The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1904-08-10
pLUNGES FROM TRESTLE
One of the Greatest Railway
Disasters In History.
Two Crowded Passenger Cars, Loco.
motive and Baggage Car Engulfed
In Swollen Creek by Breaking Of
Bridee-76 Bodies Recovered, Of
Whom 49 Were Recognized.

Pueblo, Col, Aug 1.-Two carloads
of human freight plunged into the rag.
ing torrent that destroyed the trestle
over the usually dry arroyo known as
Steele's Hollow, near Eden, about 5
O'Clock Sunday evening. Two sleep.
ing cars and the dining car stopped
at the brink of the hungry chasm filled
with a boiling, seething current that
quickly snuffed out probably 100 lives.
So quietly had the catastrophe been
enacted that the occupants of the three
cars remaining on the track did not
realize that an accident had occurred
Until they alighted from the train
Then they were utterly powerless to
render assistance to the victims who
Lad disappeared in the rushing wa.
ters.
Last Words of Engineer Hindman.
On the lookout for danger, warned
by the squally clouds and heavy rains
to the north, Engineer Charles Hind.
man was running cautiously, about 10
miles an hour, as he approached the
arroyo, which was spanned by bridge
SO feet in length. The condition OF
the bridge was not known until the To-
cCmotive, one of the monster passen.
ger type, had nearly crossed.
Fireman Frank Mayfield, with a
torch that the engineer and the fire.
man had burning to ascertain the con.
dition Of the track, was in the gang
way. When Engineer Hindman felt
the tremor in the great machine and
caught a glimmer on the water he
shouted his last words: Put out that
torch, evidently thinking that in the
accident he felt certain was coming
the flames would serve to spread fire.
But before Mayfield could obey,
while the words were still on the lips
of the doomed man and his hand seek.
Ing the mechanism controlling the air,
the bridge gave way and the locomo.
tive dropped with the kissing of steam
20 feet to the bottom of the arroyo
crosswise to the track.
The baggage car, smoking car and
chair car followed the locomotive into
the stream and were swept away. All
the occupants of these cars except
three men perished, and had not the
roof of the chair car burst asunder,
The fireman, as the locomotive went
over. was thrown ont and, managing to
grasp a piece of wreckage from the
bridge. floated with that to a curve
made by the caving bank and crept
ont of the water. He ran toward
Eden, meeting on the way Operator F.
NJ. Jones and his wife, who already
had started up the track.
Notify Pueblo" came the voice of
the running man, "the trains gono
down and everybody is killed"
Even as he spoke, relates the opera
tor, there werc cries coming from the
distance. The two men ran to where
the bridge had been to search in vain
for victims Of the disaster. When they
reached the spot all cries for help had
ceased.
Four Men Escaped From Wreckage.
Relief trains with physicians, wrcck-
ing 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
j. NJ. KILN of Pueblo, u. S. Gilbert.
Tony Fisher and Fireman Mayheld
These were four men in the midst of
the wreck who escaped.
When dawn came the wonder grew
that four had been permitted To
emerge from the raging torrent with
breath still in their bodies.
The end of the Pullman car Wyota
extended four feet over the brink
while broken timbers and twisted
rails hung still further The arroyo
had been widened to more than 100
feet at the point where the bridge had
been. The water tore a zigZag course
across the prairie to a depth of 30
feet in several places. There was left
Of the baggage car a few rods, truck
or so. dimly seen in the muddy water,
and a half buried iron safe.
The great locomotive, the boiler
fee of the trucks, the cab and tank
gone, lies where it fell
quarter of a mile to the cast,
where this gorge of death debouched
into the Fountain, lay the chair car,
windows gone three-fourths filled with
mud and sand. A hundred feet iurth-
er on was the smoker, bottom up
against sand bar A $50 feet further
on in the bed of the Fountain was the
coal tender of the engine, and from
that point on for four or five miles
vcstiges of the coaches. the engine
and tender stuck up from the bed of
the stream or lay along the shore or
on the islands.
Red plush seats of the smoker were
sirewn all along the stream. Brass
rails from the coaches were found in
the sand half mile from the bridge
ard pieces of the baggage ear stuck
cut 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 hnd caved in from the high
sides of the river at many places and
snarchers passed these with fear that
bodies werp buried under them which
they were helpless to reach
Five hundred men scanned every
ilch of the river and its surroundings
u few hours after daylight They