El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-09-10
s. P. TRAIN IN
DITCH IN CITY
Freight pa Arriving Splits
Itself Into Pieces and
Blocks Main Line.

Splitting three ways and following
three different tracks, freight train
e44. on the Southern Pacific, was
piled Up in the FL Paso yards Mon
day afternoon at two o'clock between
santa Re and Durango streets.
Coming in from the west. the train
split a switch at Chihuahua street
the locomotive taking the south
switch. the tender the next one north.
and the rest Of the train taking the
third track from the engine
The engine. No. $3.50. was piled up
against the Reclzhart flatiron build
ing. tearing down a big telephone
post and electric light post II also
tore up some of the sidewalk ana
badly demolished itself in falling
over against the building
Tender and Cars OFF,
The tender turned almost crossWise
Of the tracks and was damaged con-
a water tank car Immediately fol-
lowing the tender, and two 1relgnt
ears at the head Of the train, went
off the third track but did not dam
age themselves to any apprecl4oIe
Nobody was injured aboard the
train, but the wreck tied up all the
: p tracks and made it necessary
for trains coming IN and gong Out
10 use the Southwestern tracks
PILOT Catches at Switch
Catching the lower end OF the pilot,
between the track rod and track al
the first switch caused the accident
according to officials Of the railway,
who conducted an investigation short
" after il occurred. The marks Of the
broken pilot on the ground were
traced back for more than block
from where the accident occurred, and
the cause was discovered When the
second switch was reached a heavy
wooden block on the pilot swung be-
switch and caused the heavy engine to
go on the side track splitting the
train
TraInmen Escape Injury.
The train was in charge Of conduc-
tor Joe Goddard. engineer ~ E. Sche-
lamey and fireman J. Hendricks. al
Of FL PasO- The engineer and fire
man jumped from the engine when il
collided with the side Of the Reckhart
building. and escaped injury Con-
ductOr Goddard was riding on the
back end of the train and knew moth
ing OF the accident for several min
utes-
Tears Off Running Gear.
The rear trucks of the tender were
torn away and rolled several feet
away from the tracks. The heavy
steel water car swung around with
force against an iron railing protect
ing the sidewalk South Of the Neff-
stiles company building and would
have gone through the building but
for the railing, according TO employees
Of the company. A large hole was
knocked in one end OF the water car
and streams were rushing out when
people. attracted by the noise Of the
wreck, reached the scene.
Track Torn Up
The rails OF the switch line which
carried the engine against the Reck-
hart building were badly spread and
at some points were completely torn
up. Pieces Of the badly torn pilot
were scattered along the tracks for
a distance Of fully IS feet.
Police officers experienced diff
Guilty in keeping the crowd away from
the accident. as il was feared that
the engine would fall away from its
support at any time A Wrecking
crew drew away the cars left on the
rails. about 2-3O o'clock and the Du-
range street crossing. which had been
closed. was open for traffic.