Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1884 — MIRACULOUS ESCAPE. [ARTICLE]

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

Thrilling End of a Fast Run on the , Virginia Midland Railroad. i Two Sleeping Cars Fall Through a Bridge Into Ten Feet of Water. [Lynchburg (Va.) Telegram.] A railroad disaster of a thrilling and remarkable character occurred on the Virginia Midland Railroad near this city. The Washington and New York sleeping-cars were precipitated from a bridge into the James Rivet, and yet not a single life was lost. The escape of forty or more persons from death was almost miraculous, and the scenes While their rescue was being effected from the submerged card were exciting beyond description. The train was the morning express, to which the through sleepers from New York and Washington had been attached, and both were well filled with passengers men, women, and children. All went well until reaching a point abont two miles north of Lynchburg, where there is a heavy down-grade. The engineer found that the speed of the train was rapidly increasing, though he had shut off steam and applied the air-brakes. To his surprise there was no perceptible diminution of the train’s motion, and it became apparent that, through some defect in the brakes, they were not operating. The speed of the train increased with each revolution of the wheels, and, during the run to the river, a distance of nearly two miles, the train swept along at the rate of more than a mile a minute. Some of the passengers were alarmed, but none were prepared for the thrilling episode which was so soon to follow. Upon reaching the bridge the engine, tender, and baggage-car kept the track, but the smoker swayed so that it struck the girders, throwing it from the track and causing the cars following to do the same. The trucks of the smoking-car tore the sleepers away for a distance of more than a hundred feet, and when the heavy sleepers reached the place the strength was insufficient for their support, and they went .crashing through into the river. The water into which the cars plunged was ten feet deep, and the terrified passengers were of course imprisoned like dogs in a pound. Their stifled screams for aid as the water rose around them were pitiable in the extreme, but there was apparently little room to hope for their rescue. Conductor William King was thrown from a platform and had two ribs broken, but realizing the peril of the passengers he went promptly and heroically to their aid. Procuring an ax he, with one or two other persons, swam to the submerged cars and smashed in the ventilators at the top of the care. By this time the water had reached that point, and the struggling passengers were clinging to upper berths and the bellrope to,keep from drowning. The screams of the women and children were heartrending. One by one the half-drowned passengers were dragged through the opening and helped ashore until all were got out safely. Among the many thrilling incidents was that experienced while rescuing the child of Mrs. J. S. Fardeo. The terrified woman while in an upper berth which was fast being flooded with water, pushed her 2-months-old baby through a window and held it there until it was rescued. The heroic woman was then saved herself. Old railroad men say this escape was one of the most remarkable that have ever been recorded in the history of railroad disasters.