Coal Train Ran Away Sunday Morning, This Side of Clermont.
One Man Killed, 23 Cars Wrecked.
A Shawmut Line coal train, consisting of mountain type engine, No. 53, 34 cars of coal, a car of lumber, a car of tile and a caboose ran away down the hill from Clermont, at 4 o’clock Sunday morning, and a few minutes later the engine tender jumped the track in a cut, three miles above Smethport, wrecking 23 cars and the tender of the engine, killing the fireman, Ernest Brown of St. Marys and injuring Engineer Krouse and brakeman Clinton Hall.
The train started down the Clermont hill where the grade is 70 feet to the mile at a 15 mile an hour clip, which steadily increased until the train was running 90 miles an hour, beyond control. The heavy snowfall of the previous night had made the rails a glare of ice, and whether the air refused to work or what the trouble really was, is not known at this time. The rule is to control the first 15 cars with air and the rest of the train with hand brakes.
Down the mountain, around the loop where the fill is 100 feet high, dashed the train, the crew every moment expecting the engine to leave the rails. The splendid construction of the track was fully shown by this incident. When the old track was reached below Kasson and the speed of the train had slacked to 50 miles an hour, fireman Brown went back to set some hand brakes.
The tender suddenly left the track and was followed by 23 of the cars. They were piled up and literally ground to pieces. The body of the fireman was taken from under the wreck on Sunday evening. The engine did not leave the track.
Conductor McMarrow was uninjured. The track was clear on Monday. The loss to the railroad company will exceed $25,000. The coal cars cost $800 each. The engine was a practically new Baldwin and cost $12,000. The damage to the engine is not heavy but the tender is smashed.
Source: Bolivar Breeze. Bolivar, NY. April 21, 1904. Provided by Richard Palmer