Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1920-10-11
The Injured.


the brakes caused the wreck.
The Injured.
The injured men are the engineer
fireman and conductor on train No. a
all of whom jumped. Their injuries
however. are slight. being confined t'
bruises and scratches. Engineer Stark
of Waterloo, seeing the collision was
inevitable. called to his fireman and
was standing on top Of Il freight cal
near the rear of the train. saw the
engineer jump, so he. too. lcapcd off the
moving train. IT was very lucky that
each of the three men fell on soft
ground and escaped with only slight
injuries.
The collision occurred about 80
o'clock this morning The impact of
the two trains made n loud noise. which
awakened most Of the people residing
in the neighborhood. So great was the
impact that the ground i'm the neigh
dents nearby. awakened suddenly.
thought there must have been an earth
quake.
Both Heavy Trains.
Both frcights we're heavily laden
and carried long string of ears. No.
81 was west bound and was pulling
into the siding running west from
Broadway street to the National Sewer
Pipe company'S plant No. "A, carry
ing an estimated tonnage of 1900 tons,
was east bound and coming down the
grade. As it reached the viadrct west
of the sewer pipe plant Engineer
Stark. knowing he was TO meet No. II
and seeing the headlight of the other
train pulling upon the siding. applied
his air. IT failed to work and. seeing
a collision was inevitable he called to
his fireman and both jumped from the
cab. A few seconds later. his train
struck No. 81. cut it squarely in two
and plowed its way through twenty
two cars. piling them up in a heap.
a Ipecularity of the wreck was that
the twenty-five wrecked cars were
literally piled in great heap. the peak
Of the pile being three cars high.
The Wrecked Cars.
The cars wrecked were as follows:
Three meat cars.
Two cars of apples.
One car Of mems shoes.
One car of sugar
Two cars Of fuel wood.
One car of lumber.
Two cars of general merchandise.
Two ears Of sheep pcltS.
One car of dried peaches.
One cars of hogs.
Seven empty cars.
The crash occurred almost in front |
of the Hawkcyc Cabinet company'S
factory building. one heavily loaded
car, with five cars damned closely be-
hind it. struck the factory building.
built of cement blocks, practically
the building. The whole
south end was torn ont ana the struc
ture cracked from end to end, the ma
chinery inside and the contents being
wrecked 50 that both build
ing and contents will be almost total
loss.
l.. T.. Rinehcimer. owner of the fac
tory, lives just north of the plant
His house was shaken by the impact
and the. family. awakened by the noise.
were startled by the wrcckagc that met
their gaze when they went to window.
Mr.. Rineheimcr was unable today to
give exact figures on his loss. but cSti-
mates that il will probably run under
$4,000. He carried insurance against
fire, lightning and wind. The loss he
however. when determined.
will be paid by the railroad company.
Company Loss Big.
The loss sustained by the Illinois
Central is estimated roughly around
100000. The engine on train No. a
vas stripped and otherwise badly
damaged. Railroad MECHANICS csti-
nate that the repair of the engine,
ilOne. will cost upward of $4,000 and
his, together with the twenty-five
reight ears, a good many Of which are
/ total loss outside the trucks. and the
OSS to the contents, will run their total
OsS well up to S1I0.00O, it is believed.
Fourteen of the hogs in the hog car
we're SmOthcrcd ana We're removed
rom the wrcckagc by the la Forgc
Ompany. the carcasscS being taken to
heir rendering plant. The right of
ray was fairly strcwed with apples.
hoes, sugar, lumber boxes of dried {