Durango semi-weekly herald., 1903-03-19
MONDAYS PASSENGER
BADLY WRECKED

BADLY WRECKED
The outgoing passenger train from
Durango this morning, bound for Den
yer, was wrecked Just as it was pass
ing out OF the southern limits of the
city. There is a crossing under a
trestle al the place where the wreck
occurred, and hundreds of teams cross
here daily. All the New Mexico traf.
hc passes over the railway at this
point. The crossing is made where
the incline from the mesa above is
quite steep and it is difficult to hold
teams on the hill when trains are
passing, but it was not the more
likely wreck which occurred this
morning. II was only one of the roll
ing boulders which had lodged inside
rail where the track is covered with
plank for crossing, boulder twice
the size of baseball
One of the wheels of the pony truck
of the engine struck the rock. and the
truck jumped ten or twelve feet.
alighting on the trestle ties The en-
gine veered slightly to the left of its
outgoing course, the trucks breaking
loose from their strong fastening
about sixty feet from the place of de-
railment, and were found lodged I'M
der the fore part of the baggage car
None of the passengers were injur-
ed, those on the Pullman scarcely
realizing that more than gentle stop
had occurred. The baggagemaster
a.
and it kept him busy dancing to a bal
ance while his car was going through
its contortions
The fireman and engineer both es-
capped with what appear to be but
slight injuries. Engineer Beatty had
wrecked cab, and thought at first he
was not hurt at all, but before starting
TO walk back to the station found that
his back had been wrenched. 1t was
with some difficulty that Mr. Beatty
extricated himself, his legs being pin
ioned under some of the timbers of
the wrecked cab. He was near to the
fireboX where had he been pinioned
for more than few moments with
o'b hiu. +ht Npuiu idNC pNIu'u
The wreck occurred in a space OF
about one hundred feet, only the en-
gine, tender, mail and baggage cars
being injured. The two day coaches
and sleeper appear not to have sus-
tanned even the slightest injury. The
front end of the baggage and mail
cars We're smashed, and the front
trucks torn out by the pony truck of
the engine, the heavy drive-wheels and
gearing of the heavy part of the en-
gine having passed over the pony
truck.
Three sections or three lengths of
rails were torn out, and the underlying
ties were broken and splintered, The
heavy steel rails were bent into all
sorts of curvatures and twisted like
wire Two of the rails were broken
as if brittle sticks of candy
When the engine lost its balance
it started to climb the hill in its fright.
and ploughed into the bank of boulders.
clay and sand, turning almost at right
angles with the track course. The
tender, in its effort to get away, tried
to go over the other bank toward the
Animas river, but could not break its
Fastening with the engine.
The powerful engine, which had
pulled many heavy trains over mount
ain passes and held its loads Of hui
man freight securely in climbing and
descending the hills hundreds of
times, once derailed. was but a frail
and defenseless machine. In its
helplessness It appealed to the pity OF
those whom but moment before it
might have destroyed There it lay
motionless and dead, the steam escap-
ed and fire nearly extinguished
Many of the'parts of the engine ma
chinery were broken and distorted
into all the imaginable shapes. Strong
pieces of iron and steel had been
broken as if they were but slender
pieces of delicate wood. The cab was
almost completely demolished and the
escape of the engineer and fireman