Daily Kennebec journal., 1904-05-11
DOWN EMBANkMENT
Train Plunges on N.Y., N. H.,
and n. Railroad.
Two Of the Employees Meet a Most
Horrible Death.
Saving of Federal Treasure Car, Con-
tanning vaiuabies.

Boston, May 1O.-Tha men killed in
the Adams express train wreck on the
Y. T.. y. H., and Ii. railroad at the
Irranl river bridge at Port Chester.
y. i. Tuesday morning, were from
this state. Lawrence Keenan,, the en-
gin" driver, was from Dedham and
John I. liOwes, the fireman, from Bos-
ton. The train left the South terminal
station at $50 O'Clock, Monday night.
and WAS due i'm New York about l
o'clock, Tuesday morning.
Th'r" was some delay on the road
md the train did not arrive at Port
Chester until the time it was due in
NrW York.
II is stated here that the train WIS
crossing from one track to another
@irn for some reason the engine and
the two front ears left the track and
rolled down the embankment into the
rivrr.
There was six cars in the train. The
two cars that went over the embanil-
In'nt carried general merchandise only
and 10 valuables. No passengers We're
on the train.
train after crossing the bridge and run
ming about 40 feet plunged down Il a.
foot embanknent with two of the cx-
press cars. The federal treasure car
which was the third on the train,
stopped just at the brink of the mi
haillsment. The engine driver and fire.
man were killed. The engine driver was
dead when taken out of the wreck and
the fireman died soon after he was r"s-
cuet. One of the guards on the money
car was slightly hurt on one arm. More
of the other guards or train hands was
injured.
Three of the six cars were totally
wrecked while the trucks of the other
three were ripped out. There WIS a
messenger on each of the cars and the
crew consisted of the conductor, en-
gineer, fireman, and two brakemrn. The
train was running at high rate of
speed and one suggested possible cause
for the accident is that the engineer
may have died at his post.
The wrecked train is that on which
special armed guards We're carried sew
cral weeks ago because of fears that an
organized band of train wreckers had
DN
robbery Much treasure is carried on
this special and this fact aroused the
fears or the officials of the Adams Ex-
press Company and led to the employ
ment of special guards. On this train
the cash for the government deposito-
ries in New England is usually carried
to Washington Recause of the vallia-
He contents of the train. detectives
rounded the wreck to prevent possible
;ttt r,pts to loot the cars, but there was
nothing discovered to connect train
WreChcrs with the accident. -
The railroad mon are strongly m
clincd to believe that kocGan had died
from heart disease when the train was
approaching the bridge, as this is the
only way, they say. in (which they can
explain his running at e.Sf, speed If ne
knew that he was abdut to take p
switch. They insist that if he hadaheen
alive :he accident would not have nap
pcnc,i. Those who believe that tn" en-
rinccr was dead when the train left the
rails say that his body was thrown
from the cab as it was dragged along
the tics. The engineer was fnund al
The bottom of the embanknfcnt with
his head crushed.
Iowcs, the fireman, went down With
the locomotive and was almost dcha
when dragged out of tn" wreck. He was
carried into the cottage of Mrs. Johf
English where he expired a few min
utcs afterward. He tried To speak Dc
fore his death, but died without heili
able to give any explanation rs t" tho
causc of the accident. Railroad m"i
aver that the momentum "f the tralL
was so great when it crossed n" sWitci
to the outer track that the outer r'tll'
spread. causing the train to r'unE'
along on the ties.
After the train had left the nrl"ee ih'
coupling between the tehder ana 'n
first car broke and this saved the wh"l
tain from being carried down into IN
river. The contents of the wrecked car
were scattered around.