The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-05
Twentieth Century Limited
Hits Freight At High
Rate Of Speed
DISASTER IS CAUSED BY
ORDERS BEING MIXED UP
Two Coaches Are Telescoped and All
In Them Are Either Killed or
Hurt-Most of Train Crews
Escape by Jumping

Middletown, o., July 4.--Nineteen per-
sons were killed outright, three probably
fatally hurt and about a dozen seriously
injured in a head-on collision between
freight and passenger train on the Gin
cinnati, Hamilton and Dayton railway
here today. OF the killed Is were passen-
gers. the other victim being a member
of the passenger train crew. The dead:
H. P. Baker. Cincinnati; III. o. Smith,
Dayton; j. Smith Kirk, Dayton; George
F'rohle, Dayton; Frank Golden, passen
ger train brakeman; John W. Cooley,
McCutcheonsville, o.; Miss Fay H.
Daubenmire, Pleasantville, o.; Ray B.
Snyder, London. o.; A. s. Garrigues, Co
lumbus, O.; Richard varHorn. Dayton,
o.; Charles Fl Moulton, Youngstown, O.;
Mrs. Jessie J. Bodye, Dayton. o.; Will
liam Dunleavy. Dayton; King Lun Yen,
Chinaman, Columbus, o.; c. B. Grant,
Springfield, o.; one unidentified woman
about 40 years old; unidentified man, in
itals 'W. A." on clothing; two unidenti-
fled men, supposed to be from Dayton.
The trains were the Cincinnati sec
tions of the Twentieth Century limited
on the Cleveland. Cincinnati, Chicago and
ST. Louis (Big Four, and the second Sec
tion of the Twentieth Century limited
Hamilton and Dayton railroad.
Crashes Into Train
The latter was attempting to make a
siding to give the passenger train clear
track, when the flyer travelling at
rate of so miles an hour. flashed around
a curve and crashed into it.
The big Four" train had been detoured
to avoid a blocked freight wreck earlier
in the day. In addition to it's regular
crew it carried a pilot engineer OF the
c., H. and D. road, who was practically in
charge of the train.
A misunderstanding of orders caused
the disaster which was ore Of the worst
this section of the country has ever ex-
perenced
Pilot Engineer George Wald had re-
ceived orders to wait at Post Town. a sid
ing station three miles north of this city,
according to railroad officials. The freight
train was to have passed him there, but
was late in pulling out of Middletown In
stead of the seven minutes margin which
Wald thought he had reached Middle
town the time was less than five minutes
The first section of the freight had taken
the siding here and Conductor John Weav-
er. incharge of the second section, tried
to reach the north end of the same
siding
Before his train had cleared tho switch
points the passenger train rounded
curve screened by the thickly wooded lots
on each side of the track The engine
crews had time to jump and all escaped
serious injury.
The crash when the trains met was ter
rife The freight train was made up of
gondola coal cars, fiat cars, and box cars
loaded with lumber.
Two Cars Smashed
Directly behind the passenger locomo-
tive and. the tender was a combi-
nation baggage and smoking car followed
by a day coach and chair car. All the
dead and injured were in the first two
cars, there being six passengers In the
smoker and q in the day coach.
The engines locked into q mass of
smashed steel and iron, the heavy passen-
ger locomotive telescoping its smaller fell
low as far as the cab. First In the
freight train were a steel coal car and a
box car loaded with six-inch timbers.
The heavy gondoa ripped the floor out
of the car and tossed 1t and the locomo-
tive tender down 10-foot embankment,
and into a corn field. The timbers in
the car following were driven with ter
rife force into the day coach, which
mounted the gondola car and split In in
two.
Every seat In this coach was torn from
its fastenings, the roof was thrown to
one side and massive timbers hurled with
awful force struck among the men and
women in the coach. Even before the
crash came rescuers were running to the
wreck from the Middletown station of the
Cincinnati Hamilton and Dayton, some
800 yards south of the accident. Every
surgeon In town was summoned and calls
for assistance were sent to Dayton and
Hamilton.
Relief trains were made up at each of
these places and the injured were placed
upon them and sent to hospitals In those
cities, there being no such Institution Ia
Coroner ]. A. Burnett was summoned
from Hamilton and Immediately began an
Inquiry into the cause of the wreck
He was unwilling tonight to offer any
conclusions on the result of his nvestiga-
tions. nor could he state when the formal
inquest would be begun.
1t was necessary to stretch rODes
around the place TO keep the crowds back
SO the wrecking crews could get at the
twisted masses of iron and wood. Until
comparatively late hour tonight 1t was re-
ported that two more bodies were under
the wreckage. Efforts to locate them
proved fruitless and after several hours
work by the light of f1arfng torches the
wreckers we're ready to say with certainty
that all the dead had been found.
Ahead Of Schedule
Vernon Wallace. fireman of the freight
train, declared Immediately after the
wreck that the passenger train was run
ming ahead of schedule time. 1--WE had
seven minutes to make the siding when
we left the Middeltown yards just below
the city," said he. THAT must have
given us fully five minutes margin as we
passed the station. Yet we hardly cleared
the depot without rear flags when the
flyer came around the curve. l yelled to
the engineer and jumped and he did the
same"
Wald. the pilot engineer. is said to have
declared he was strictly on schedule and
to have expressed the belief that ths
freight train crew had miscalculated the
time necessary to reach the siding.
The southern people injured In ths
wreck were James L. Kenny. Louisville,
right leg and ribs broken W. e. Erskin,
of Memphis. back injured, seriously hurt
w. Litzey, Harrodsburg, KY, badl,