The Coconino sun., 1927-05-27
were IS minutes late out of Williams


were 25 minutes late out of Williams
when the wreck occurred.
Nearly all of late forenoon and
early afternoon-several hours-vari-
| Gus of the five sections of No. fol-
| lowing the two wrecked sections were
at the station here, each being held
| for some time due to the disarranged
schedule.
Among the Santa Fe railway divi-
sion officials here Monday were E.
E. McCarty, superintendent; r. G..
Kline, chief engineer; w. M. Martens,
bridge foreman; O. L. Gray, train
master; F. A. Anderson, claim agent;
| v. H. Wilson, train master, and w.
| D. Hitchcock, master mechanic.
| Section three train conductor was
| H. Smith of Needles. Engineer, ID.
G. Simmons. Fireman, Jesse Baxter.
Both the latter are from Winslow.
! Section two was in charge of Con-
| ductor r. e. Kinney of Winslow. lra
/ Hayes was engineer and E. ID. Noun
don fireman.
| On Tuesday afternoon, at the con-
! tinuation of the inquest, there de-
veloped discrepancy in the testimony
of witnesses as to the speed at which
section three was travelling. Engi-
neer Simmons and the fireman on
/ that engine said they had been travel
| ing at 80 miles an hour and were down
to eight when the crash came. Con-
ducter Keeney told the jury Simmons
was going SO miles an hour when he
/ came in sight and was going 80 when
| he hit,
In contradiction Of the latter and
corroboration of the former, G. III.
Cooper of Flagstaff, who for years
operated railroad in Mexico and who
saw the crash, told the jury section
three was going at about eight and
not to exceed 10 miles an hour when
| it hit. Mr.. Cooper told others that if
! the train had been going 80 miles an
hour it would have thrown all of the
/ train ahead off the track and would
have caused much greater damage to
| the rear train and almost certainly
would have killed both engineer and
fireman Of the latter.
Conductor Keeney testified, in part:
! His train was going at about 49 miles
when it went into emergency appllca-
ton. when it came to stop / inn
mediately got off and the head brake
man and myself started to the rear of
| the train. When | got back there
| / noticed the flagman running back
| with red flag and he was approx
mately 1900 feet back. The brakes
released and / gave the signal to the
/ flagman to come back and also to the
brakeman, who signaled the engineer
to recall the flagman. saw the flag
man stop and place two torpedoes on
| the track. He continued to run back
| until he arrived at the block signal,
which was about 200 feet west of the
end of our train. At this time /
noticed the third section of the limited
round the curve at high rate OF
i speed. / Immediately yelled at the
flagman to go back and told the pas
sengers to get off the observation
platform, but they ran inside. The
/ flagman continued toward the on
coming train waving his flag as he
ran. | also started back, giving sig
nails, as / saw at the rate section
/ three was coming it would be impos-
sible for the engineer to stop the
/ train before hitting us"
Engineer Ira Hayes of section two
| testified that the air on his train went
| into emergency at TOP a. m. and he
| did not whistle out the flagman, but
did call him in about five minutes
| later when the trouble had been fixed.
Hayes said he did not know there was
collision until the train kicked
ahead and his engine broke away from
the baggage car.
/ Rear Brakeman C. T. Palmer testi-
/ fled that he was in the observation
l.car when the air went into emergency.
II felt the brakes going into emer
gency," he said. II got my flag
equipment and went to point Is rall
lengths (this would be between 800
| and 900 feet) beyond the block signal
and at that point was called in by the
four blasts Of the whistle. / placed
| two torpedoes on the right hand track
| and ran back toward my train. When
l was three-fourths of the way back
III heard the rumble of train and
heard the torpedoes explode | start
ed back up the track waving my flag.
When they we're almost upon me
| jumped the track
On direct question, Palmer said that
section three was travelling at high
rate of speed when it passed him
about 800 feet west of his train.
II didn't hear or see any sign OF an
approaching train until was on my
way back" he said.
Hayes could not explain why the
air on his train went into emergency.
+ Following taking of the above tes-
timony, the jury adjourned again to
Wednesday morning.