The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-12-27
(Railroad Mans Magazine)

The strangest Of railroad accidents
occurred on a japanese train bound
from Osaka to Kobe at about 1 O'Clock
on h morning of July 20. 1895. A
train OF twentS-three cars laden with
400 soldiers returning from service
In China was creeping into Kobe on a
track laid along the sea wall which
skirts the harbor. a storm was rag
ing. Huge waves battered the sea
wall and drenched the train.
Suddenly a mountain of water DASH
ed over the sea wall. 1t struck the
train with such force hat the engine
and eleven cars were thrown from the
track. The weight of the engine held
it where it lay. but the back wash
swept the eleven cars into the sea.
One hundred and forty soldiers were
drowned like rats in a trap.
Third in the long list of railroad dis
ters is undoubtedly that which occur
red at Richelieu river Canada, on the
night Of June "a. 1894.
The night was clear and calm.
An engineer. who was pulling a
Grand Trunk train with 500 immi-
grants on board. ran his train into
an open draw in absolute disregard of
a danger signal that was visible for
1000 feet.
The thirteen crowded ears piled on
up ~ " oNL1 ~ kAAo "dS 1SSII
through the draw. Although the num-
her Of lives lost is said t be eighty
three. contemporary accounts prove
c~onclusively that more than 100 per-
ished. Tho precise number never will
be known.
With a few exceptions, most Of the
great railroad disasters have occur
red on bridges during the night. In
h majority of cases they occurred
while a storm was raging or imme-
diately afterward. The employees con-
cerned usually have been blameless.
Probable no railroad disaster is so
wildly stamped on the memory of
the American public as that at Ashta-
bula, Ohio.
A double header Lake Shore & Mich
tgan Southern passenger train was
struggling slowly westward In a blind
ing snowstorm at 8 o'clock on the night
Of Dec. 20. 1876.
At the eastward outskirt of Ashta-
bula was a deep ravfne crossed by an
iron bridge erected in 1856 when the
art Ut building iron bridges was new.
1t had almost collapsed Of its own
weight when the workmen removed
but It was strengthened and though
fatally defective in design. had car
ried traffic for eleven years.
The leading engine had crossed the
bridge safety. Then suddenly the
long va collapsed. The second engine
and the entire train fell seventy feet
TO the bottom of the ravine. The
cars, which were crushed into heaps
OF binding wood. were Immediately set
on fire by Goals from the stoves and the
frebox Of the engine.
OF l31 passengers and employees,
n~inety-two met instant death. Ulti-
mately only fvc escaped uninjured.
BY a strange coincidence another
terrible railroad disaster occurred on
the same night at almost the same
hour during a violent storm. This waa
the Tay bridge tragedy in Scotland. 1t
is the only railroad accident In which
every person on board the train per-
ished.
Exactly three years I o a day after
the Ashtabula accident a south bound
train on the North British railway,
slowed up at the northern end Of the
Tay bridge at 7:15 p. m.
The signslman handed the fireman
the staff which gave the train tho right
to procsed. a section foreman watch.
ed the train start to cross the bridge.