The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1906-04-20
F|REMAN'S AWFUL DEATH
ENGINEER o. p. MASTERS TELLS
OF WRECK OF 116.
INHALED FLAME; WAS scALpED

Fireman Roy Day Died an Awful Death
In the Cab Of Engine No. 1918 Yes.
terday Morning West OF Merrlman.
And He Died at His Post.
| o. p. Masters, the well known North
western locomotive engineer who left
here for the Chadron division a few
weeks ago, was at the throttle in the
cab Of the big steam horse which
drew freight train No. 116 early yes
! terday morning when she plunged into
washout near Merriman. Mr.. Mas
ters, by some miraculous circumstance
which he does not attempt to explain,
escaped with his life, while his poor
fireman, Roy Day, met one of the
most horrible and one of the most tor
tuous deaths ever dealt out to a rail-
road fireman. Mr.. Masters arrived in
Norfolk last night from the wreck,
badly bruised and gashed all over his
body, but not any way seriously in
jured. He told to The News this
morning the story of the accident and
of the heart-rending sufferings of his
mate III the cab.
Washout on the Prairies.
ut was just washout on the prai-
ries," said Mr.. Masters, land there
was no bridge in it, as was reported
here yesterday 1t was two and
quarter miles west of the town of
Merriman, west of Long Pine. Melt
ing snow along the side of the track
has caused so much water that the
moisture ran over the rails and ate
out the embankment, which was COM
posed of sand and quick sand 1t had
dug hole six feet deep and fifteen
feet wide.
1--WE were running along at a rate
of twenty-five or thirty miles an hour
and had no warning whatsoever of the
hole. Suddenly the engine pitched
down into this six-foot hole and nine
cars piled up on top of us.
Roy Day Died at His Post.
Roy Day, my fireman, was just in
the act of putting coal into the firepot
of the locomotive when the engine
plunged down into that black hole in
the night. The poor fellow pitched
against the boiler head and was pinned
by the coal gate against it, his legs
being so fastened that it was impossi-
BILE to get him out.
Inhaled Fire and Was Scalded.
"In this position, pinioned down with
his head at the mouth of the furnace,
poor Day met most awfully agoniz-
ing death by breathing in the flames
from the furnace and by being scald-
ed all over his head and face by the
boiling water from the water glass,
which had broken. 1t was the most
awful death that | have ever known
a railroad man to meet, in all of my
twenty years of engineering.
Couldn't Find Day at First.
at was deadly dark there in the
night, the cab lights having gone out
and | thought the fireman must be
under the wreck. | got down and
hunted under those cars, but there
was no sign of him and then it oc-
Cured to me that he must be in the
cab. | crawled back into the engine
and there | found the man, pinned fast
and dying that terrible DEATH
Bade His Friends Goodbye.
Day was still conscious at that
time, and shook hands with me and
the head brakeman, to tell us good
bye, just about five minutes before he
closed his eyes"
There were some strange things
about that wreck out there on the
prairie and in the dead of night. For
just following this freight train No |
ll6 came the big mainline eastbound
Deadwood- Chicago train, with six
coaches filled with sleeping passen-
gers. Neither train had any warning
of the washout. No. was only about
thirty or forty minutes behind the
train that pitched into the hole and,
had that train, by chance, as it might
have, been in the lead, it would have
been dozens of passengers to lose their
lives instead of one man. Train No.
6 stopped when tagged by the hind
brakeman of the freight, and was
blocked there. She turned around and
went back, passengers transferring to
the westbound train, which also turned
around and came back here, reaching
Norfolk at o'clock last night.
Mr.. Masters Hurt Some.
Mr. Masters was scratched and
bruised and hurt to some extent all
over his body. His face was battered
and his nose cut.
Il look" he said today, like a man
who had been up against Jim Corbett,
and with Corbett the better man of
the two"
The locomotive which went into the
hole was one of the new 20" engines,
No. 1918. And after she struck the
hole and dropped, the drive wheels on
that big steel stallion plowed for 10
feet before they stopped in their
ground gaining. After the wreck, it
WAS found that one of the rails had