The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1911-05-13
~fBIkl Da' 4 LOST fppN CAR,



In the records Of the Wabash al.
vision headquarters az Springfield
m. the story Of a strange disap.
pearancc OF box car is nov down
in black and white and there % re-
flute the doubts OF those who refused
to believe "a when It was told by
word of mouth short time ago
The car. OF the Refrigerator type.
was lost out Of a freight train an
Barry hill IN Pike county. Illinois
and Was never missed until the con
ductor checked up his train al the
Missouri division headquarters
which he reached ten hours later
And during the hours that the
rest of the train was speeding to-
ward the neighboring state the lost
car was lying bottom side up in a
creek nearly 200 feet below the level
of the track.
A complete record of the affair,
written by the conductor of the
freight, Is on file at the division Of
fices. Passenger train No. 4, east
bound. 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. Peering 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 passenger train made a complete
report of the occurrence, including
the number of the car, which they
could distinguish. despite the dis
lance below the rails.
AS there was no reports of an ac-
cident at that point, officials at the
division headquarters began an in
vestigation. 1t developed that the
extra freight west bound had pass
ed the scene of the accident some
time before the passenger WAS due
A message to the Missouri divis-
ion office disclosed the fact that the
freight had registered in but that no
report of such occurrence had been
made. A few minutes later the con
ductor of the freight train discover
ed he was one car short, A refrig-
orator car, thirty cas- behind the en-
CINE was missing. Comparison of
numbers showed that this particular
bit of rolling stock was lying in the
creek bed at Barry,
In the official report the following
explanation of the accident was
made: a
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 con
nected with the air pipe, jumped the
track and pulled away from the car
ahead
For some reason the refrigerator
car turned crosswise on the tracks.
There is a heavy grade at this point
and as the car turned it swung up
into the air and toppled over tho
embankment.
This caused the rear coupling of
Tue dlOl W SiihS Oht VI VI
coupled of the following. As
the rear section remained on the
rails on the downhill journey, it
soon overlook the front section and
the gap left by the missing rolling
stock was filled. An automotie
coupling was made at that instant
end the train proceeded on its jour
ney,
'While this was happening the en-
gineer suspected, from the workings
of the air, that something WIS
wrong. He spoke to the head brake
man about it. 1t was dark, how
ever, and the brakeman, after a has
ty inspection, reported all was well.
Chicago Tribune.