The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-12-27
Remarkable Railroad Wrecks
STRANGE FRANKS OF FATE WHICH CAUSED TERRIBLE ACT
DENTS IN WHICH MANY LIVES WE'RE LOST.

The structure took the form of an
IS" At that time it was the longest
bridge in the world. 1t spanned the
mouth OF the Tay river at a point
where 1t is really an arm of the sea.
a gale was blowing seventy-two miles
ing eighty miles.
ing the train the all lights suddenly
vanished. He told the signalmen that
the train must have fallen into the
sea, but the signalman said that the
lights had merely disappeared around
the curve. Other watchers saw a
shower of fire fall from the middle of
the bridge to the water, $50 feet be.
low.
The non-arrival of the train and
n breaking Of h signal wire prov.
ed h a something had happened.
a party ventured on the bridge at
imminent risk of being blown into the
sea: They found that part Of the
bridge was gone. They hurried back
and gave the alarm.
A steamer was hurried to the scene
but could do nothing.
Thirteen spans Of the bridge fell
with the train. The exact number of
lives lost Is not known. The figures
range from seventy-1ve to eighty.
inc government commission which
investigated the disaster found various
defects IN the structure. The Tay
bridge like that at Ashtabula, was
built, before manufacturers and engi-
neers had entered the field.
The "Chatsworth horror" as It was
characterized by the newspapers Of
a quarter Of a century ago. occurred at
q. culvcrt.
A double header excursion train on
the Toledo. Wabash &, Western rail-
road consisting OF a baggage car, the
SIX day coaches. two chair ears and
six sleepers, with 900 passengers bound
for Niagara Falls, was running down
a grade of forty feet to the mile at
midnight on the night of Aug. 10, 1887.
Suddenly the engineer of the lead
ing engine saw a fire under q trestle
200 feet ahead. He Immediately re-
Versed. The engineer of the second
engine felt the jar and Immediately APP
piled the air.
The speed OF the heavy train was
moi checked before the leading engine
reached the ~trestle. 1t was a two
bent-ptle trestle of fifteen foot span
and six feet high. like thousands still
to be found scattered over the prairies
. the middle west. 1t caught fire from
burning weeds.
The trestle was still strong enough
to carry the first engine but it strip
ped the trucks from the tender. The
engine continued for about $50 feet
before 1t stopped. The tender dropped
some nifty feet behind 1t. The lem
der's trucks threw the second en-
CINE upon it's side.
The baggage car and suDerintend.
cnt's car tumbled across the track
where they collapsed. The waterway
was filled with trucks. The frst Sleep
er stopped with it's forward trucks
hanging over the c~ulvert.
The most remarkable feature Of the
affair was the fact that the occupants
were not Immediately killed. Severn
ty-three met instant death. Two 9TH
ers died shortly afterward. -Four or
five fingered for days. OF the others
20 were seriously and $50 were slight.
~ injured. The hard work of the sur
yivors and citizens prevented Il fire
from consuming the wreck.
A northbound passenger train on the
Central Vermont was approaching
White river bridge three and n half
miles north of White Rivs,. Vermont.
at 2 o'clock on the morning Of Feb.
3, 1887, when an axle of the sleeper