Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1901-09-04
APPALLING
DISASTER
Freight Train on the Great Northern
Dashes Into Passenger
at Nyaek, Mont,
FIRE ADDS HORROR TO The SCENE
Victims Pinioned Beneath the Debris
Expire in the Sight Of
Their Friends.

Their Friends.
Kallspell, Aug. 3l.-An appalling
disaster happened on the Great
Northern ut Nyack, 40 miles east OF
kalispell, last night, when twenty
eight freight cars crashed into the
rear of No. 3 west bound passenger,
killing p. Il. Downs, the superintend-
ent OF the western division, and Kirk
Downs, his son; Henry Blair. thecook
OF the car, and thlrty-threc laborers.
who were In the car In front Of the
superintendent car, who Were being
taken to Jennings to work on the
extension line Of the road.
Thirty-six lives were lost and thir-
teen persons were injured.
None Of the passengers were injur-
ed, the fatalities having been confined
to employees OF the company.
The dead are:
z. T. Downs. assistant general
superintendent OF the Great Northern
lines west OF Minot, n. ID.
Kirk Z. Downs, his sou.
Henry Blair, cook aboard Downs
private car.
Thirty-three Scandinavian labor
ers, names unknown.
Two unknown tramps.
The injured are:
Thirteen Scandinavian iab0rers,
names unknown.
The heavy east bound freight had
stopped at Essex and was on the
siding. The air brakes were put on
and the front engine had gone up the
track to take water. Presently the
helper engine, which was on thrrcar,
backed out and came To take water
also. They were on a sidetrack, and
No. }, west bound, passed them while
they were there. The rest of thccrew
we're In the Telegraph office at Essex,
except one brakeman, who was on
the freight train.
Some tine after No. 8 passed the
brakes on the freight train became
loose In some way and the heavily
loaded cars, twenty-eight In number
began to roll down the grade, which
at that point Is very heavy. So
quickly did the freight cars get away
that no one knew they were gone un.
I'll the engine crews came back with
their engines and found the carr
missing. Then they were at loss
to know whether the cars had gone
before or after No. 3 had passed.
They Immediately started down
the track after the doomed train. In
the meantime the freight cars were
speeding on their death-dealing trip
The high grade from Essex to Nyack
IL fearfully down hill. Freights usu
ally shut off steam and put ON brakes
when going down 1t. After the first
mile the runaway cars gathered
momentum every foot, and In the II
miles to Nyack accumulated fearful
speed-some say 100 miles an hour
when they struck the rear Of No. 3 al
Nyack.
At Nyack west bound traIns slo "
down to about six miles an hour
No. 3 had done so and had got past
the depot and the engineer was be,
ginning to let her out. AfreIght was
on the sidetrack at Nyack. Her en-
gineer heard the on-coming train
but did not know what IL was. He
knew 1t was something mcnacing the
passenger train, however, and three
times quickly pulled his whistle Civ,
ing warning, "GO ahead, go ahead
go ahead, to the passenger engineer
The engineer OF the passenger could
not hear the noise Of the on-cOmIng
train on account of noise, but heard
the freight engineers whistle and
knew there was an awful necesslt J
for speed. He threw open his throt
tie to make 1t, but It was too late.
The runaway cars crashed into the
rear Of his train. The passenger
train was golng about 10 miles al
hour and the wild freight cars, SO oil
100, after an unchecked run OF IL miles
down heavy grade, when they
struck. The result was frightful ia
the extreme. The tops OF the real
cars Of the passenger coaches wer,
showed off clean, shattered to splInt
ers and thrown everywhere. A roo
OF freight carslId up over the renl
Of the Pullman and the ladies' toilet
room OF the Pullman was crushed In
and the car at once began to fill Will
smoke. The occupants Of the labor
ers' car must have mostly been crush
ed to death In the first crash, az very
few sounds came from that pnrt O
the wreck.
The ten freight ears nearest th,