Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1907-02-07
ARE RAIL MYSTERIES
,NTlCS OF ROLLING STOCK SOME.
TIMES UNACcoUNTABLE.
Arrest Every Wreck of Importance
Shows Peculiarities Which the
Camera Alone is Able to
Verify.

When steam transportation was in
reduced to civilization. it brought
18th it untold advantages. but also. in
IS wake, the grim tally of some So
90 deaths per year as the result of
accidents. In spite of block signals.
spite Of all that the brain of man
as been able to conceive in the line
Il air-brakes. in spite of constant in
;pection of roadbed and rolling stock,
nc death rate has increased year by
ear almost in proportion TO the mum
ler of people carried. And yet many
# these catastrophies are, as railroad
cen justly claim. pure "visitations OF
'od." They a"e beyond human pre-
enticn. For instance. when a cloud
lu-s, sweeps down upon a bridge. as
IS often happened in the west. or
hen snow slide carries away in
'ome deserted section a portion of
rack, as occurred few years ago
'hile train was crossing.
1t is singular thing, we'll known to
III railroad men. that every wreck OF
Importance shows peculiar behavior
If the cars and engines, with a result
which sometimes even defies all the
Known laws of mechanics. Many of
hese occurrences, If the facts were
lot there as visible and actual testi-
nony, would be regarded as widely
impossible. At times the condition OF
he wrecked equipment is infinitely
worse than the circumstances will &C
count for; and again one is astonished
IT the trifiing amount of damage done
On one occasion freight train took
he wrong side of switch point while
he train was running at not more
than 20 miles an hour, and the whole
tight of way was, as a result. covered
With a conglomerate of broken cars
md freight. On the other hand. n lin
ted express train left the track at a
speed of so miles an hour. BY every
Imaginable law of physics, it should
have been smashed to flinders, but
luite the contrary resulted; the loco
motive and cars drew gradually away
from the track, and, coming smooth
ly to a stop as If approaching a sta
ton in the regular order of business,
gently reclined against the side of a
low bank which ran parallel with the
line. Not a coupling was unlocked,
not pane of glass broken, not a pas
senger or trainman injured by so
much as a bruise.
Some of the true stories which ere
told about the performances of rolling
stock under unusual conditions are
stranger than fiction.
A pair of locomotives which looked
as though in a Graeco-Roman wrest-
ling match; another pair which met in
a collision, turned end for end, and
then passed each other exactly like
a figure in quadrille; a car which
took a run past those in advance and
was found uninjured six car-lengths
ahead-these are some of the strange
things of record.
In a serious wreck which occurred
near Chicago two locomotives were
left one on top of the other. How in
the world the one ever got up there
or how in the world the under one was
not crushed In the process, railroad
men cannot explain. But the picture
taken on the spot proves what other
wise might be considered a round
house yarn. The under engine was not
badly smashed. and the top engine
was repaired, and is in use today
But how was it done? Trainmen will
shake their heads and vow that such
things cannot be accounted for. It is
one OF the mysteries of the road.