Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1880 — A FEARFUL RAILROAD ACCIDENT. [ARTICLE]

A FEARFUL RAILROAD ACCIDENT.

Appalltaur AeeUsat Hoar BwAee. •eeOaaA-A* Eatirs Tral* «r Can OeataliUac Nearly 100 Famaagera HarloA Tkroagk a Brakea BrMge IMatke Pricker Tay—NvCOaa or Ute Faaaeacer* or Baaplayea oT the Trala Sarvtvea the Biaaater. Losdok, December Bl A portion of the bridge across the Frith of Tay was blown down while a train from Edinburgh to Dundee was crossing at fourteen minutes past seven o’clock last night. A dispatch says that the train was bound for Dundee, and had arrived safe at the south end erf the bridge crossing the Frith erf Tay, shortly after seven o’ clock. The bridge was intact at the time, for signals were given to allow her to cross. The wires were interrupted a few minutes thereafter, and no further communication could be obtained. The gale was so strong that the steamboats were unable to reach the scene of the disaster, but several mail-bags have been washed ashore, four miles from the bridge, and there is no doubt that the train is in the water. Large quantities of wreckage and clothing and six London mail-bags for Dundee and Aberdeen drifted ashore, and by nine o'clock all the beach was strewn with the remains of broken carriages and pieces of bridge work. A dispatch from Edinburgh, dated at four this morning, says: “The portion of the bridge which fell consisted of several large superincumbent girders at the central and navigable portion of the river, which averages from forty to forty-five feet in depth. The train would fall about eighty-eight feet before reaching the water. Some time elapsed before the nature of the disaster was ascertained. The damage to the wires on the bridge and the badness of the weather interfered with the transmission of news, and it is unknown whether the girders were blown down before the train entered the bridge or were carried away with it, and it will probably never be ascertained, as there are no survivors. The bridge was only open for traffic in May, 1878. It was considered a triumph of engineering skill. It was about two miles loflg and had eighty-five spans, the widest of which was 245 feet. At the highest point it was 130 feet above high water.”

The train left Edinburgh at 4:15 in the afternoon. It consisted of four third-class, one first-class and one second class, and the brakeman’s van. At the last station before entering the bridge the tickets were taken and the train was then crowded. Vast quantities of wreckage, such as doors and roofs of carriages, pieces of the bridge and articles of wearing apparel are coming ashore. The entire thirteen girders of the long central spans of the bridge are gone. The night was one of bright moonlight, but the wind was blowing a hurricane. The Provost of Dundee and a party of citizens who accompanied him in a steamer to the scene of the disaster have returned. Search was made about the bridge in small boats, but no trace of any survivors could be found. The gap in the bridge is about half a mile long, comprising eleven of the longest spans, each 245 feet in length, and one span 145 feet in length. A later dispatch from Dundee asserts that the number of lives lost does not exceed ninety. The bodies of six victims have been recovered.