The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-01-03
FATAL WRECK LAID
TO- PHONE MESSAGE
Mystery of the Disaster on the
Rio. Grande Here IS Par
tally Solved.
BEuNDER OF SOME ONE
Investigating Officials Think
Sender of Message or Tele-
phone Operator TO Blame.


disastrous wreck on G,e Denver & Eio
c;rande III the north yards Monday night.
IN which TWO train,nen lost their lives
and four others were painfully injured.
This fact transpIred yesterday after
noon following an oficial investigation
into what al first appeared 10 he an in
scrutahlc mystery suggestive VI a hnr-
ribe crime. ii was found that the brct
telephone message which was re-
ceived by the Denver &. Rio
.;rsnds dispa'sher and Which sG9'
ulan 4. /. Connley to their death. was
Intended for the dispatcher Of tho sal
Lake Route and referred 10 denlll- /
ment on the latter road.
How the mistake crept III has not yet
been fully asccrtainnd, though the in !
vesticatirg officials declare tho blame Hes
between tho mon Who sent the message, 1
The telephone operator and the nicht dis |
patchcr of The Denver & Hlo Grandc.
Answers Call for Help.
shortly after 5 o'clock Monday night |
L. c. Mci.ccs. night dispatcher on the
Rio Grando. answered his telephone and
learned from the person a, the other end
of The line that engine No. 80 OF irain
No 10 VAS derailcd and that assistance
track He replied That the Denver ~ ,
fio Grande was running no such train
and asked his informant IL he referred
10 train o5f. which had LETT FOR Ogden
few minutes earlier With orders 10 meet
lrain No. 81 al Layton. Mcsees declares
he received m affirmative answer
and that. not suspectirc mistake. ne |
ordered yard engine Nc s44, With Il tull
crew. 10 so TO the aid Of The dcratlcd
en2uc
The man who called on The lele- |
phone said the dcrailment had occurred |
at Sixth North OF sixteenth North. ine
dispatcher was not sure which: Assnm-
ing t,st train No. 95i Was tied up by,
the trouble to its engine and that fontn-
bound train No: "2 was waiting al Lay
ION, tic dispatcher sent out the yard en-
clne on what he WAS certain was ~ clear
track as far as the supposed dcrallnrnt |
Finding no wreck AT SIKH North ihe
yard engine crew proceeded ,,;,,o,nt to ,hS
freight on n sharp curyc just beyond the
Rio C;ianle northern yard limit.
TIE sen,h09d nnn aTain M@iea oat Cd 61 a!
and then went on at great speed
.ryin. to make UP los, time II is cs-
timatcd that the. freight train was Iun-
ming st forty miles an hour. While the
speed of tho light engine was estimated
at fifteen miles an hour.
Instant Death for One,
Gibson and ConncIy were caught una.
in the cab of the yaid engine and
The latter was crushed between the
engine and the tender. Gibson was
80 badly scal6nd that he dicd scvera
minutes after being removed from TIC
IN time, four OF them sustaining
injuries from which they viii recover
Both engines were reduced 10 scrap iron
and several cars were dera'ed ana
smashed.
The report of tle tragedy caused great
consterna tion in Iio tirnndc circle and
uudorstaud how the wreck could possibly (
have occurred.
At lJ,e investigation YESTERDAY morning |
the first disconoegtins discover, was was
off the track and thai il had proceeded /
La Ogden without delay. ner nah any !
1oad been derstled, The crew OF the /,
,northhound train said they had made no
stop between Salt Lake and Farmingtcn !,
and that member ot the crew could
pogsibly have sent the ia,al phone mes
sage.
Special agents We're sent scuuying out
10 find WIN had sent the message and
-fo,., several hcurs The theory was ser'- |
ousIy cntcriJinol that someone having
u grievance against the COMPANY had
nalic,ously conceded The telephone
message.
Request Passed oil.
Then came the discovery that san
Pedro engine. No. 81. leaving the Orc
gon Snort Line ronndhousc 10 take out
the southbound San Pedro train Nc: 50.
had left the track near sixth North
street From this disclosure II was
speedily concluded that somebody had
bundered on the teleplone Oregon short
Line and San Pedro officials were imme" |
diatcly caHed into illc investigation, II
was learned that Engineer Cramer OF
;nan in charge OF the switcn tower At
With North street 10 telephone The San
Pedro dispatcher for help The tower
man IN turn asked NJ. q. Smith, i repair
man. io send the message.
In conversation nitn TrlhDro reporter
last night smith was positive that ne
talked 10 the san Pedro dispatcher. The
dispatcher. AZ the San Pedro office
admitted having received message TO
The III n sssI nl ihI, % e s,Ts fnsns as y or from, e%
Smith or some one else. That two mos
sagss ~crn sent IS certain bU' who was
responsible for the fatal message that by
sorne stranec coincidence reached the
Denver q BIO Grande dispatcher Is stlll
mystery
Smith Mistaken.
At a conference held in tho San Pedro
6ispg. tcrcr's office at II o'clock last night.
attended by the dispatchers oE all three
roads and bv X. r. t;ibbs claim agent OF
The Denver s. Kio lirande. q was ascer-
laned that SMITH did not talk To tho San
Pedro dispatcher The conversation he
aaid that he carried on with the dis
patcher docs not coincide with the convcr-
sation the latter declares hs had With
his informant. This lcaVcs no other cor
ci,ision that that SmiCn talked 10 the
Denver & Rio tiranJe dispatcher. But
here arises another irrecoucable point.
Smith swears that lie asked the Telephone
central for No. 2i47: Wasatcn, which was
until recently the telephone number OF the
dispatcher's office, and il the former. how
the telephone operator came 10 give the
san Pedro disDatchers office. He was
rcctlon and received the number, Wa
;.:ttch 3506 which is the present number Of
the office. dc statcs that he wrote
the number down OH a piece Of paper.
JnEineer Cramcr also says Smith wrote
the number down. This being the ease,
now did tho repetition Of this number re-
siIlt in the calling OF The Denver e. Flo
Grande office; the number Of which is
Wasstch 1853?
An examination OF tho telephone
switchboard by Claim Agent Gibbs last
night discosed the fact that the two
iiunIhers arc widely separated on off
ferent lines and could not have been
mixed through any of the ordinary mis-
lakes made by telephone operators.
Mystery Unsolved.
With these facts at hand. Mr. Gibbs
declared late last night tnai the mystery
resolved itself around the question
whether Smith called by number
or. iii confusion, nierely asked for the
dispstchcr's office and II the former low
the telephone operator came 10 give the
number.