Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-01-20
Many VIEW TIE WRECK
Hundreds Of Visitors Watch the
Wrecking Operations at
Victor Sunday.
Further Details OF the Accident
on the Chicago. Rock
Island & Pacific.
Lack of Water in Boiler Now Be.
lieved to Be Cause OF
Explosion.

! Special to Times epublican.
Victor, Jan. 2o.-All day and far into
the night Saturday visitors thronged in
| to Victor to see the wreck which oc-
CURED Saturday morning, and all day
| yesterday the crowds kept coming.
Work in clearing away the wreckage
and replacing the battered Pullmans on
| The track is being pushed rapidly and
within a couple of days the evidences of
the wreck will all have been removed.
One car was replaced on the track Sat
rrday.
Five Pullmans and baggage car
rolled over the embankment and lay on
their sides On the north side of the track.
The cars were all vestibuled and no ten
dency to telescope was shown. One OF
the peculiar features of the wreck Is
that all the cars went off on one side and
all retained their position in the train.
The train was running at speed OF at
least forty-five miles and probably fifty
miles per hour when the. wreck oc-
Cured and the effect OF the explosion
of the boiler was to instantly destroy the
momentum of the train. 1t is considered
little short of miraculous that many
were not killed. The sleeping cars were
all crowded and in the baggage car Bag
gageman Schaefer and Expressman
Dougherty were hurled from the floor to
the roof among the heavy baggage and
escaped with hardly scratch.
The fact that all the passengers In the
sleeper were occupying their berths
doubtless accounts in large measure
for the absence of INJURY among the pas
sengers. The colored porters tell inter-
estingly of the scenes Immediately after
the wreck. They were all badly shaken
up and bruised, but only one was in
lured, he suffering a broken leg.
The wreck took place about thou
sand feet west OF the passenger depot
and within the town Of Victor. This
town is partly in Iowa county and part
" in Poweshiek county. The wreck oc-
Cured barely within the Poweshiek
county line. The inhabitants Of the town
were all upon the scene inside OF fifteen
minutes after the explosion took place
and houses near by We're Immediately
opened to the passengers.
Coroner Newman reached the scene
about 1880 and medical aid from Grin
rell and Brooklyn. The passengers,
however, who had received cuts or
scratches were all attended in short
time after the wreck by local physicians.
Most of them continued their journey on
the fast mail, which went west about
1890. A few stayed over till evening
and one or two are still in town. Some
lest clothing or valuables in the confu-
sion which followed the wreck, but such
losses were few and no property of the
passengers was destroyed. The cause OF
the wreck, as was stated in the last is
sue, will never be known. The railroad
officials have stated the cause as the
Cropping of the crown sheet. 1t is evil
dent to all that the boiler exploded and
the probable cause of this ia stated by
experienced engineers who witnessed the
wrecked locomotive to have been a de-
fcctive water gauge which showed
greater water depth in the boiler than
was present The boiler thus became dry
and when cold water was admitted the
explosion took place.