Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1908 — MONON ENGINEER MEETS WITH SUDDEN DEATH [ARTICLE]

MONON ENGINEER MEETS WITH SUDDEN DEATH

Crown Sheet Blows Out of His Engine And He Jumps to His Death Monday Night.

Joseph Pultz, of Lafayette, a Moson engineer, was killed Monday night, while running on train Ne,,3. due here at 11:04 o'clock. The train was near Roselawn when the crown sheet of the engine blew out and it seems probable that t]ie force of the explosion blew the engineer out of the cab. Passengers on the train were aroused by a slight concussion and it was noticed that the windows of the coaches were at once clouded with steam. E. V. Ransford and wife were on the train and they thought that the train had crossed over a burning bridge. The train ran probably a mile and a quarter before it came to a stop, and then the trainmen and passengers found out what the trouble was. The fireman to get away from the escaping steam had climbed around to the side of the cab and was one of the first to begin an investigation and a search for the engineer. It was found that the crown head had blown off and that it had gone

with such force as to embed Itself in the front end of the fender. It ! had blown out with a downward motion carrying away a part of the ! fire box and the burning coal. The trainmen, including the fireman, who was quite badly scalded about the legfe, walked back to Shelby, where they procured a switch engine, and they found the dead body of the engineer lying in the ditch along the track and about 30 feet from the track. They took the body and placed it in one of the coaches and after setting off the disabled engine at Roselawn, the train proceeded on its way to Lafayette, bat it did not reach Rensselaer until about 4 o’clock in the morning. Mr. Ransford says the train was running at the rate of about 60 miles an hour when the accident happened. , The engineer was a man about 45 years of age and leaves a wife and three children at Lafayette. The escape of the fireman was somewhat miraculous.