Norwich bulletin., 1920-07-26
DANIELSON

Passengers and crew miraculously es- csped death or serious injury when the south-bound Bar Harbor express was wrecked at Dayville at I o'clock on Sar- urday morning. Although five big Pull man stateroom cars eft the rl:ls and 1loughed through the dirt O. tho light Of way, tearing up rails and ties for distance of 500 feet no one c. the tra in which was travelling 2t :. high rate Of speed. was more than slign[ly hurt.
 Just what c~Sed the wre"-l has rot hcen determined. but the wheels If the train first left the rails st a switch about e00 feet south of the Dayvilie station and began tearing up the whole right of way. At another switch, about a hun dred feet south of the oFe first maItion- cd. the fourth car of the seven car train headed into the siding, caring the trai apart The giant locomotive. still haul ing a baggage car. buffet car and anoth- CT stateroOm car continued on down the ma n line for two or three hundred feet farther before the stateroom car bounc- ed off the iron and brought up diagonal Y across the main line track.
 The four stateroom cars that went on 10 the siding, ripping their way through the ties and bending rails in 70 various curious shapes finally brought ID with the forward pair of cars listed
 
 Fith all their trucks deep down in the roadbed- The front end of the for ward car in this string was lifted m 0n 10 as many as q cord Of ties that had been scooped out of their positions under jte rails and showed along much as snow is pushed ahead and into a drift lJy snow blow.
 As travel is light from Bar Harbor to New York at this particular seas . 
 train. All of these Were in their berths and most of them were asleep when the f-si1 was wrecked The crash of the lurdii9C ears tossed them about. threw sor'e Of them on the floors of the cars and before tho great cloud of dust that arose around the wreck had really cleared away. fre0zied passengers. clad only in i7eir night wear. were pouring out of he vesGbules or trying to collect their se1ses sufficiently to understand what had happened. \ haSty inspection of the four cars in which there were passe1g- CTS established the fact that no one had neen killed and that. while few lad heeu severely jolted. only at small num- her had been even slightly hurt. One woman seemed 10 he da zed and badly shaken ID and a man who had been asleep in one of the staterooms com piained that his back was painnr him.
 porter cf one of the cars later told with a grin of hurryinE through his car ,o render what assistance he could to messengers and 10 determine whether any had been killed. Tn one stateroom lay man. apparently departed from this life. The 1orter's inspection of this man quickly established that the passenger was only sleeping. however. undist1rb- ed hy 2 crash that one might imagine would awaken the dead. The porter shook the passenger to arouse him. and as 2 reward got what he described as a bawi.7g out for disturbing the peaceful ones sleep.
 The train crew and passengers having assured themselves that all had escap- cd from a bad wreck in remarkably good order. all things considered. returned to their cars and dressed. IL was more than two hours later when the passengers of what is described as the war million aires train" were assembled in the buff fst car of the train and resumed their journey to New York
 Only 9 very few of Dayville's people knew of the wreck for nearly two hours after it happened. and few of them saw any Of the passengers. this leading to the general belief that the wracked train was made up of cars being dead-headed back to New York
 Wrecking crews that were ordered from Readville, Mass Midway and New Haven brought big force of men to engage in clearing up the wreck and ro building the line. The ReadviIle crew vas the first 10 pdt in an appearance. arriving st Dayville about a. m
 By this time hundreds of people were coming into payvfIle 10 see the wreck. aevs of which spread like vildfre trough all the towns in this section of -he county. many of the early rennrts including alarmist stories of the death of numerous passengers. The Bar liar S1r is tho most famous of all the trains opcra-ed through this section of south "rn New England, and the fact that it had figured in a bad wreck created a sensation.
 The large number who came 10 view rhe wreck felt well repaid for their cu- -lOsity. The great steel Pullmans which Withstood the shock of the crash Splendidly and were only very slightly damaged. where wooden coaches might have been broken into Splinters. present cd an unusual sight as they lay listed sharply to one side, off the iron and with their trucks deep down in the dirt Tn their wild plunge they had practically demolished the roadbed ties being cut ID Or broken up as though they were matches. while long lines of rails. still
 
 like so much Christmas candy One length Of about ten rails from the west side of the main line lay as they had turned over on their sides as the spikes that held them to the ties released-in 2 perfect straight line. The four cars that shc- off the main line and onto the siding >Ighed a furrow as much as -four feet deep and half the width Of a ear in some places. A stretch of main line track over which the locomotive snd the three cars next to it ran. after the other cars had gone on the siding was bucklcd and twisted. evidence of the terrific strain that it had been plac- ed under while the train was being wrecked.
 By a. m. upwards of 100 men were engaged in clearing away the splintered ,ies and twisted and broken rails tc clear the roadbed for the laying of a new stretch Of track. The work train which makes it's headquarters at Put nam brought down a big crew of tra elk layers and a supply of new ties and rails This track laying force showed its efficiency by quickly getting into the swing of things. and the spectators mar. veled at the expeditions manner in whicl brand ned track line was put down over a distance of several hundred feet
 Tn the meantime the Readville crew had gone into action with a hig steam