The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-06-20

rived here by plane from St. Paul Minn., and immediately inspected the wreckage of the Olympian.
 He said that the death toll was known to be 40.
 Identification Difficult
 The bodies were clad in pajamas and night gowns which made iden- tification difficult. The garments were mute testimony that the vic- tins had been jolted suddenly into wakefulness only to die split sec ond later before they could do any, thing to save themselves.
 There could be no positive count of those who had been on the train until the railroad company checked the tickets sold at all stations be- tween here and Chicago where the train began its run Friday night, bound for the Pacific Northwest. But 150 was an authoritative esti- mate. Other estimates placed the total passengers as high as 200 and the probable dead as high as 100.
 Some bodies were swept down stream by the torrent which was powerful enough to move an all- steel pullman car 50 feet. It may be days before all bodies are recovered and the exact number of dead es- tablished. The body of a woman vic- tim was recovered several miles from the trestle.
 10 r1,y had broken into all five cars, except one and they were at work on its steel top with acetylene torches. The waters had receded until they just covered the windows of the coach which had landed upright.
 Fast Train
 The train was one of the fastest operating on American railroads. It was roaring across the high plain country of Eastern Montana where the road bed is solid, the towns few, and high speeds are customary. A short while before it reached the trestle over the creek named for the hero of the Indian wars who, with all of his men, were massacred by nearby, rain began to pour in torrents, but it did not obscure the right of way. Surviving mem bers of the train crew said that they could feel the train slow slightly as 1t approached the bridge. Engineer Frank Merrifield, veteran of the division, apparently had pulled back his throttle some, but the train still was going fast. Estimates of the speed varied, but 40 miles an hour was the consensus of railroad men.
 There was no water on the track to warn the man in the cab of approaching disaster. A tor rent 30 feet high was raging down the usually dry creek, but he could- n't see 1t until it was too late. The huge locomotive roared over the bridge and reached the other side. So did the tender and the baggage coach. But the trestle collapsed sud- denly and completely beneath the mail coach and the tourist coach behind it and they, with the track beneath them plunged into the creek. Their weight, multiplied by their plunge, literally jerked the locomotive off the track and into the air and backward-like the tip of flashing whip.
 The locomotive came down on top of the baggage car, cutting it into two as though it were a knife. From the other end of the train two pull man cars were jerked into the tor rent by the couplings which held fast. Another pullman tottered on what remained of the trestle for perhaps five minutes while its pas sengers, marshalled by a heroic negro porter, scrambled out to safety, then 1t plunged. Five cars a dining car, the club and observa- ton car, two standard pullmans and a bedroom pullman remained on the track.
 Railroad Company officials said the trestle was in good repair. A track walker had gone over an hour before the train passed, they said, and found the structure sound