[***SPAM***] N&W in 1903 -- Wreck of the Cannonball

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Gordon:
 
Thank you for all of your work on these past stories and history related
to them.  I thoroughly enjoy them and then some of the follow-up
questions and replies that the elicit.
 
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year.
 
George Weber
NC Transportation Museum

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Subject: [***SPAM***] N&W in 1903 -- Wreck of the Cannonball


My previous postings of railroad articles that appeared in the Bluefield
Daily Telegraph have been from a microfilm reel covering April 1, 1904
thru Dec. 7, 1904, that I have been reviewing for streetcar info on
Bluefield WV and VA  and Princeton WV.  I simply come across so many
interesting railroad articles that I want to share them with you.
 
The reel that I am now reviewing for the same purpose covers the BDT for
Mar. 26, 1903 thru Mar. 31, 1904.  So, please note that the railroad
events I am now reporting are from earlier dates.  This earlier reel has
poorer quality reproduction, and I have had to pass over some seemingly
interesting articles that were too illegible for me to transcribe, but I
hope you like the ones that I am able to present, such as the one below.
 
Gordon Hamilton
 
INVESTIGATION SHOWS CONDUCTOR LAID DOWN HIS LIFE TO PREVENT WRECK OF N.
& W. CANNONBALL
 
    After a thorough investigation of the accident by which Captain
Thomas J. Wood, of Manchester  lost his life, it has been learned that
he ran out to change a switch to prevent the N. & W. Cannon Ball [sic]
from crashing into a string of cars on the side track.  The switch was
changed just in time to prevent the wreck, and a second later the body
of Captain Wood lay dead and mangled near the rails.
    Statements concerning the death of Captain Wood have been
conflicting, and the facts attending his death were not known until
today.  He was not standing in the middle of the track, as was at first
reported, or he would have been ground to pieces.  He was on one side
when he was struck.
    The Cannon Ball, the fast train between Norfolk and Richmond, was
twenty minutes late.  Captain Wood evidently heard the train blow some
distance and looked to see if the tracks were clear.  To his horror he
saw the switch open and ran to change it.  In less time than it takes to
tell it, the fast train, running nearly a mile a minute, passed the
switch safely, knocking the unfortunate conductor to one side.  The
engineer of the Cannon Ball does not remember striking the conductor.
He did not know that any one had been killed until the train reached
Richmond.  The fast train makes no stops between Petersburg and
Richmond.  It is operated by the Norfolk and Western railroad, and is
known as one of the fastest trains in the country.  The trip from
Norfolk to Richmond [some 108 miles] is made in a little more than two
hours.
 
    
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
April 3, 1903
 
[The Cannonball operated over the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad between
Petersburg and Richmond, so the accident apparently occurred on the ACL,
and Captain Wood was likely an ACL employee.]
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