Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1888 — A Locomotive Explodes. [ARTICLE]

A Locomotive Explodes.

The boiler of a locomotive attached to a passenger train on the New York & New England Railroad,exploded at North Manchester, Conn., Wednesday morning, killing the engineer and fireman The train consisted of the locomotive, baggage-car, and three passenger care filled with eommutors bound for Hartford. Half a mile west of Manchester is a high railroad bridge over the Hockyum River. Aa the train approached the bridge,the engineer shutoff steam to slow up, when, without warning, the terrific. The locomotive was shattered and the tender thrown from the track. flcient to push the wrecked engine 200 feet. The front platform of the bazgagecar was demolished, but beyond that no serious damage was done to tl e train. With the explosion came a cioud of steam which enveloped the train. The passengers knew that they were near the bridge, and when the car left the rails they were panic-stricken, fearing that they were about to be plunged into the river. When the I rain came to a standstill they found the engineer near his locomotive, unconscious and badly scalded; the fireman a few rods back, dead, with a fractured skull. The engineer cannot survive.