N&W in 1904 -- Jumped Track

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PONY TRUCKS OF THE ENGINE JUMPED TRACK
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A Small Boy Came Near Wrecking Passenger Train No. 4.
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    Willie Cleburn, an 8-year-old boy, came near wrecking passenger train No. 4 Saturday at Wills, a station twenty-one miles east of this city.  The pony trucks of the engine were derailed and the train narrowly escaped being wrecked.  A piece of iron was placed on the track and caused the trouble.  Detective Baldwin sent one of his men to the scene Sunday, and it did not take him long to ascertain the name of the culprit, and when questioned, the little fellow said that he put the iron on the track "to see what the train would do to it."  The boy was too young to be arrested, and, in the presence of the detective, his parents gave him such a sound flogging that it is safe to say that he will place no more irons on the track.  It will be remembered that the recent wreck at Dunlow was caused in a similar manner by a little girl, and one at Oakvale, about two weeks ago was caused by a small boy.  These little miscreants have cost the Norfolk and Western thousands of dollars, and there should be some method devised to stop it.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
October 12, 1904

[Detective Baldwin would have been from the well-known Baldwin - Felts Detective Agency based in Bluefield and involved in the 1920 Matewan (WV) Massacre at the N&W station in which seven detectives and three townspeople were killed.  Dunlow (WV) was about half-way along the old Twelve-Pole line between Naugatuck and Kenova.  Oakvale is east of Bluefield and just west of Wills.]

Gordon Hamilton
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