Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-01-05
DIE In &. Il 0. WRECK.
FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE ENDS
SIxTY-THREE LIVES.
Duquesne Limited Thrown from Rails
Near conne1Isville, Pa, by Timbers
Dropped from Freight = Passengers
Cooked Alive in Smoking Car.

Sixty-three persons were killed. most
of them being roasted to death by escap-
ing steam. and seventy-five injured, many
fatally, when passenger train No. y, the
"Duquesne Limited on the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, was wrecked ut 1:30
Wednesday night mile and n half from
Connellsville. Pa. The train was torn
to pieces. the mail and baggage cars
were hurled down 15-foot embankment
into the Youghiogheny river, the sleeping
and dining cars were thrown part way
down the bank and most of them were
burned by the fire set by the engine. The
locomotive itself was torn TO fragments
and the pieces thrown into the river.
Hours were consumed in rescuing the
bodies of the dead and the injured vic
Tins from the debris. During the great
er part &C this time nearly everybody
able to reacS the scene of the disaster
had displayed the greatest heroism.
Scarcely had the bodies been laid out in
rows on the bank, however. when thieves
began to rob the dead of jewelry and
other yaluables.
Burns His Coat TO Save Other Train.
Baggagemaster Thomas j. Baum of
Lakewood proved the archhero of the
occasion. His head and body were fear
fully cut in the wreck, but in the mo-
ment of his injury he remembered that
west-bound passenger train No. 40 was
about due. If it ran into the wreckage
there would be another catastrophe. He
had nothing with which to signal except
matches.
Crawling out from under the debris
that imprisoned him for time, Baum
ran down the track. pulled off his coat
and stood ready for she approach of No
40 When he saw the headlight break
through the darkness he struck a match,
lighted sleeve of his coat and then
waved the flaming garment as a warning
to the oncoming engineer
The signal was seen and needed. No.
10 stopped within a foot of Baum and
within a short distance. of the pile of
debris.
The wrecked train was running east
from Pittsburg at a rate of sixty miles
an hour. 1t struck an obstruction of
lumber on a curve near Dawson.
Most of those killed were foreigners
VINO were in the smoker. just back of the
baggage car. They were literally roast
ed to death, the baggage and smoker
telescoping the engine and Immediately
catching fire. Nany of their bodies were
burned to q crisp. The entire population
turned out en- Gasse to assist in caring
for the living and in disposing of the
dead A peculiar feature OF the accident
is the fact that not woman was injur-
ed except slightly.
The wreck was caused by the break
ing Of the castings on q car load Of
bridge timbers on west-bound freight
train which had passed Laurel Run not
more than fifteen minutes before the i'll
fated passenger train. The wreck occur
red on a curve nnd it was impossible for
Engineer Thornley, to see far enough
ahead to detect TIE timbers that had
fallen.
The big Atlantic type engine plunged
into the timbers. then into the embank-
ment, and the baggage and express ear
were thrown into the Youghiogheny riv-
er. The smoker followed the engine and
landed squarely on top of it. This al
lowed the escaping steam from the engine
to fill the car.
The smoker was packed to its utmost
capacity and all the passengers were
cooked alive. Not a single passenger in
this car escaped with his lie, and it is
estimated that at least forty of the dead
were in the smoker.
An operator at "VR" tower on the
Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad. across
the Youghiogheny river was the first to
send word of the accident and to send
for relief. He was watching the Du-
quesne limited as it was speeding along
the Baltimore and Ohio tracks. He saw
the cars pile high in the air and then sink
back on the tracks The screams of the
injured and dying were plainly heard. In
another second he was sending word to
the railroad officials at Dawson and Con-
npllSyille