Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-12-30
DIE In B. & o. WRECK.
FRIGHTFuL CATASTROPHE ENDS
SixTY-THREE LIVES.
Duquesne Limited Thrown from Rails
Near conneIIsviIie, Pa, by Timbers
Dropped from Freight - Passengers
Cooked Alive ia Smoking Car.


Sixty-three persons were killed, most
of them being roasted to death by escap-
ing steam, and serenty-fre injured many
fatally, when passenger train No. u, the
''Duquesne Limited" ON the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, was wrecked at 7:30
Wednesday night mile and half from
Connellsville, Pa. The train was torn
to pieces, the mail and baggage cars
were hurled down l5-fOot embankment
into the Youghiogheny river, the sleeping
and dining cars were thrown part way
down the bank and most of them were
burned by the fire set by the engine, The
locomotive itself was torn to fragments
and the pieces thrown into the river.
Hours were consumed in rescuing the
bodies of the dead and the injured vic
Tins from the lebris. During the great
er part of tn time nearly everybody
able to reach scene OF the disaster
had displayed the greatest heroism.
Scarcely had the bodies been laid out in
rows on the bank, however, when thieves
began to rob the dead of jewelry and
other valuables
Burns His Coat TO Save Otker Train.
Baggagemaster Thomas j. Baum of
Hazlewood proved the archhero of the
occasion. His head and body were fear
fully cut in the wreck, but in the mo-
ment of his injury he remembered that
west-bound passenger train No. 40 was
about due. If it ran into the wreckage
there would be another catastrophe. He
had nothing with which to signal except
matches.
Crawling out from under the debris
that imprisoned him for a time, Baum
ran down the track, pulled off his coat
and stood ready for the approach of No
40. When he saw the headlight break
through the darkness he struck match
lighted a sleeve of his coat and then
waved the flaming garment as a warning
t. the oneoming engineer.
The signal was seen and needed. No
40 stopped within a foot of Baum and
within short distance of the pile of
debris.
The wrecked train was running east
from Pittsburg at a rate of sixty miles
an hour 1t struck an obstruction of
lumber on q curve near Dawson.
Most of those killed were foreigners
who were in the smoker, just back of the
baggage car. They were literally roast
ed to death, the baggage and smoker
telesco7ipg the engine and Immediately
cat hing fire. Many of their bodies were
buJ ned to a crisp. The entire population
turned out en- masse TO assist i'll caring
for the living and in disposing of the
dead. A peculiar feature of the accident
4 the fact that not woman was injur-
ed except slightly.
Lumber from Freight Causes Wreck.
FTss- = I !. H., Ok
ing of the castings on a car load of
bridge timbers on a west-bound freight
train which had passed Laurel Run not
more than fifteen minutes before the i'll
fated passenger train. The wreck occur
red on a curve and it was impossible Tor
Engineer Thornley, to see far enough
ahead to detect the timbers that had
fallen.
The big Atlantic type engine plunged
into the timbers. then into the em5ank-
'ent, and the baggage and express car
were thrown into the Youghiogheny riv-
err. The smoker followed the engine and
landed squarely on top of it. This al
lowed the escaping steam from the engine
TO fill the car
The smoker was packed TO its utmost
capacity and all the passengers were
cooked alive. Not single passenger in
this car escaped with his life, and it is
estimated that at least forty of the dead
were in the smoker
An operator at "VR" tower ON the
Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad. across
the Yough;ogheny river, was the first to
send wc-i of the accident and to send
for relief. He was watching the Du-
quesne limited as il was speeding along
the Baltimore and Ohio tracks. He saw
the cars pile high in the air and then sink
back on the tracks. The screams of the
injured and dying were plainly heard. j
another second he was sending WORD
the railroad officials at Dawson and CT
nelIsyille.
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