Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-05-30
NORTHWESTERN LOS ANGELES
LIMITED GOES INTO DITCH At
CHELSEA.
SEVEN OF NINE CARS LEAVE
TRACK WHEN JOURNAL BREAKS
Escapes Of Many Passengers Nothing
Short Of Miraculous, Yet Not q Bono
Was Broken, and Not . Drop Of
Blood Spilled - Many Passengers
Bruised, But Escape Serious Injuries.
(By a Staff Correspondent }

(By a Staff Correspondent)
Special to Times-Republican.
Chelsea. May 3o-That passenger
train running fifty miles an hour could
go into the ditch, and not one of It's $50
passengers or a single member Of Its
crew be injured beyond a few scratches
or bruises. seems almost Impossible, yet
such was the case this morning at 500
when the Los Angeles Limited on the
Chicago & Northwestern railway jump
ed the track at a point half a mile west
OF the Chelsea station. owing to the
breaking OF a Journal on the engine
tank.
Not q bone was broken, and not n
drop OF blood was spilled. yet the es-
cape of practically every person on the
train was indeed miraculous. 1t came
near being a sad Memorial Day for
many homes thruout the country. yet,
as the accident resulted. 1t can be
classed as one of the luckiest IN tho
history Of the Northwestern road.
Only Two injured Painfully.
OF the 150 passengers on the train
only two were injured especially pain
fully. and the injuries of neither Of
these could be classed as serious.
These were:
A. H. STANCE, prominent banker and
lunberman. Of Merrill. Wis, back and
chest bruised.
Mrs. c. P. MCCARTHY. Boise. Idaho.
leg and hip bruised.
Mrs. Mccarthy's husband was with
her, but he was not even bruised. The
McCarthys were taken to Mrs. NC
Carthy's father. an aged man. homo
from the Johns Hopkins hospital. Bal
| timore. where he had undergone an
operation for wry neck. The man es-
capped injury An the wrsclE. but was
ly from shock.
Car. Run Over Bridge OF Track.
To show how lucky the accident was
might be cited the fact that OF the
seven cars that left. the track. five Of
them ran on the ties clear across a
| steel bridge 120 feet long. and fifteen
or eighteen feet above the ground. and
not one toppled over.
The broken Journal on the tank
caused that portion of the locom olive
to leave the track at a point about
seventy tive or 100 feet east OF this
bridge, and following the tank came the
next six sleppers and coaches. leaving
on the track only one Pullman and tho
observation car in the rear.
Seats Torn Up In Chair Car.
Where the fatalities would have been
| the heaviest had not a kind Providence
| interfered, was in chair car No. 721.
and how all escaped death In
this car seems a mystery. The chair
car scraped along the superstructure OF
the bridge for Its entire length, all OF
the wooden exterior OF the car being
| scraped away as high up as the WIN
dows Every scat on the south side Of
| this car was torn loose from Its moor
ing, and rolled about the car at will.
| Yet the only injuries sustained in the
confusion were bruised and scraped
legs and shins.
Pullman Telescopes Bridge.
The occupants Of the Pullman
platte" which followed the chair
car, were also most fortunate as the
end Of this car teloscoped the super
structure Of the east end of the bridge.
to depth OF twelve or fifteen feet.
The steel timbcrs of the bridge pene-
trated tho first berth on the south side.
in which were sleeping man and his
son. and yet neither was so much as
scratched.
Rescued From Window.
Joe pIeshek, n farmer who Lives
near the right -of-way. rescued the oc-
cupants OF this berth by placing a lad
der to the window. Mrs. Pleshek wit
messed the accident from the doorway
Of her home, and the screams Of the
frightened passengers took Pleshek to
the wrecle at once. He expected to find
the occupants OF both chair car and
the Pullman following to be dead or
badly injured, and could hardly believe
II when 1t was finally learned that no
one was hurt badly. The Pullman
Platte while 1t did not topple over.
rested against the end Of the bridge at
an angle OF forty-flve degrees.
Sound Equipment Saves Lives.
Tho very elegance OF the train Itself.
and the fact that all Of the equipment
was new and sound. prevented what
might have been a duplicate Of the
| terrible disaster near Green Mountain
little over year ago. The train
was made up of a baggage car. two
Pullman tourist sleepers. two tourist
chair cars, another chair car. the Pull
Imam sleeper platte" the Pullman
sleeper ''Iiayt;er.'' and an observation
Pear. TIE Hayden" and the observa-
tion car were the only two that did not
leave the track.
The engine, No. 1917. was one Of the
massive new locomo motives IA the thru
passenger train service. and was in
charge Of Engineer Peter Berg. Of
Clinton. Berg staid by his engine and
stopped It In about four car lengths.
J. w. Metcalf. OF Clinton. was the con-
ductor In charge Of tho train.
AN of the passengers. including
those who had sustained slight bruises,
were placed on coaches ana sent on
west H.. As"ss Asser Uhc .srA"S, Ths