The age-herald., 1901-10-20
Heavy Double Header Freight PIunegd to Bottom of
 Deep Ravine
ENGINEER AND FIREMAN DIE
Two Locomotives and Two Carloads of Flour Piled Top Upon Top. Three Persons Were
 Injured. is

A heavy double-header freight train, without a warning of danger. plunged through the long trestle on the Central of Georgia Railroad near Leeds yesterday morning and two 60-ton locomotives are lying in an almost shapeless mass at the bottom of a deep ravine. with two cars of flour and tons of degris piled about them.
 ;. Four persons were carried down the drop of forty feet and one of them was instantly killed in the first crash. another dying several hours later.
 The dead:
 J. W. Webster, engineer on the front engine.
 Simpson Hunter negro fireman on the front engine.
 The injured Oscar Vaughan, engineer, painfully bruised; Mark Wood, white, leg broken; J. Carroll, negro fireman, in- jured about body.
 The Trestle Collapsed.
 The ill-fated train was in charge of Conductor J. c. Rawls and left Birming- ham shortly after midnight en route to Columbus, Ga. It reached the Leeds trestle about clock, and started across the long span at the slow rate of speed required by the laws of the company.
 As the heavy engines reached the high est part of the trestle slight quivering of the frame work was felt. and in a mo- ment the entire structure from that point to the mountain side one hundred feet away collapsed, and the engine and five cars were crushed into the earth forty feet below.
 The crash could be heard In the little town of Leeds half mile distant, and the citizens who were awakened rushed to the place and did what they could to assist the injured.
 News of the disaster was immediately telegraphed into Birmingham and spe- cial train carrying officers of the road and physicians was hurried to the wreck. All the injured trainmen were brought to the city and taken to St. vincent's Hospital. MT. Webster, the engineer, died at 12 o'clock last night. His wife had ar rived from Columbus Ga., at 830 o'clock p. m., and was with him when the fatal moment came.
 Removing the Debris.
 Several squads of men were at work all day yesterday and last night removing the debris with derricks and hoisting engines. It will probably be several days before the wreck is cleared, and in the meantime passengers on the Central of Georgia are suffering considerable incon- venience, as they have to be transferred from one train to another.
 It is a wild scene where the wreck oc- cured, and as passengers alight from trains coming west a gruesome sight greets the eye as one descends the moun- tain side. Engine No. 1857, which was sITSI tO ldll, lies On US SlQc Wltn lne nedu- light and smokestack partly buried in the soft soil at the foot of the mountain as if the great monster had panted its last breath and bowed its head in submissi Engine No. 1858 has not lost its upright position and except for the debris piled upon it seems ready to continue the run.
 A Two-Deck TrestIe.
 The trestle which caused the disaster spans the Southern Railway and reaches from hill Just outside of Leeds five hun dred feet to the abrupt side of a high mountain. The structure Is what is known as a two-deck trestle and is prac- tically trestle upon a trestle. The frame work reaches a height of about forty feet where the timbers gave way. There are no hanging pieces of timber, and the trestle gives the impression of having been cut in two with knife. Not a vestige of the frame work was left standing between the cutting-off place and the side of the mountain.