The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1903-08-06
A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE
Engineer Drinkle and Fireman
Caldwell Have Close Call.

A wreck on the Newton branch of
the Iowa Central Saturday afternoon
nine miles east of Newton came very
near being attended with fatal re-
suits. Engineer Will Drinkle, Of this
city, and Fireman Chas. Caldwell, Of
New Sharon, managed in some way
to get out alive but are considerably
bruised and battered up. Their es-
cape from death is considered a ,spe-
cial dispensation of providence.
Iowa Central engine No54 was the
Inflated machine. The locomotive
was backing from Newton on the af-
ternoon run to New Sharon. The ac-
cident happened at Capple Station,
west of Kilduff. The engine and
tender left the rails at the beginning
of curve and plunged down a TWEEN
ty-foot embankment. They turned
completely over. Steam pipes and
connections were twisted and broken
and the wreck was enveloped in a
cloud of steam that cut Off all view Of
the accident for some minutes. The
baggage and express car and the pas
senger car did not leave the rails and
it was some minutes before the pas
sengers realized what had happened.
Conductor Ed Nuser sprang from
his place and went forward to go to
the engine to see if the boys could be
alive. Then the hiss of the steam
was all that he could hear. There
was not a sound or groan and he
felt that both engineer and fireman
had been killed or were being cooked
by the steam. He sickened ana
turned back, unable to make the in
vestigation.
The escape Of the engine men is lit
tie short of a miracle. Drinkle says
he made a plunge from his window
as he saw the engine following the
tender off down the bank. He just
got out of the window as best he
could. He called something to his
fireman who tried to get out of the
window past him and then he fell
head first from the cab window. He
lust missed the drive wheels as the
engine turned completely over and
his head and shoulders proved up the
soft dirt of the embanllment. He fell
upon his face and side and then roll
ed down the bank and was stopped
by the side of the tender. Had the
other cars followed down after the
engine and piled up against it he
must have been buried, for he had no
further chance for escape.
Drinkle pulled himself together
and saw that his bones were whole
and Immediately thought Of his fire.
man. He caught a glimpse of the
boy pulling himself out of brush
patch on the other side Of the wreck
and almost clear of the right of way.
He had been thrown a distance of
fully thirty feet from the wreck.
How he got free from the falling en-
CINE or when or where IS thing that
Caldwell cannot tell. He doesn't even
know how he came to be in the
brush. He was not badly hurt,-just
bruised about one leg. Drinkle was
so overjoyed to see the boy compar-
atively unhurt that he yelled: by
the great horn spoon, Charley, amt
you hurt either? Come right here;
l want to see you" And the two
engine men met at the side of the
wreck and shook hands warmly, con-
graduating themselves over their es-
cape. Then as the narrow margin Of
their escape became evident to them
they were both so badly frightened
that they could hardly move and it IS
said that both trembled violently and
shook like ague patients.
There we're three cars in the train
besides the baggage car and coach.
Some of the trucks were pulled from
the rails where the track was ton
up, but fortunately the coupling was
broken and the cars did not pile up
against the engine. The train was
proceeding over a place for which
slow orders had been issued on ac-
count of washed out place in the
track.
The clearing of the wreck required
a large gang of workmen and the SER
vices of the wrecking crew from Mar
shalltown. General Superintendent
M. Sweeney, Of Minneapolis, Superin-
tendent Davis, Trainmaster Frank
Snyder and Roadmaster VIM. Terry, |
Of this city, and Master Mechanic ~
D. Johnson, of Marshalltown, went to
the scene of the wreck and brought
home the injured men on their spe-
cial car.
The cause of the wreck was most
likely the rocking and swaying Of
the loaded tender. The water in the
tender gets to rocking when it is
pushed ahead of the engine and it is
probable that the motion came just
right to assist one of the wheels over
The rails as the curve was struck.