The Montana plaindealer. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1906-1911, 1907-10-18
TRAIN WRECK
TWENT.FOUR PERSONS KILLED
and MANY INJURED.
Quebec Express collides With eos-
ton & Maine Frelght-Due to Mis-
take in Train Dlspateher's orders
Occurred in Early Morning Hour
During a Heavy Mist.

White River Junction, VT, Sept.16.
fearful head-on collision between
the southbound Quebec express and a
northbound freight train on the on
cord division of the Boston & Maine
railway occurred four miles north OF
Canaan station early yesterday. due to
a mistake in train dispatcner's orders,
and from a demolished passenger
coach there were taken out "a dead
and dying and q other passengers,
most of them seriously wounded.
Nearly all of those who were in the
death car were returning from a fair
az S~herbrooke, Quebec, 100 miles
north.
The conductor of the freight train
was given to understand that he a
plenty of time to reach a siding by
the night operator at Canaan, rece1v-
ing. according to the superintendent
of the division, a copy of a telegraph
order from the train dispatcher at
Concord, which confused the trains
numbers 80 and "a.
The wreck occurred just after the
express had rounded into a straight
stretch Of track, but owing to the
early morning mist neither engineer
saw the others headlight until it was
too late. Those identified up to 6
o'clock Sunday night were as follows:
List of the Dead.
Timothy Shaughnessy, Castle Bar,
Quebec.
Mrs. Shaughnessy.
Miss Anna st. Pierre, Isle Verte,
Quebec.
Fred NJ. Petts, Ochiltree, Texas.
Mrs. A. z. Warren, Haverhill, Mass.
Mrs. F. c. Blake, South Corinth, VT.
Mrs. Margaret Largy. Manchester,
N. H.
Miss Barrett, Manchester.
Mrs. Philip Gagon, Sherbrooke,
Quebec.
Miss Alvina Garon, Nassau.
Mrs. Webster, a dressmaker living
in Massachusetts.
J. j. Concroth, Somerville, Mass.
Infant child of Irving Clifford, Con-
cord.
Mrs. E. T. Briggs, West Canaan, N.
H.
John G. Duncan, Bethel, VT.
The unidentified include a boy 4
years of age and a man 40 years old
a of so years, another of So,
a man of 35 years and four others.
Twenty-Five of the bodies were re-
moved to Concord during the night.
The Train Was Late.
The passenger train had left here
bound for Concord about an hour late,
The track to the south is a single one
to Franklin, so miles distant, with a
few sidings. II abounds in curves
while the greatest part of it from
Canaan is down grade. The freight
train pulled out of a siding some
miles to the south and started up the
track for this place at 4 O'Clock.
The train dispatcher's sheet at Con.
cord is declared to show that the
freight crew disobeyed orders in do
ing so. There are no signals on the
road and the trains are directed from
station to station. Going north it is
a long, straight track from Canaan
to the curve where the accident hap
pened and the freight was making
good time when the passenger train
came around the curve. 1t is esti
mated both trains were going at
speed of from 80 to 40 miles an hour
There was time to put on the brakes
and both engine crews jumped and
escaped injury.
Early in the afternoon, although Il
of the 80 freight ears which had com
posed that train were derailed, and
the track was torn up for a quarter
of a mile, the work of rescue had been
completed, and it became known thai
the number of dead was "a. Twenty
two of them were taken by train tc
Concord, and two were sen to this
place.
Before the removal of the bodies Il
had been identified.