Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1893 — WAS ABIDE TO DEATH [ARTICLE]

WAS ABIDE TO DEATH

FIFTEEN PERSONS KILLED ON THE BOSTON & ALBANY R. R. Chester, Mass., the Scene of a Frightful Accident—Thirty Persons Injured, Some Fatally—Western Express, East Bound, Crashes Through a Bridge. Many Are Mangled. The Chicago limited express train for Boston broke through a frail iron bridge on the Boston and Albany Railroad one and one-half mile 3 east oif Chester, Mass., and four Wagner cars were crushed, killing at least fifteen persons, fatally injuring several others, while at least a score are badly hurt. The wreck is the worst ever known on the road. The bridge was being strengthened for the big locomotives,, and the workmen who were putting on the plates were at dinner when the crash came. The lccjmotivo passed over the structure, but was smashed, the water-tank being thrown a long distance. The buffet, two sleepers and a dining car were smashed to kindling when they struck the stream twenty feet below, but two day coaches and a smoker in the rear did not leave the track. There are a few houses in the vicinity and a man driving by gave the alarm through the village street. In a few minutes hundreds were on the scene. The shrieks of the imprisoned were terrible, and scores of people looked on completely unnerved. The village people soon recovered from the shock; and were hard at work. The hospital was a group of apple trees in an ad*joining orchard, where scores were taken. Ox teams arrived with loads of straw, cushions, bedding, and food. The wounded were soon removed to houses and all that remained on tho apple-strewn grounds were thirteen bodies covered with red blankets from an adjoining stable. The dead were many of them horribly mutilated—i heads crushed in, limbs torn, and ten were only recognizable by the clothing worn. The train was seven minutes late atj Chester and the railroad hands say it was going at the rate of twenty milog an hour when it struck the first of the two spans across the Westfield The locomotive seemed to leap across the bridge as the trusses collapsed and fell over to the south. The theory, is that the blow of the locomotive as it struck the bridge from-the curve sent it off its foundations into the river. A wrecking train was sent to the scene from Springfield at once with medical aid, and every attention was shown the passengers. The bridge had been built fifteen years, and was a two-span lattice 221 feet long. The train was one of tho fastest expresses on the road, stopping only at Pittsfield from Albany to Springfield. It carries the largest engine and best cars of any train running west of Springfield.'