Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1882 — RAILWAY DISASTER. [ARTICLE]

RAILWAY DISASTER.

Terrible Accident on the Hudson Hirer Railroad. New York, Jan. 14. The two rear cars of the Atlantic express, iiom the west, on the New York Central and Hudson rivtr railroad, were crushed and jammed together by the Tarrytown local train, near Spuyten Duyvil creek, tost night The wrecked cars were set on fire, and nine persons are known to have perished to the flames. It is believed that at least three others must have been burned. State Senator Webster Wagner is supposed to have been crushed between two of his own drawing-room cars, and to have perished with the other victims. The Atlantic express left Albany at 3:20 p. m. nearly three-quarters of an hour behind time. The train was a heavy one, comprising thirteen cars. Next to the locomotive were two mail cars and a baggage car. Behind them were three ordinary passenger cars. Five Wagner drawing-room cars completed the train. Tney were the Red Jacket, Sharon, Vanderbilt, Minnehaha and Empire. The Empire was the rear car. At Greenbush, on the opposite side of the river from Albany, the Wagner drawingroom car Idlewild, from Troy, was coupled to the engine and became the last car of the train. The train was in charge of Conductor George Hanford, an old employe on theroad. The conductor of the drawing-room cars was Mr. Taylor. Two stops were made—one at Hudson and the other at Poughkeepsie. From this last point the train began to make up some of the lost time, A speed of at least forty miles an hour was maintained until the Spuyten Duyvil Creek Station was reached. Here the engineer slowed down, and the train suddenly came to a stop about midway between that station and the Kingsbridge Station. Something, it was said by the train attendants, was the matter with the air brake. For some reason it failed to work. It was then a few minutes past 7 o’clock. The delay must have continued between five and ten minutes. Suddenly one shrill blast from a locomotive was heard, when the sound of grinding wheels from the rear grated harshly on the ear. The next instant there was a 'shock which shivered the Idlewild to splinters, drove its heavy frame like a telescope into the Empire, and completely wrecked that car in an instant. Two minutes later the Idlewild was on fire from the stove in the forward end, which had been thrown over by the shock. The flames leaped upon the splintered Empire, and that, too, was filled with fire and smoke almost before the occupants could escape. At least a dozen persons who were in the Idlewild were cut off from escape, caught by the jagged timbers, and there held to be slowly roasted alive. In the Empire were the following persons, all of whom managed to save themselves, though a number who were in the rear end had miraculous escapes from the swift’ advancing flames : State Senators John C. Jacobs ana John W. Browning, Assemblyman Alfred C. Chapin, Dr. J. W. Monk, of Brooklyn; J. Hampden Robb, Lucas L. Vanamen, James J. Costello, John McManus and Edward C. Sheehy, of New York—the three last Tammany men; Commissioner of Police Sidney Nicholas, Mr. Edward Kearney, Maurice J. Holahan, Commissioner of Emigration Ulrich, Mr. Edward Cahill, Charles Swan, Messrs. Joseph Doyle and Augustus Abel, two ladies, A. W. Lyman, correspondent of the New York Sun, and the Times' Albany correspondent. The three Tammany Assemblymen had just left a compartment at the rear of the Empire, where they had been making merry, and v(ere going toward the front of the car when the crush came, which splintered tne very compartment they had just abandoned. Senator )vpbster Wagner bad just passed them on hifr Way to the Idlewild. He was not ten feet fronFthe newspaper correspondent, and must have just stepped upon the rear platform of the Empire when th'e'ldTSWflnnror forward and telescoped the Empire. The first indication that the Empire’s passengers had of. danger was the single whistle of the locomotive of the local tram, the Tarrytown express. The shock hurled them from their seats, and they were flung along the car floor. The swivel chairs, wrenched from their fastenings, were thrown after them and lay piled on top of the struggling occupants. A shower of glass came down from over head, and the roof of the Empire was crushed in upon them by the weight of the Idlewild’s roof, which seemed to have been lilted bodily, and shot forward upon that of the Empire. To add to the confusion the lights began to glimmer and the darkness to deepen. Nearly all the occupants found their way out through windows whose sashes had been shattered by the shock. The ladies were buried in a heap of debris, and were extracted without having received any severe bruises. Assemblyman Monk was pinned between timbers close to the roof. The roof was pried off, and he was with great difficulty released. He was completely prostrated by the shock to his nervous system, and had to be assisted to the Minnehaha. The correspondents had, perhaps, as narrow an escape as anybody. They were in the rear of the car, at the side of the car which was inside of the curve which the track makes at this point. A gentleman who sat opposite them, and was consequently on the outside of the curve, was buried beneath the debris and was only released from his perilous position by the efforts of his two neighbors across the aisle. The fire was creeping slowly toward him and the smoke Was stifling, when he was pulled out and pushed through the window. Whether there were more passengers in one of the rear compartments of the Empire cannot be determined. As the last newspaper man climbed through the window he heard the screams of two women and the shouts of a man proceeding from the extreme rear of the Empire. Whether they were among that car’s passengers, or whether they were in the forward end of the Idlewild, which was launched far into the Empire, is not known. With the exception of Assemblyman Monk, the occupants of the Empire before mentioned all escaped with slight cuts or bruises. The noise of the collision was heard half a mile away, and the glare of the burning cars illuminated the country far around. A crowd of the residents of King Bridge and Spuyten Duyvil soon gathered. Axes were brought, and heroic endeavors to chop a hole in the side of the Idlewild were made. Nearly all of the Idlewild’s passengers were caught in the timbers, and were unable to move hand or foot. Their shrieks were appalling. The flames were gaining headway, and there was neither hose, nor pails, nor water at hand to quench them. Water there was enough in the creek, not 200 feet distant from the doomed cars, but in the absence of vessels of some description it could not be obtained. _ Finally some of the neighbors, whose dwell', ings fronted on the railroad track, fflrnished a few wooden pails. Valuable time had been lost, aud the flames were now beyond control. The villagers continued to throw water through the windows nearest those spots where a human voice could be heard, until the heat drove them far beyond a point where the primitive fire-ap-.paratus could be utilized. A new ganger wks'me an while threatening the thousand persona in the vicinity. The locomotive of the Tarrytown express was imbedded in the wreck of the Idlewild, its headlight a dozen feet within the car, a heavy head of steam was on, a red-hot fire was blazing in the fire-box, and there were grave doubts expressed by the engineer and fireman about the boiler resisting the tremendous pressure brought to bear upon it Water to quench the fire was called for. Then great shovelfuls of snow were piled into the furnace. The water-carriers ceased for a brief space to empty their pails upon the burning cars, and dashed their contents into the furnace. The dying persons in the ruins had to be abandoned to grapple with this danger, which promised death to so many of the living. The furnace fires were finally quenched, and attention was once more turned to the two burning cars, whose more solid timbers had by this time been eaten away by the fierce flames.. Ten minutes had elapsed since the accident. The last sound from the intombed passengers had died away. Nothing was heard but the crackle of the fire and the Shouts of the villagers, half mad -with excitement at the thought of human beings dying before their eyes, and they unable to afford them succor. Suddenly the idea of throwing snow on the burning cars was suggested by somebody to the throng. Hundreds of hands began to roll up big balls. They were passed over the fence to those who, braving the heat, ran alongside the fiery piles snd tossed them through the windows to be licked up by the flames. Ladders were procured and efforts made to punch holes through the qar panels. Never did men work with more desperate energy than did these Spuyten Duyy.il and Kingsbridge villagers. The dead bodies were reached one after another as the fire died my.

The first wm that of a portly woman, perhaps about 60 yean of age. The next two bodies were those of a groom and bride who were on their wedding trip. The husband wm Park Valentine, a young man of 22, who wm in business with his father to the manufacturing of knit goods to Bennington, Vt. The maiden name of his young wife was Louise Gaylord., They were mamed in North Adams, Mass., Thursday night, and were on their way to New York. The burned and mutilated bodies were found very near together, and it is supposed that they met death simultaneously. Both were evidently killed by the first shock of the collision. Six more bodies were found, but so charred and burned that there was nothing about them positively to find their identity.