The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-08-08
WORLDS FAIR FLYER.
Wrecked Train Is Fastest Sent Out of
Denver ON That Road.

Denver, Col, Aug.rS.-Passenger train
Missouri Pacifc worlds fair flyer, is the
fastest train sent out of Denver by the
Denver and Rio Grande and usually car
rieS a heavy passenger list. y Yesterday
the train was made up of six scars-ex-
press, smoker, diner. chair car and two
sleepers. Nearly every coach was Well
filled when the train pulled out of Den
yer at o'clock.
Springs in two hours and five minutes
and one hour and ten minutes is the
Pueblo. and the heavy train was whirl-
ing along through the storm to make
this fast time when it dropped into the
stream.
The train was in charge of Conductor
J. H. Smith of this city, one of the most
pany and he is believed to have been lost,
as were Engineer Hinman and Globe Ex-
press Messenger Rees.
The higher officials of the road are abb
sent from the state, General Manager and
Vice President schlacks being in New
on his vacation and Manager Edison on a
trip of inspection in Utah, but the offi-
cials in charge gave prompt directions to
furnish relief to the injured and spare no
pains TO recover the bodies of the dead.
The disaster was the worst tnat has
ever occurred on the Denver & Rio
Grande railroad. Dry creek, where the
accident happened, is one of the most
dangerous points on the road. 1t is not
far from Butte, where two years ago
washouts occurred which crippled the
service of the line, but entailed no loss
of life. 1t is close to the foothills which
by reason of repeated cloud bursts and
washouts, have been slowly closing in,
the bed of the creek continually be-
coming deeper until it has reached a
depth of about 25 feet.
Trains Nos. and Is, preceding No.
IL, passed over the bridge and reached
Pueblo safely. The rains had been Sc
we're but officials did not apprehend any
danger to Dry creek as recent inSpec-
tion showed that the bridge was in
first class condition. No reports of
trouble the line were received until
the message was received at Pueblo at
8 o'clock that train No. IL had been
wrecked.
reports that a heavy rainfall was in
progress in the vicinity of Eden, but
there was no intimat1on OF a cloud
burst. So far as the officials of the
road can determine the engineer evil
IDENTIFY did not see the trouble until it
was too late to stop the train which
was going at high rate of speed.
Whether the engine and the torrent
of water from the eloudburst struck the
bridge simultaneously or the torrent
had already undermined the structure
is not known, but the reports at the
Denver office say that the air was turn
sleepers from being precipitated into
the creek. If the water was at a high
mark the depth ranged from 20 to %
feet and the current was Irresistible.
When the baggage car, smoker and
chair car left the tracks and plunged
into the stream they were swept down
by the current and the trucks torn off.
This lightened them and the volume Of
water can be understood when it was
by Superintendent Bowren
that they were carried four miles before
they ran ashore. The three cars were
found near each other.
Wires being down, only bulletins Civ
ing meagre details of the disaster could
be obtained here during the night
A relief train was sent out from this
city at a. m. today carrying Dr. j.
w. OConnor, chief surgeon of the Den
Yer & Rio Grande and other physicians.