The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-07-11
CARS JUMPED A TRAIN
CAUSE OF BAD wreck
From Mondays Daily.

From Mondays Daily.
Railway employees can give NO
reason why two cars should have
broken out of the middle of Mil
waukee mixed train No. 1913, Satur
+ day afternoon and precipitated
themselves over the grade and
down the high embankment, the
story of which appears in The Free
Press that evening. The car which
: supposed to have jumped the
..,alis first was a refrigerator car OF
bananas, and some of the employees
think tina. It is just possible that
this car wa Top heavy, and the
constant swinging unbalanced it.
The wreck happel.ed about a
mile south of Good ThLAder near
4 bridge over a small creek. From
the marks made by the fanges OF
the car wheels on the track, il
was found that the refrigerator car
left the track just before crossing
the bridge, and the bridge itself
was broken down as the car was
pulled across The heavy loaded
car dragged the next car behind,
an empty box car, off the, rails, and
both went in the ditch. The first
one went over just beyond the
bridge, and the box car went off
from the damaged bridge. The
bridge has three benches, and these
were knocked over, but were put
up and repaired again in short
time. The track was clear by yes
terday noon About two hundred
feet of track were torn up by the
derailed cars. This track was in ex-
cellent condition before the accident,
and new rails and new ballast had
just been put in.
Wreck There Year Ago.
This is almost the exact spot of
similar wreck last year, but the
cause of this one was that the
trucks on one of the cars became
loosened and swung around across
the track. The tracks of the cars
derailed Saturday were in excel.
lent condition.
ditched in Saturdays disaster, were
two passenger coaches, and four
people in these coaches were in.
cured. Two of them are still in
the hospital. They are William
Jacobson, farm hand who lives
near Mapleton, and Louis Rieder of
Mapleton. Mr.. Jacobson has recently
been operated upon, and the injury
was in the wound in his side. Mr..
Reider sustained a fractured rib
on the right side, bruised chest
and dislocated ankle. Their con.
dition is not serious. R. j. Nc
Guiggan, a real estate man of Ma
pleton, had one arm severely bruis-
"a, ard j. A. Van Bogard, COL North
Second street, a messenger in
charge of the banana car, had his
right leg injured. The two passen.
ger coaches were merely derailed
and were not tipped over.
Another Accident Yesterday.
h Yesterday afternoon Charles E.
Wiltberger, who is employed as
shipping clerk by the Gamble Robin.
son company, fell through the door
of the overturned banana car anu
injured his hip. The car was lying
on its side, and had a lattice work
inside the doors to hold the crates
in. Mr.. Wiltbrger stopped over and
rested his hands on the latticework,
and the light boards gave way, let.
ting him fall heavily inside the car.
s The steam derrick from Mason
City, Iowa, was sent TO the scene
of the wreck yesterday afternoon
and it had the two ditched cars on
the track and hauled away this
morning. Train No. 40 which left
here at 2:55 Saturday afternoon
went as far as the wreck and
transferred its passengers to an
other train which was sent up from
Wells. The train then came back
to Mankato and laid over until
Sunday. Train No. AZ, which leaves
at 1855 p. m. bound in the same
direction, did the same as No. 40
and No. 43, northbound repeated
these maneuvers.
G.. M. Hubbard was the conductor
in charge of the train and the en-
gineer was ]. A. Hartman.