The Penn's Grove record., 1903-01-30
MANY PERISH IN COLLISION
A Terrible Wreck on the Jersey Cen
trail at Graceland, N. J.
THE TRAPPED VICTIMS BURNED

Fire Broke Out Almost Immediately After
the Crash and . Number OF Those Who
Were Pinned Down Died in Great
Agony The Royal Blue Express
Smashed Into . Lseal Train.
Westield, N. J-One OF thu. most ap.
palling railroad wrecks that has oc-
CURED in the vicinity of New York
City for many years. the estimated loss
Of life ranging from twenty to thirty
| persons, took place at G~raceland, on
The Central Railway of New Jersey,
near here. when the Royal Blue Line
express plowed at top speed into the
rear of a local train.
Immediately after the crash three Of
the shattered cars of the local train
took fire, rendering impossible the res
u of many Of the wounded who were
Epinned fast in the wreck. Many bodies
are believed to have been consumed.
On board the flyer all the passengers,
although badly shaken up. escaped un-
Injured except for triling bruises. The
identified dead are:
Harvey Patterson, twenty-three. of
Dunellen, N. J.; leg cut off; died at
Muhlenberg Hospital, Plainfield. Row.
land Grandor, seventeen, Plainfield. N.
]. Thomas Cumming, thirty. Putnam
avenue, Plainfield; leg cut off. Edgar
w. Williams, lawyer, East Sixth street,
New York. @. r. Thayer, Plainf1eld, N.
J.; Secretary in Senator Platt's office,
40 Broadway, New York. Hughes
Fawcett, Rockview avenue, Plainfeld,
N. J.. Ralph Phillips, nineteen, Madi-
son avenue, Plainfeld, N. j. James
Beekman, twenty, Plainfield, N. j.
This list does not include a number
of charred bodies which were sent to
Plainfield.
The train which was run into left
New York City at 5.43 and runs eX-
press to Bound Brook, making stops at
Elizabeth, Westfeld and Plainfield. Be-
yOnd Bound Brook it runs as a local.
The Royal Blue train left fifteen min
utes later, but travels at a higher speed
and makes no stops except at Eliz-
abeth, and is scheduled to overtake
the slower train just beyond Grace
land, where the latter switches from
track 3 on to track 4 to permit the
Royal Blue to pass.
In the evening a freight train was
blocked on track 4 and the local re-
ceived orders to proceed On the express
track to Dunellen and there take the
outside or No. 4 track. Shortly after
receiving the orders the train had to
to stop for a hot box, which delayed
her so that when she got under way
again she was due at Dunellen. She
had just started and was moving slow
~ when the Royal Blue, travelling APP
parently at full speed, which at that
| point usually approximates sixty-five
miles an hour, crashed into the rear
end.
The heavy engine Of the Royal Blue
tore it's way into the rear car and at
the same time drove the forward end
of that car into the real end of the car
ahead, which in turn was driven into
the third car, and this in turn was
driven into the fourth car from the
rear. The fourth car vas only partly
wrecked, but the last three were torn
to pieces.
The engine of the Royal Blue left
the rails and turned over on her side,
the engineer and fireman sticking to
their posts and going down in the
wreck. They are now in the Mullen
berg Hospital, at Plainfield. and the en-
gineer was believed to be fatally hurt
Passengers on the flyer say the en-
gineer applied the brakes hard a min
ute or so before the wreck. The train
ahead had sent a fiagman back, but il
seems he was recalled when the train
got under way, and, although he left
torpedoes the Royal Blue did not heed
them OF else was going too fast to stoI
in the short distance remaining. The
man who went back to flag the train
had just swung into the rear end OF
his train and is among the dead.
The engine and the three worst
wrecked cars were piled into an awful
heap, containing at least 100 dead an6
injured. From the mass came fearful
cries for aid. A minute later the wreck
caught fire from the frebox of the 10
connective. The screams of the injured
in the heap were intensified as they
found themselves hemmed in by the
flames.
The passengers on the two forward
cars Of the first train and all the men
from the express and everyone in the
neighborhood went to work at once to
get out the injured before the flames
could reach them. At times while toll.
ing in the wreckage the flames reached
the rescuers and their clothing took
fire, but they worked on through in
| great danger to themselves.
The railroad officials claim the sig.
nails were in working order and that
they were properly set-that is, the
express oyerran and into the block in
which the slower train already was
Railroad men here say the engineer
probably failed to notice the signal
and ven when he saw the tail lights
of the train ahead did not realize for a
minute or two that they were on the
same track as he was, instead of being
on track 4, where they usually were.
Travelling over sixty miles an hour
with a heavy train behind him. it was
utterly impossible to stop when he real
lied the truth.