The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-28
A MYSTERIOUS FREIGHT CAR.
Dropped Out of n Train, and There
by Hangs n Tale.
(From the Los Angeles Herald.)

Santa Fe car No. 1919 had left a well
known fruit packers establishment in the
San Gabriel Valley during the latter DAYS
of March of the present year, loaded with
select oranges consigned to a commission
firm in one of the great Eastern markets
IL was bright, fresh appearing ear, with
all the modern cold storage appliances
recently put in order for the fruit shin
ping season, which was just at its incep-
ton.
Car No. 1919 was but one of a ponder
OTIS train similarly equipped, loaded and
destined. The journey had an uneventful
beginning and had progressed to a point
In the distant Rockies without especial in
client.
For days the heavy laden train. man
n''d with sturdy crew. wound it's way
OIL its long journey over the Sierra Madre
and Sierra Nevada Mountains. up the
continental divide, through numerous vii
lagos, over sage brush plains and sandy
deserts, faithful to its mission and its
situation. The great train, with it's
4 r'Dus cargo of golden fruit, drawn nv
ii" Jle-headers, had tOiled through cas-
tern California, Arizona, and a portion of
New Mexico; it had climbed the rugged
sleeps of the Rockies, plunged into and
through the great tunnel at the crest of
that range, and started on its downwa I'd
flight to Trinidad. not far to the east.
when the sensational incident of the
journey transpired.
Car No. 1919 had mySteriOusly and
strangely disappeared. At Baton a di-
vision station on the Santa Fe. that par
ticular car. with others. had been noted
IN the conductors report and turned over
to a new crew.
Strangely, this car did not appear in the
train reports when Trinidad was reached
The Inflated car had dropped from sight
as II swallowed up the by earth, and its
miraculous disappearance could not be
explained by the train crew. The mysti-
fled trainmen were called upon the car
pet and subjected to a searching enquiry
#1,..0 1.s.VV
appearance OF No. 1919. The bewildered
conductor could offer no solution of the
mystery that surrounded the lost car.
After many days of perplexity. con-
fusion, and annoying investigation. a
cowboy in charge of his herd reported a
strange discovery. which cleared away
the mystery. No. 1919 was lying at the
base OF a precipitous embankment. i'm n
thicket of underbrush, with its sides dis
tended, its roof bullying and a confused
mass of choice oranges appearing through
the cleits of its wrecked outlines. The
car was lying on its side dismounted
from its trucks mass of ruins, with its
contents preserved by the crisp noun
tain air under a cloudless sky.
The train, In it's rapid descent. at a
sharp curve. had broken the hanges of a
set of wheels and the Inflated car was
deTailed.
Dumping over the rough roadbed ami
ties had detached the couplings at either
end and the disabled car rolled down the
steep ombankment to the valley hundreds
Of feet below. The train being on down
grade the rear section soon closed up the
gap and by means Of automatic couplers
had again become attached to the front
section. all unknown to the train crew
Thus No. 1873 dropped out of account.
leaving its disappearance shrouded in
deep mystery.
Upon its discovery the cowboy was suit
ably rewarded tile train crew reinstated
major portion OF the cargo was re-
covered. and the shippers reimbursed.
The wreck of 1919 lies deep in the gorge
into which ii plunged, the monument of
one of the most singular accidents in the
annals of the Santa Fe Road