Omaha daily bee., 1911-08-13
MYSTERY OF LOST BOX CAR
Jumped ont of Middle of Moving
Train and Crew Did Not
Miss II.

In the records Of the Wabash division
headquarters at Springfield, ILL.,, the story
of strange disappearance of a boxcar IL
now down In black and white and there
to refute the doubts of those who refused
to believe it when it was told by word OF
mouth a short time ago.
The car, Of the refrigerator type, wa'
lost out Of a freight train on Barry Hill
in Pike county Illinois, and was never
missed until the conductor checked up his
train at the Missouri division headquarters
which he reached ten hours later.
And during the hours that the rest Of
the train was speeding toward the neigh
boring state the lost car was lying bot
tom side up in a creek nearly 200 feet be-
low the level of the track.
complete record of the affair written
by the conductor Of the freight, is on file
at the division Offices Passenger train
No. L. eastbound, was speeding toward the
hill when the engineer noticed the track
ahead was in poor shape, The rails were
torn up and the ties twisted. He brought
his train to a stop and investigated. Peer
ing about for the cause OF the damaged
rails, he glanced down into the gully. TO
his surprise an upturned refrigerator car
lying 200 feet below, appeared to account
for the accident.
At the next station the crew of the pas
senger train made a complete report of
the occurrence, including the number of
the car, which they could distinguish, de-
spite it's distance below the rails
AS there were no reports of an accident
at that point, officials at the division head
quarters began an investigation. 1t de-
veloped that the extra freight. westbound
had passed the scene of the accident some
time before the passenger train was due
message to the Missouri division Of
fices disclosed the fact that the freight
had registered in but that no report OF
such an occurrence had been made. A
few minutes later the conductor of the
freight discovered he was one car short,
refrigerator ear, thirty cars behind the
engine, was missing. Comparison of num-
bers showed that this particular bit of
rolling stock was lying in the creek bed
at Barry.
In the official report the following ex-
PLANTATION OF the accident was made,
Going down hill, the engineer had to
apply the air several times to retard the
momentum of the train. 1t was between
applications that the refrigerator car,
which was not connected with the air
hose. jumped the track and pulled away
from the car ahead
For some reason the refrigerator turned
crosswise on the tracks, There is a heavy
grade at this point, and as the car turned
it swung up in the air and topped over
the embankment.
This caused the rear coupling of the re-
frigerator to slide out OF the coupler Of
the one following As the rear section re-
kEz 4, l. al NpY.V.
ney. II soon overlook the front section
and the gap left by the missing rolling
stock was filled. An automatic coupling
was made at that. instant and the train
proceeded on It's journey
while this was happening the engineer
suspected, from the workings OF the air,
that something was wrong. He spoke to
the head brakeman about II, II was dark.
however and the brakeman, after hasty
inspection, reported all was weil"-Chi-
cage Tribune.