The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-12-19
FIRE FOLLOWS CRASH
Seven Thousand Dollar Loss In
Iowa Central Yards.

Colliding with the rear end of pas
senger No. Is as it was being backed
down onto the siding by the switching
crew, the west bound freight No. 95
crashed into the new passenger coach
No. sc in the Iowa Central yards, just
fifteen minutes before twelve o'clock
Saturday night, doing great damage to
the freight engine and three cars in
the passenger train and resulting in
loss which it is believed will amount
to about $1,000
Engine No. 100 in charge of Engin-
eer Joe Tucker and Fireman W. Ga
BILE was pulling the freight and as it
was jammed against the oncoming
train the headlight broke and scat
tered oil in every direction, causing
the whole front end of the passenger
coach 10 burst into flames.
Coach No &c in turn literally tele-
scoped the following car, No. So, and
left it almost total wreck. The rear
mail and baggage car was not seri-
ously damaged with the exception of
the breakage of a number of windows
and being crushed in on one end by
the switch engine which was pushing
the passenger cars down south from
the depot. No one was seriously hurt,
but Car Repairer Geo. Slamel broke
the glass in the front door of the bag
gage car with his head and sustain
ed several deep and painful cuts on
the face Engineer Gene Falls and
Fireman Geo. Gibbins on the switch
engine were also badly bruised and
the latter sustained a broken finger,
while the former received a painful
jolt on the shoulder which almost dis
located that member.
The accident happened in the yards
south of the depot between the inter
sections of Fourth and Fifth avenues.
The. fire department responded
quickly to the alarm which was turn
ed in and, by stretching a line of
hose from d street, succeeded in cas-
| lily extinguishing the flames which had
then nearly demolished the vestibule
on passenger coach No. sc. The
stream of water was then directed
into the fire box of the engine to put
out the fire under the boiler, as the
engine had been made useless by the
collision. The trucks on the two pas
senger coaches were badly broken and
displaced and it was difficult to re-
move the wreckage, but the track was
cleared before morning.
The collision, it is thought, was due
to the carelessness of some of the
employees, and Superintendent Hay
den is investigating the facts in the
case to determine upon whom the
blame should be placed. AS passen-
| ger No. is from Peoria stops in this
city, the coaches are always run down
onto a side track TO wait until morn
ing and it was later than usual Sat
urday evening when the work was
started The switching crew had
charge of the transfer OF the cars and
with the engine pushing the three
cars, two men stood on the front plat
form with their lanterns to see that
the way was clear. When the acci-
dent happened the freight train was
just coming around curve and the
freight cars, standing on the side
tracks, INSTRUCTED the view of the
headlight on the incoming train and
no one was aware that the two moving
trains were on the same track until
they were within a cars length OF
each other and 1t was then impossi'
BILE TO avert the disaster The two
men who were standing on the front
steps of the passenger coach jumped
and escaped injury.
No. &c was new coach just out OF
the shops at st. Louis.