Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-08-09
Weakened Bridge Sends
Train Into Creek.
Only Three Of 125 Passengers
Known to Be Alive.
Seventy-six Bodies Already Recovered
The ARROYO" or Dry Creek, Had
Been Swollen by CIoudburst Near
Pueblo, Col.

. the Worlds Fair flyer on the Denver g.
Rio Grande Railroad near Eden. seven
miles north of Pueblo, last evening
proves to have been one of the greatest
railroad disasters in the history of the
country. Two crowded passenger cars
and a baggage car were engulfed in the
torrent that tore out a trestle spanning
Steel and Hallow, otherwise known as
Dry creek and so far as known, to-
night. only three of the occupants of
these cars escaped death. Fortunately
two sleeping cars and a diner complet-
ing the train remained on the track at
the edge of the abyss and none Of their
occupants were killed or injured.
How many persisted, probably never
viii be definitely ascertained, for the
treacherous sands are drifting over the
bodies. Searching for the lead was be-
gun about midnight on an extensive
scale and still is in progress, tonight.
All corpses found We're brought 10 Pue-
bio and placed in four morgucs here
AT o'clock, this evening. IS bodies had
been recovered and of these 80 had been
identified. During the day bodies were
recovered all the way along Fountain
river from the scene of the wreck to
this city.
Engineer Carlos Hindman was run
ming cautiously about Is miles an hour
as he approached the arroyo, which
was spanned by Il bridge Sc feet in
length. The condition of the bridge was
not known until the locomotive. one of
the monster passenger type, had nearly
crossed. Fireman Frank Hayhcid, with
torch that the engineer and fireman
had burning to ascertain the condition
of the track, was in the gangway.
when Engineer Hindman felt the ire
NOR in the great machine ana caught a
glimmer on the water he shouted his
last words: Put out that torch" evil
IDENTIFY thinking that in the accident he
felt certain was coming he flames
would serve to spread fire.
But before Hayfield could obey and
while the engineers hands was still
seeking the mechanism to control the
air the bridge gave way as though it
had beer a stack Of kindling wood and
the locomotive dropped with the hiss
ing of steam SO feet to the bottom OF
the arrcyn crosswise to the track The
baggage car. smoking car and chaid
stream and We're swept away. All of
the occupants of these cars eN, ept tkre e
Ten persisted and had not the roof Of
the chair car burst asunder none would
have escaped.
The fireman, as the locomotive went
over, WAS thrown out and managing to
grasp a piece of wreckage from the
bridge hoated with that to curve
made by the caving bank and crept
out Of the water. He ran toward Eden,
meeting on the way Operator Jones and
his wife, who already had started up
the track.
Notify Pueblo" came the voice of
the running man. THE trains gone
down and everybody is killed"
Even as he spoke" relates the opcr-
ator, there were cries coming from the
distance" Tho two men ran to where
the bridge had been, to search. but in
vain, for victims of the disaster. Wher
they reached the spot all cries for help
had ceased.
Relief trains with physicians. wreck
and pile driving outfits and scores Of
workmen were hurried from the city.
The first train from the wreck came in
shortly after midnight with ]. NJ. KILN
of Pueblo. II. S. Gilbert, Tony Fisher
and Fireman Hayfield. These were four
men in the wreck, who escaped.
When dawn came the wonder grew
that four had been permitted to emerge
alive from the raging torrent.
The end of the Pullman car Wiyuta
extended four feet over the brink, while
broken timbers and twisted rails hung
still further over. The Arroyo had been
widened to more than a hundred feet
at the point where the bridge had been.
describing 4 course across the prairie
to a depth Of 80 feet in some places.
There was little left of the baggage car,
a few rods, a truck OF So dimly seen
i'm the muddy water and j half buried
iron safe.
The great locomotive. the boiler free
of the trucks, the cab and tank gone,
lies where it fell.
A quarter Of mile to the east of
where this gorge of death debouched
into the Fountain, lay the chair car,
three -fourths filed with mud and sand.
A hundred feet farther on was the
smoker, bottom up against a sand bar.
A hundred and fifty feet farther on in
the bed of the Fountain was the coal
tender of the engine, and from that
point or for four or five miles wreck
age stuck up from the bed of the
stream or lay along the shore or on the
islands.
Red plush seats Of the smoker were
strewn all along the stream. Brass
rails from the coaches were found in
the mud, a half mile from the bridge
and pieces Of the baggage car stuck
out of the water In several places.
Bits Of clothing, coats, skirts and
women,s hats were found in the brush
along the shore. and the searchers
scanned the foliage for bodies. Masses
of earth had caved in from the high
sides of the river at many places and
-