Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-12-31
TWENTY-FIVE DEAD
IN TRAIN WRECK
Passenger Trains In a Crash Near
Grand Rapids, Mich.
URED
The Accident Occurred on the Pere
Marquette Line and Was Caused
by Wind Blowing Ont Red
Light Set. to Stop Train.


Light Set to Stop Train.
Grand Rapids, Mich, Dec. 2S.-The
Heath list Sunday night resulting from
the head-on collision between two
Pere Marquette railroad passenger
trains near East Paris Saturday e
ing stands at %, with SO persons in
jured, several of them probably fatally.
1t was the most disastrous wreck in
the history of the Pere Marquette sys-
TEN, and instead of being caused by
any mans carelessnes or mistake, is
| charged to the high wind which ex-
tinguished the red signal light in the
order board at McCord's Station,
where the westbound train was ex-
pected to stop and receive new orders.
Two minutes before the train rushed
by McCord's the light was burning,
says the operator there; but in that
brief interval the blizzard which was
raging extinguished it and train No.
5 dashed past the station to crash into
eastbound train No. 6, lear Paris.
The trains, which were two of the
finest on the system, were reduced to
a promiscuous pile of broken and
twisted timber and metal, with dead
and injured pinned down and crushed
by the fragments of heavy cars.
Five cars and two large locomotives
were damned into a space originally
occupied by three coaches, and the
wreckage was strewn across the rail-
road right of way from fence to fence.
Collision Was Inevitable.
When train No. 5, bound west,
whizzed by McCord's instead of stop
ping, the frightened operator notified
the dispatcher, and then found that
his red signal light had been extin-
guished. He reported this fact, and
then there was but one action to take.
The collision was inevitable. The dis
patcher's Office called for medical aid,
and gave orders to hold the train over
the Saginaw branch at the depot and
get the wrecking outfit under steam.
They then waited for the word they
knew must come.
An Awful Loss of Life.
There was no chance of the fast
running trains to see each other
through the driving blizzard in time
to even slow down, and in a few min
utes word came from the conductor
of No. 5 that they had crashed to-
gether and that there was an awful
loss of life.
The %westbound engine drove through
No. 6's engine like a wedge, separat-
ing the gear from the boiler and stand.
ing the latter on end like a broken,
twisted shell. The running gear was
crumpled up like so much Irvine. Great
cast steel side rods bent into many
shapes, and even the steea tires of the
big driving wheels split ana sprung
from the wheels, landing in some cases
ten feet from the engine. .
Engineer and Fireman Escape.
The boiler of engine 397 turned
over several times, and the very force
of the twisting impact seems to have
been the means of saving the life of
Engineer Waterman. He was flung 40
feet over the fence at the edge of the
right of way. Moon, his fireman, was
sitting on the opposite of the cab, and
he too was thrown clear of the pile of
wreckage.
No. 6, east bound was composed of
a mail and baggage car, a combina-
ton smoker, buffet, parlor car, day
coach and dining car. The baggage
coach caught between the engine and
heavy train, crumpled up like paste
board, only the roof remaining partly
unhroken. The big blind mail coach,
heavily b~ulkheaded, took the brunt of
the blow, but withstood the shock and
communicated it to the smoker, next
in the rear. The smoker was swept
clean as the mail car telescoped its
entire length and turned yer at the
north side of the track. The smoker,
in turn, crashed several feet into the
parlor car, and it was at the rear end
of the smoker and forward end of the
cafe car where the passengers were
killed and injured.
Deeds of Heroism.
The %westbound flyer, with its heavy
bulkheaded cars stayed on the rails,
back of the baggage and mail cars,
and the passengers ON this train es-
capped serious injury. AS one mar
they rushed out of the train to as
sist the less fortunate ones on the
train from thiss city. Many stripped
warm ov~ercoats fro:1 their backs and
covered the suffering injured as they
were borne from the less shattered
cars and taken into the remains of par.
lor car No. 6. Nearby farmers, hear
ing the crash, returned with blankets
and did vaSiant service.
The cafe coach Of the Inflated east
bound train, which was demolished as
far back as the real of the forward