The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1906-03-24
WRECK AND LOSS 0FlIFE
D. &R. 6. RAILROAD COLLISION

Pueblo, Colo.-The Adobe wreck will
rank as one OF the great railroad dis
asters IN the history of railroading. In
other wrecks the loss of life has been
greater, but none was productive of
scenes more horrible The collision
happened at Adobe, four miles east OF
Florence. at 2:30 O'Clock Friday morn
ing. binding blizzard was raging
and the thermometer was 2 degrees
below zero. Rio Grande passenger
train No. from Denver collided with
No. l6 from Salt Lake Operator J. S.
Lively at Swallows is said to have
slept and failed to deliver orders
The accident happened on the same
curve where about a year ago seven
teen persons were killed.
Two great mogul locomotives were
hauling No. 3, the westtnund train,
and they bore down on the engine pull
ing No. 16, around the outer edge of a
sharp curve encircling the high BLUM
at the point of the wreck. on a down
grade at the rate of forty-five miles an
hour.
Going thirty miles an hour was No.
l6 Shut OF from each others view
until almost together. there was no
hance for brakes.
The engineers who lost their lives
hardly knew what happened. The
great engines came together in the
light of their headlights with tremen-
dous force.
The leading engine of No SIS double
header was jammed and crushed be-
tween the mogul behind it and the one
pulling No. l6 like an empty tomato
can. The sheathing of one set of
boiler tubes covered that OF another
great energy generator.
Cars piled up in high masses of steel
beams and woodwork and caved in and
down on their slumbering occupants.
The scene that followed as de-
scribed by the few survivors who have
been able to talk coherently, can only
be left to the imagination of people
fortunate enough not to have been
present.
No man can say to-day, tomorrow or
next week how many travellers met
their doom in that irresistible grind of
wood and steel.
Sixteen charred. mangled and utterly
unrecogniZable bodies lie in the morsue
at Pueblo, six more have been identi-
fed. ana more than score We're doubt
less burned to ashes.
Conservative estimates on the total
loss OF life place the number of dead
NJ lH1ll live. INlb NIiaAut ciiNitii'' ''
Pueblo insists that the exact number
of persons On the two trains cannot be
ascertained: that it is impossible.
The Republican of Sunday morning
says:
Operator l.. s. Lively has been sus-
pended from further duty and Opera
tor VIM NanDeusen will be relieved,
IT is stated. .as soon as suitable man
can be sent to Swallows to take his
place. AS far as the train dispatch
ers office in Pueblo know. say the men
n charge. VanDusen was working his
own shift at the Swallows station all
the time and the first information re-
ceived by the Office was when the
wreck occurred.
1t is understood that Van Deusen
had made arrangements to lay off and
had come into the city to spend the
night. 1t is not known definitely
whether he did this or not The opin-
ton of the railway men as expressed IS
hat Lively was directly responsible
and that Van Deusen to some extent
Indirectly for the catastrophe.
Walter Murphy. the Florence Oil
hriller who was supposed to have per
shed in the car while rescuing pas
,eneers from the flames, has turned
IN safe and sound, with but few
cratches. 1t appears that he rescued
number OF persons and then went
,ith the injured people to Portland
tation where he assisted in caring
or them. before he took the time to re-
urn to his home
A heartrending story OF mother love
nd self-sacrifice is told by Conductor
roger, who had charge OF the Pull
n ,ans on the westbound train.
II saw one mother" he said, with
little babe in her arms. She knew
1t was almost an impossibflity to
aved herself, but her only thought
OF her child. One hand was pin
by the debris, but her head and
ther arm were free.
re was trying to keep her head
the flames and with her free hand
oolding the infant as high in the
s she could. Just as We were
to reach her she gave gasp and
back into the flames with the
4"
lere is only one change In the
h list as made up yesterday. The
of Patrick Murphy is stricken
and that of Thomas Brennan sub
tied. The list follows;
,Illiam Hollis, engineer. Pueblo.
sralter Cosslett engineer, Pueblo.
\ n. Suddeth. fireman, Pueblo.
ID F.. Baird. deputy sheriff, Denver.
archibald Whitney, convict, Denver
!, M. Mcfarland, messenger, Den