The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-05-08
NO ONE WAS HURT
AS TRAIN PLUNGED
NEAR so. BARRE
Some of the Passengers Thought the
Travelling Bit Rough Till They
Learned the Cause for the
Jouncing.

| A southbound train over the Williams
town branch of the Central Vermont
railroad was derailed near the Jackson
crossing mile south of South Barr,
late yesterday afternoon and by com
bination of fortuitous circumstance:
some ten or a dozen passengers, the en-
tire train crew, consisting of Engineer
Michael Mcmahon, Conductor Charles r
Simmons and Brakeman Charles Hoyt
together with the express messenger
Frank Nelson, escaped injury. After rid.
ing distance OF nearly Is rods, with
the trucks of the locomotive and tender
two passenger coaches and baggage car
straddling the rails, the train was stopped
and passengers were able to detrain and
take stock of their physical well being
Traffic was to be tied up on the branch
for nearly "a hours, but auto transpor-
tation was provided for passengers and
mail to Wiliamstown.
1t was the most damaging derailment
that has occurred on Central Vermont
territory hereabouts in some years and
while attaches of the company advanced
the theory that frost might have caused
the road bed to bulge or that rail
might have split, people who examined
the track after the accident were. of the
opinion that decayed ties, which seemed
to abound along the division, might have
had something to do with the derailment.
From the crossing where the lower 'hilf'
road intersects the railroad to the Jack
son crossing, so called, nearly every tie
had been cut in two by the wheel fanges.
All told around l50 ties thus rendered
more unfit than ever for railroad use,
were removed from the roadbed and
piled in heaps along the meadow. Only
one of the pony trucks on the locomotive
and the rear trucks on the last car were
on the irons when the train was halted.
The strain of humping over the worn
out ties cracked an air drum and dam
aged the tender trucks to considerable
extent. Apparently the locomotive was
none the worse for the accident
The train left the Barre station 20
the late arrival of the afternoon mail,
and the derailment occurred around $50
o'clock. AT first the train crew and
passengers alike were unaware of what
had happened, but Conductor Simmons
and the engineer noticed the derailment
at about the same time and almost at
the same instant took action. IL was
said that the train was not exceeding Is
miles an hour. Some of the passengers
lid not know of the derailment until the
train stopped, while Others, in giving
heir versions OF the experience, said that
hey were forming private opinions about |
, hs.I ha tros
v halted.
News of the accident was telephoned |
% this city soon after $3.50 o'clock and |
;. V. officials began to get the machin-
.ry in motion for a relief expedition. |
ieorge c. Kent, an employe at the Cen |
raj Vermont freight office, procured an |
automobile and saw to it that passengers /
md the mail arrived at the other end OF /
he division. Agent J. H. L. Carr advised I
Il. Albans of the doings down this way /
nd at II o'clock the wreck crew ar
ived in the city and proceeded at once
o South Barre. First to be returned to
he remainder of the night the wrecking
rev worked busily to restore the coaches.
lore strongly intrenched than any of
he cars in the roadbed of rotten ties
nd gravel was the coal tender. but less
ifficulty was encountered in lacking the
oaehes into position and at 1880 o'clock
his morning they were conveyed to this
ty, the train backing into the local sta
ion in time to attach the coaches to the
Unbound S:25 train.
This forenoon the locomotive was sta
oned at point south of the crossing
nd promised TO remain there until
-ew of laborers should succeed in re-
Irning the coal tender to the rails.
rogress was being made. however, and
was thought that service over the {
branch might be some
here near normal by nightfall. In the !
terim the c, V. was doing all it could
relieve congested conditions of train !
avel to Willismstown and back by sup :
wing an auto to carry mails and pas
myers connecting from inbound trains. :