Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-07-12
ENGLISH RAIL WRECK
TWENTY-THREE AMERICANS DIE
IN DISASTER.
Train Plunges from Track When
Running at High Speed-Tourists
just Landed Hurled to Horrible
observation-disclosures Mangled.


In the most appalling railroad disas-
ter known in England in the last TWEEN
ty-fiye years, twenty three out of forty
seven American passengers who had
landed at Plymouth from the steam
ship New York, late Sunday night,
We're instantly killed at Salisbury about
O'Clock Monday morning as the flying
express train, which was rushing them
from that town to London was demol
lShed in collision. Almost every one
of the remaining twenty four passen-
gers from the United States was in
Jured seriously. The total casualties
number twenty-eight and several of the
injured are expected to die.
Ihe train had passed the Salisbury
station platforms at high speed. At
sharp curve just outside the station the
locomotive jumped the track and, plow-
Ing up the rails, crashed into a west
bound freight train. The engine mount
ed the glrders of the railway bridge
over the River Avon and turned turtle.
There were three passenger coaches in
the train. The first of these shot mast
the locomotive, crashed into the rail-
way bridge and was smashed into spIiu-
tiers, portions of the wreck being hurled
completely over the bridge. The second
| and third passenger ears were toppled
over on the line and completely de-
stroyed, .-.--~,,.,, 5e- ..-, J.. 4 ....--.,s
The Inflated train was known as the
Boat Special" 1t was run by the
London and Southeastern Railway as a
direct express, with an average speed
OF more than sixty miles an hour be-
tween Plymouth and London. The
train service was inaugurated by ar
rangement with the International Mer-
camille Marine Company of New York,
known as ]. p Morgan's ship trust,
when that concern changed its English
port from Liverpool to Southampton
and sought to beat the time to London
made by trains in connection with the
Liverpool liners 1t was one of the
fastest and most luxuriously equipped
trains in the British Empire, rivaling
the famous "Flying Scotchman," which
runs between London and Edinburgh.
1t was waiting with steam up for the
steamship New York, which entered Ply
mouth at 8 % o'clock Sunday night hav-
ing sailed from New York Saturday, June
%. Forty-seven Americans Of the eighty
eight passengers who left the American
liner at that point hurried to catch it.
M RI hot IL,
few hours it was to speed many of them
to an awful death
The train was made up of three pas
senger coaches and a conductors or
guards van, containing the kitchen for
the serv, &C of meals. 1t reached the old
city of Salisbury, near which is historic
Stonehenge, at 2 o'clock Monday morn
ing. 1t passed through the station at the
rate of more than mile minute.
Just outside the station the track takes
a sharp curve Engineers, knowing that,
usually slacken speed as they reach Sails
bury. For some reason, which probably
will never be known, for the man is among
the dead, the driver forced the locomotive
to even higher than the scheduled rate of
sixty miles an hour.
The consequence was that the engine of
the somewhat light pattern employed in
England, jumped the rails. 1t plowed
diagonally across the tracks, dragging the
cars behind it, and dashed into a west
bound freight train.
Locomotive Turns Turtle.
The collision DETECTED it and sent it
piunging on the Orders of the railroad
bridge over the River Avon. There it
turned turtle. The heavy steel couplings
connecting the engine with the passen-
ger coach Immediately behind it snapped
like cotton thread when the express loco
motive caromed off the freight train. The
first of the cars shot past the engine as
it capsized and itself crashed into the
wall running along the side of the bridge
and was smashed to splinters. Portions
of the wreckage were hurled over the
structure into the river below. The sec
ond and third cars capsized on the track
and were smashed into splinters
Bodies of the dead were fearfully man
gled and one woman was decapitated.
Among the killed were such well-known
New Workers as Louis Cassier, proprietor
of Casters Magazine; Frederick Henry
Cossitt, son-in-law of former Judge Du-
gro of New York; John E. Mcdonald,
Vanderbilt's racing agent; Charles E..
Sentell, rich Manhattan broker, and his
two daughters and wife. Other noted per-
sons among the dead were +. w. Koch, a
millionaire banker of Allentown, Pa;
McMeekin, turfman, of Lexington, Ky,
who bred the famous race horse McMee-
kin; Walter Barurck, leading lawyer and
Kings counsel of Toronto Mrs. G.. w.
Elphicke of Chicago was among those
killed and r. S. Criticized, also of Chi
cago, was so badly injured that there was
little hope entertained of his recovery.
Notwithstanding the combined efforts Of
the rescuers, hours elapsed before the az
onies of the injured could be in any way
relieved. AS they were lifted out after
the piles of wreckage had been cleared
from above them they were carried to the
waiting rooms in Salisbury station. where
doctors were summoned from all over the
The dead bodies were laid
in rows on the station platform for iden-
tifcation.
The scene as described by some of the
survivors was most fearful. The shrfeks
of the dying as they lay pinned helplessly
beneath the wreckage made the blood of
the few who had escaped injury run cold
For some minutes every one of those for
tunates seemed paralyzed with fear. The
arrival of the station men from Salisbury
restored them and they quickly assisted
in the work of rescue. Residents along
the line of the railroad also rushed to the
scene and within a short time railroad
officials had sent regular wreckage crews
to the spot.
Alcohol for Torpedo Boats.
The International Power Company has