The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 18, 1903

Great Western Engine Served as Sand Plow

Left the Track and Sunk Clear Up to the Hubs in the Right of Way

An accident that resulted very happily, considering how serious it might have been, happened about 5 o’clock this morning in the Chicago Great Western yards. The track repairers have been at work for some time past in theyeards, repairing the track, and have used mostly sand and cinders as ballast. This usually makes a firm bed for the rails, and the tracks in the yards were considered perfectly safe.

Train No. 162, a way freight train due here about 5 a.m., was just pulling into the yards, and was running slowly, when it struck a bad point in the track, and it ran along of its own momentum for about twenty yards. The sand which formed the roadbed was loose and the huge engine sunk nearly to the hubs of the great driver. The left side riding on the ties, was held up, but the right side sunk until it was feared that the whole machine would capsize. As it was, it careened so that but a slight movement was needed to throw it over entirely.

Engineer Keltz stuck to his post, expecting every moment to see the engine topple over. His fireman, Tennant, stood in the door on the opposite side, ready to jump, but fortunately neither had ocsacion (sic) to. No one was injured and the wrecking crew soon had the engine back on the rails again.

Tags: , , ,

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Railroad, Railroad accident. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.