Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1890 — TERRIBLE DISASTER. [ARTICLE]

TERRIBLE DISASTER.

An Accident on the Old Colony Railroad Results in the Death of Seventeen Per* Voss. One of the most disastrous railroad accidents that ever occurred in the vicinity of Boston. Mass., and one that rivals the famous Wollaston disaster of October 5, 1878, occurred shortly after 1 o’clock Tuesday afternoon on the same road, the Old Colony, and very near the same locality. Seventeen persons were killed, twelve instantly, twenty-three seriously injured) three fatally, and several more sustained slight The train wrecked was the Wood’s Holl express, which left Wood’s Holl at 10:50 a. m.. ami was due in Boston at 1:10 p. m. It consisted of locomotive 122, manned by engineer Babcock and fireman John Ryan, a baggage car, a smoker, the Pullman car Puritan and four ordinary coaches heavily loaded. The train had passed Quincy station at 12:57 p.m., running about ten miles an hour, and just beyond President’s bridge, about an eighth of a mile toward Boston, the engine left the track, from a cause as yet undetermined, and plunged into an embankment twelve feet high, and was buried upon one side. The tender, baggage car, smoker and Pullman passed by the engine, and were stretched along for a distance of one hundred feet beside the track.

The foremost passenger coach, No. 288, left the rails, and its foremost tryck swerved to the north and plunged diagon* ally through the car floor. The car then fell upon its left side upon the engine. The lower forward portion was torn to pieces, and of tho passengers in the car, some fifty in number, many were thrown in the rear corner, from which eleven dead bodies were afterwards taken out. The escaping steam and smoke from the engine instantly filled the car, so that those within could see nothing, either within or without* The forward cars were forced over upon the outward bound track, completely blocking traffic, and up to 8:48 p. m. no train had passed the wreck in either direction, all being sent via tho Granite Branch* between Atlantic and Braintree, while shuttle trains plied between the scene of the wreck and Atlantic as fast as other trains arrived. Only three persons on the train ahead of car 236 were injured. These were the fireman, whe was instantly killed and buried under the engine; the engineer, who Jumped and was only slightly hurt, and the Pullman car conductor, B. F. Benson) who had the side of his face cut, and his right ear nearly cut off by being thrown out of a window of his car. The three rear passenger coaches did not leave the track, and the occupants received no worse injury than a slight shaking up. Gar 236 was the principal scene of death and agony, and the experiences of the unlucky occupant ß were probably never exceeded in horror and suffering in any railway wreck of recent years.

There are various theories as to the cause of the accident. For several feet back along the track there is a sort of a furrow, which seems to indicate that something about the engine broke and ploughed into the soil for some distance, finally des railing it. The general Impression, however seems to be that the engine waß thrown from the track by spreading rails) and it is stated that a gang of workmen had been repairing that poi'tiou of the track, and may have left some of the rails insufficiently spiked. There is no switch near by on that track, so that the disaster could not have been caused by a misplaced switch, as was first rumored. It is noticeable that the dead number more men than women, and that there will be about as many dead *as seriously injured. Twelve bodies were taken out, the last being recovered at 3:45; three have died since and five more may die, making twenty probable deaths as the results. There are about twenty-five on the list of injured, and some of whom are not seriously enough wounded to be at the hospital. Electric lights and gasoline lamps were erected at the scene as soon as it began to grow dark. The workmen rapidly threw the Bwitch-track L near the outward main track far enough out to allow a train to pass the wreck. At 10 p.m. this temporary track was completed, and after an hour outward trains were sent by the main line. A telegraph operator was sent to the scene bf the accident, and the traindispatcher in Boston was constantly in. formed of the condition of affair*., and his little round tent was bonspicuous on the bank, and, lighted by a flaring gasoline lamp, was a sort of center of operations, the wracking train standing beside it.