.
The men in the Ashley yards, startled
by the roar of the approaching train,
had only time to see the fire flying
along the tracks as the brakemen
jamed down the brakes in vain en-.
deavor to check the speed of the hurl-
ing train, but the wheels would not
hold on the wet and slippery rails.
At the foot of the mountain, and
right at the entrance of the Ashley
yards, was engine No. $40, helper"
which was about to start up the noun.
tain with train then being drawn UP.
Back of this engine, about fifty or six.
| ty yards, was shifting engine which
was waiting for orders.
The runaway train. with the speed
of tornado, came down the heavy
grade and crashed into engine No. $40.
Picking this up as If it had been of
feather weight, and so propelled by
its own force that contact with the
heavy engine even did not hurl it
from the track the onrushing engine
carried the other one with scarcely
diminished speed along the track into
the shifting engine, and there the
wreck piled up
But when the train struck the first
engine the noise was a whisper CON-
pared with the roar of the explosion
that followed and which wrecked the
roundhouse. shattered seven engines
near by, tore up tracks as II they had
been spiders web and hurled masses
of iron, rails and ties in all directions.
II was the explosion of twenty-five
tons of dynamite.
All the houses in the town of Ash
ley were shaken, and those at Nanti-
coke. Plymouth, Edwardsville, Glen
Lyons, Newtown, Kingston, Forty
Fort and Wilkesbarre trembled.
But in Ashley, which surrounds and
hangs over the shops and the railroad
yard, the scene was terrifying Win
dows fell crashing out of their frames.
houses shivered as in blast of cy-
clone, and people in the streets were
shaken by the concussion. The dark
ness of the night was lit up by great
flash, and then all was black again.
The hiss of escaping steam was not
too loud to drown the cries Of the in
1ured, and above this now and then
there was the crash of some piece of
wreck falling.
Where the car of dynamite was
blown up there was a big hole in the
ground, and around it the wreck was
,strewn, while almost a quarter of
mile away was piled the wreck of the
three engines, and on top of them the
cars. Part of the roof of the round
house was blown off. the big smoke
stacks were toppled down like straws,
water tank was shattered and strewn
along the track, drenching the crew
of an engine lying near, and five en-
sines on the siding and three in the