Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-09-01
Track Settled Under the Great Weight Shattuck Cave Drec
tons for His Release. Lived Three Hours

Pinned in the cab of his overturned To-
connective so that he could not extricate
himself, with boiling water and steam
pouring in upon him through a broken
pipe, Engineer Almar w. Shattuck Of
Brattleboro was burned fatally Monday
afternoon in one of the worst accidents
that ever happened on the railroad be-
tween Brattleboro and South Londonderry.
The agonizing cries of the young man,
his frantic efforts to release his foot by
which alone he was held in the death
trap, and then his calm directions as to
how to proceed to liberate him,-the
memory OF these things causes a shudder
to pass over the members of the train
crew who made the last run with allie"
Shattuck, one of the most faithful, eff
cient and congenial of the men connected
with the railroad service in which Brat
tleboro is concerned.
The accident happened on the West
River railroad about 215 o'clock, but Mr..
Shattuck lived three hours, the end COM
ing about $50 o'clock. Mrs. Shattuck
reached him few minutes before he died.
but he did not recognize her. The exact
location of the accident was the north
side of the curve on Sand Hill, something
over a mile north of the Willamsvile
station and about so rods south of what
is known as Rand's crossing. From the
station to the crossing is up grade, and
at the point where the fatality occurred
there is a steep embankment below and
on the east side of the track, some so
feet in extent.
Mr.. Shattuck was engineer on the mixed
train which left Brattleboro for South
Londonderry Monday morning. Joseph
LaForest was fireman and Frank Clark
conductor. William Bemis was brake
man on the front end. The train was
drawn by freight engine No. 1903, a power
fully built locomotive Of the mogul type
having three sets of main driving wheels
The train should have been making the
return trip at the time the accident hap
pened but on account of the unsettled
condition of the track since 1t was con-
verted from narrow gauge to a stand
ard gauge track, late in July, the loco
motive was unable to keep on the iron
with its load and began to bother on the
south side of the curve going up The
train was divided and the forward Sec
ton was hauled to Newfane. The loco
motive returned for the rear section and
drew it past the point where the acct
dent happened, but got stalled and backed
down to get another start All this caused
delay until well into the afternoon.
1t will be seen that the locomotive
passed the fatal spot four times. When
she started the next time everything went
all right for a short distance, when sud-
denly, while the train was going about
eight miles an hour, a section of the track
settled under the great weight and slid
down the bank the iron monster and one
empty freight car crashing down the en-
bankment into the woods. The locomo-
tive landed on one side and turned partly
over again, so that the trucks were in
the air, and then slid several feet The
tender made three quarters Of a COM
plete turn. The cab of the locomotive
stopped about 80 feet down the bank, the
pilot being five to 10 feet nearer the
track. The car landed in the same rela-
tive position as the locomotive, except
that the rear end was several feet nearer
the track than the front end. The trees
on the bank were all that stopped the
locomotive and car from going to the
meadow below.
When the track gave way one Of the
rails was driven completely through the
ash pan and through the air drum behind
1t. Engineer Shattuck was on the right
side of the cab, next to the embankment,
and Fireman LaForest and Brakeman
Bemis were on the other side. Brakeman
Bemis jumped to safety, but the two
other men were carried over. Fireman
LaForest was partly covered with coal
and received several bruises, but was not
hurt seriously. The lower side of the
cab was crushed so that one of En-
gineer Shattucks feet was caught be-
tween it and the reversing lever, holding
him fast. One of the steam connections
in the cab was broken off, letting steam
and hot water into the cab and scalding
the engineer so that the skin fell from
his body in large patches. His entire
body, including his bead and face, was
cleared away Engineer Shattuck was