Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-10-02
LOCOMOTIVE DIVES
INTO GEORGIA RIVER:
NOBODY IS HURT
Train Crew SWims Out of
Creek Near Quitman
After Accident


train, en- route from Savannah to
Montgomery, running forty minutes
late, went into the flood waters Oh
the Piscola creek between Dixie ana
Pidcock, ten miles west of Quitman'
this morning at o'clock.
The engine went into the creek
and turned broadside, being com
pletely covered with water. The eX-
press car also left the track and the
roadbed and went into the water.
/ The other coaches, with water run
\ ming almost to the platforms remain.
n on the track All hands aboard
aped serious injury, and the pas
, & sengers remained marooned in the
cars and Pullmans until o'clock
this morning, when the first of the
relief parties reached the scene after
six hours of battling with flood
water which was from three to ten
feet deep.
When news of the wreck reached
Quitman at o'clock this morning.
Albert Tidwell, whose daughter was
the wreck. He arrived at o'clock,
walking three miles after having
abandoned his car in impossible
water.
Crew Swims Out
In charge of the train were Engi-
neer Maynard, Conductor Wilkinson,
Train Master D. E. Mcleod, and a
negro fireman. The engineer eau
tiously proceeded through miles Of
swamps, covered in water, at times
running through water which had
broken across the rails. The entire
party of four were watching for
washouts, and the train was creep
ing slowly through the inky night.
Ten miles west of Quitman, the en-
CINE suddenly keeled to it's side and
started on it's plunge into the swamp.
The fireman jumped, but the other
!. three stuck in the cab as it rolled
over and took the dive which COM
pletely submerged it in water. The
crew swan out to higher land, and
finally reached the coaches and
climbed aboard.
The passengers were orderly, and
there was no panic aboard. The
negro passengers were removed to
the rear coaches, and the white pas
sengers were carried into the Pull
mans and then began the siX-hour
I wait for rescue.
Wreck Train Held Up
The wrecking train and crew or
dered from Waycross reached Quit
man in record time, but could go no
farther, as the main line of the rail
road is washed away a distance Of
forty feet in the western part of the
city. Highways are under water at
many places, bridges are gone, and
|, Quitman is isolated, except on the
Coast Line to Valdosta.
The South Georgia railroad is still
blocked on account of train NO! )
turning into the swamp yesterday.
No. 80, Coast Line train due in Quit
man at 10 o'clock this morning, after
arrival backed twenty miles to VAL
dosta and then used the Southern
tracks to Triton to Albany and down
to brownsville. covering nearly two
hundred miles in order to go twenty
six miles west. No. 80 has been can
celled, and it is believed there will
be no traffic between Thomasville
and Quitman for two days, as the
water is impossible and the track
gone. In several stretches west OF
Boston, it is said Zone thousand feet
Of track has been washed away, and
JShe water averages ten feet deep. IL
began raining in Quitman last Mon
day a week ago, and during that
time "a inches of rain fell-practical-
ly the total rainfall for the average
twelve months period. All peanuts
and cotton remaining in the fields, as
well as the hay crop, are reported
specifically destroyed,
TRAIN is OVERTURNED
BY GREAT LANDSLIDE
POTTSVILLE, Pa, Sept. SO-A
Philadelphia and Reading railway
locomotive was buried under hun
. dreds of tons of earth in a huge
I landslide near Ringtown this after
! moon, according to messages reach
g here. The fireman and flag
IMAM were buried.
The entire side of a mountain
reared down on the railway tracks,
according to the messages. Tor
rental rains, which have continued
"a hours, caused numerous smaller
1andslides in the vicinity.
= Later messages said the landslides
occurred near Ringtown.
The engine, was overturned and
rolled some distance by the force of
the slide.
A freight train bound from New
Berry to TamaQua was ascending a
deep grade when the slide occurred.
The first part of the train had pass
ed this section, but the pusher en-
CINE was caught in the slide, bury
ing the brakeman and the fireman
in the debris.
STORMS ON COAST NEAR
INTENSITY OF HURRICANE