Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1897 — PERISH IN A WRECK. [ARTICLE]

PERISH IN A WRECK.

Twenty-five mangled andBURNED IN COLORADO. Awful Head-End Collision Occurs. Between Passenger and Freight Trains Some Victims Caught in Debris and Roasted to Death. Collided on a Curve. The most disastrous railway wreck that has ever happened in Colorado occurred Friday morning a mile and a half west of Newcastle. A Denver and RioGrande passenger train, west bound, collided with a Colorado Midland stock train going east, wrecking both enginesand several cars in both trains. Shortly after the collision fire broke oat in the ruins. The mail, baggage and express cars, smoker, day coach and sleeper were burned. A number of passengers whowere not killed outright but who were pinned in the wreckage and could not be extricated perished in the flames. There were about 200 passengers. It is estimated that twenty-five persons were killed and as many more bruised, scalded and burned, of whom at least six are likely to die of their injuries. The accident occurred at the worst possible point; Two minutes later the engineers could have avoided the wreck, as each could have seen the approach of the other’s train. The trains collided on a curve or bend round a mountain, and there was no opportunity to avoid thewreck or even to slacken speed. The surviving trainmen say the trains were not running fast, but the fact seems to be that both the passenger and freight were going at full speed—about twenty miles an hour for the passenger and the freight ten or twelve. The Rio Grande Junction Road, on which the wreck occurred, is a joint track operated by the Denver'and Rio Grande and Colorado Midland companies. It is a single standard gauge track seventyseven miles long, running from Newcastleto Grand Junction, connecting the two roads with the Rio Grande Western. Theroad is on the west bank of the Grand River and nearly all the way are nigh bluffs on one side of the track and thestream on the other, it being from fifteen to twenty feet below the track. Reported Cause of the Accident. One report as to the cause of the accident is to the effect that Conductor Burbank of the Colorado Midland stock train made a mistake of ten minutes in figuring on the time when the Rio Grande passenger train passed Newcastle, and that therefore he was chiefly responsible for the disaster. Engineer Ostrander of the stock train could either confirm or deny this report if he were alive, The passengers in the day coach fared the worst. Out of twenty-nine people ia that coach only six are now known to have escaped. As in all similar accidents, the engine men were first to lose their lives. Engineer Ostrander went down with his hands on the lever. Robert Holland, fireman on the passenger, was so badly hurt that he died. Engineer Gordon of the passenger may live, although he is badly injured and at first was thought to be fatally hurt. He was thrown over a barb-wire fence by the force of the collision. Hines, _the_Midland fireman, was so badly hurt that the doctors who examined him said he could not recover. He was shockingly burned. James Keenan, the postal clerk, will not live. He was terribly scalded. Two express messengers on the Rio Grande train saved their lives, but their escape was a thrilling one. The express car of the wrecked passenger train was enturely consumed, with its contents.