Adams County news. [volume] (Ritzville, Wash.) 1898-1906, 1901-09-04
TERRIBLE wreck OF c. n.
TH1RTY-s1x REPORTED DEAD
Loaded Freight Train, without En-
Eines or Men Came Over the Noun
tain Side and Crashed In Rear End
of n Passenger Train-superin-
tendent Downs Among the Killed.

Thirty four dead, three fatally injured
and 10 more or less seriously hurt-that
is the result of the terrible train wreck
and holocaust on the Great Northern rail
way at Nyack, Mont, Friday evening.
The wreckage instantly took fire and
burned fiercely for over two hours and
a half before reaching the passenger
coaches in which over two score human
beings lay buried. Some were mangled,
some were dying and many were dead.
Their mutilated remains were never re-
covered, but were cremated in the awful
furnace heat which consumed every vestige
of the wrecked cars except the iron and
steel.
In this fearful holocaust the bodies OF
Assistant General Superintendent 2. I.
Downs and son, T. Kirk Downs, were
consumed, together with the remains OF %
laborers whose names could not be learn
ed.
Ten freight cars loaded with shingles
and lumber, one boxcar loaded with
canned salmon, and three coaches on the
passenger train, including a standard
sleeper, day coach and the private car
of Superintendent Downs, were burned in
the confagration.
The wreck occurred at Nyack, Al miles
east of kalispell, Mont, at $3.50 o'clock
in the evening. The passenger had just
passed a caboose and a day passenger
coach, standing on sdetrack, and was
running about six miles an hour, when the
rear end of our train was crashed into
by runaway freight train of Is cars,
which had started from siding near the
summit OF a steep grade. These cars were
heavily loaded and when the crash came
were running fully 70 miles an hour.
Eyewitnesses say that the freight ears
came down the mountains with roar like
a tornado, carrying great clouds of DIET
and withered vegetation in their wake.
The roar of the runaway train was heard
above the noise of the passenger train
by man who was in the detached caboose.
The point at which the collision occurred
was just beyond a sharp curve, which, to-
sether with the moving passenger train,
prevented any dtteIipI az N"ihiiS, ii''N'
such a thing been possible.
To those OH the train not single mo-
ments warning was given. The first we
knew was fearful crash followed by
a sickening, crunching grinding, tearing,
iolting sound. This was fonowed by the
violent oscillation of the coaches, sud
den jerk and all was still.
The cause of the c0nfingration was not
from the stove of the superintendent
private car, as at first announced, but
from lighted oil lamp in the caboosc
which was standing on the sidetrack and
which was overturned when the collision
occurred. The point from where the Ca
boose was overturned to where the vic
tins were buried beneath the wreckage
was at least five car lengths distant. That
accounts for the considerable lapse OF
time before the sleeper and other wrecked
cars were burned. No fire originated in
the passenger train at all.
The wreck was not caused from a
freight train breaking in two, as first re-
ported, but in the following manner: East
bound freight train No. 10 had taken the
siding near the summit of the grade near
Essex, Is miles from where the collision
occurred 1t consisted of % loaded cars,
two engines and caboose A helper en-
CINE is used at the rear of freight trains
over the Essex grade. The caboose fol-
lows the helper engine.
After the train passed both engines of
the freight were detached and taken to
Essex for water and coal, leaving the %
cars on the siding. 1t is supposed the air
brakes which had been set leaked, thus
allowing the tension on the brakes to re-
lax, with the result that the % cars began
to go down the hill, gathering momentum
at every mile, until the point of collision
with the passenger train, when it is vari-
ously estimated that the runaway cars
must have been going at the rate of 70 to
100 miles an hour.
The real loss Of life is variously esti-
mated. The conductor in his report to the
physicians said that the day coach carry
ing the laborers left Havre with AZ men on
board. Between Havre and Nyack four
left the train, leaving 43 on board in the
coach when the collision occurred. OF the
l6 rescued, three were dead and one died
shortly afterwards, making. a total of 81
dead and missing. These, with the three
passengers in the private coach, make a
total of "a who are known to have lost
their lives at the time of the accident. If
the conductor was mistaken about four
men leaving the coach between Havre
and Nyack, then there was a total of 3S
men killed. --..
The laborers were being taken to Jen-
nings by Guthrie & Co., contractors. A
member of the firm was on board the train
The life of this man whose name was not
learned was saved by a simple game Of
cards.
1T is believed that nothing further
could have been accomplished toward the
saving of life, as all Indications of any one
yet remaining in the wreckage alive had
long ceased. There was no lack of aid.
Fully hundred men, who were passengers
on the train, and gang of Japs worked
heroically, covering every part of the
wreckage surrounding the buried cars of
human freight.
The work of rescue was carried on un-
der much difficulty. Thirteen of the in
jured We're taken out and as fast as re-
leased from the wreckage had to be car
ried down the embankment to the ravine,
where they were placed on mattresses
taken from the sleeping cars.