1908 - An Interesting Story

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Roanoke Times - February 26, 1908

AN INTERESTING STORY

Railroad Incidents that Might Have Been Accidents

   Mr. T. G. Figgatt of the comptroller's office of the Norfolk & 
Western has interestingly written of certain  "railroad incidents 
that might have been accidents.". He says:
   When the average layman, as distinguished from the railroad man, 
reads an account of an accident to a train on some road these days, 
pictured in the most florid language at the command of the reporter, 
and set off with glaring headlines in the newspaper, he laughs in 
derision at the explanation of the trainmen as to the cause of the 
wreck, and remains firmly convinced that gross negligence or 
carelessness were alone responsible.
   But the practical railroad man, knowing, as he does, the numerous 
and varied little things that can and do happen to trains while in 
transit, little things that the most careful watchfulness, and 
untiring vigilance can not entirely guard against, it is always a 
marvel that a train arrives at the end of the route in safety, and it 
is a lucky superintendent that can lay down many nights in 
succession, after his arduous day's work is done, congratulating 
himself that there has been no trouble on his division that day at any rate.
   Every road, every day, has minor troubles with trains, troubles 
that may cause only a few minutes, or a few hours, delay to the train 
involved, and, are not serious enough to find their way into the 
newspapers, but which, under different conditions, might have led to 
appalling disaster to rolling stock and loss of life to trainmen.
   To illustrate, not the following incidents that occurred on the 
Radford division of the Norfolk & Western railway, a short while ago 
within an interval of less than twenty-four hours, either one of 
which might have occasioned a loss of thousands of dollars to the 
company in wrecked rolling stock, and probable loss of life as well, 
and yet were of no moment, and simply looked as every day happenings, 
a little out of the ordinary perhaps, but still nothing to worry over.
   One evening, last summer, just after dusk, a section foreman 
reported to the tower operator four miles west of Christiansburg, 
which in on the summit of the Alleghany mountains, that he had just 
picked up a large piece of wheel flange on the track, seemingly 
freshly broken off.
   The operator immediately advised the chief dispatcher, who, 
calling Christiansburg, was able to catch and hold three trains that 
would have in a few moments started on their journey down the mountain.
   A search of the broken wheel located it under a fifty ton coal 
car, fifteen cars back from the engine of the front train; a fifty 
car train of loaded fifty ton coal hoppers. The car was cut out and 
the train proceeded safely on its way down the mountain, a journey 
which it could not possibly have negotiated in safety had the damaged 
wheel remained under the card, for the grade on this mountain is very 
heavy, and these coal trains sometimes reach a very high rate of 
speed as they come out on the level track through the valley at the 
foot of the mountain.
   This is a case where vigilance and quick action saved a train from 
a fearful disaster.
   On the morning following this incident, a track walker discovered 
that a car had jumped the rails at a switch near Singer, a flag 
station at the foot of the east slope of the Alleghanies, and, riding 
the ties, had sheared off the bolts in the fish plates and the heads 
of the spikes as clean as if done with a chisel.
   He hurried on down the line for some distance, and seeing no end 
to the trail of broken bolts and headless spikes, returned to Singer 
with all speed to notify the operator there of the trouble. The chief 
dispatcher was soon made aware of the condition of the track and 
warned all trains interested to keep off.
   The walker then followed the marks of the car on the ties all the 
way to Glenvar, the next flag stop east of Singer, four and a half 
miles distant, where it appeared that the car had mounted the rails 
again, and proceeded on its way rejoicing.
   As stated above this section of the N. & W. is located at the foot 
of the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, where the trains move at a 
tremendous rate of speed, not having lost the momentum acquired from 
the fall down the mountain, and why this car did not wreck the whole 
train is just one of the marvels that are of daily occurrence in railroading.
   Another wonderful thing about this incident; the most diligent 
search in the Roanoke yard failed to locate the car that had done the 
mischief; and to this day the car and the train in which the car was 
running are unknown, to the trainmen.
   On this afternoon of the same day that this car had cavorted over 
the line at its own sweet will, another car on the same division, but 
a different section, became possessed of the imp of mischief, and 
proceeded to perform a stunt exactly similar to the one noted in the 
papers recently as occurring on the Southern railway between 
Charlotte and Columbia, the two stunts being possibly unique in the 
annals of railroading.
   Just after the first section of No. 80, consisting of forty cars 
of miscellaneous merchandise had passed Pearisburg, a station on New 
River, coming east, the front trucks of a refrigerator car loaded 
with an assortment of Swift's packing house products and located 
about midway of the train, jumped the track and and landing on the 
ties jolted loose from the car ahead and then from the car behind, 
and rolling over and over, went down an embankment fifty feet high 
and landing bottom upward lay partly submerged in the river. The 
parting of the train had, of course, applied the air brakes to the 
rear portion which came to a stand still immediately.
   The conductor, coming out of his caboose to investigate the sudden 
stop, saw what the trouble was at a glance, found the coupling of his 
head car all right, waved back the engineer who had come to a stop 
which his portion of the train a little way down the line, the 
brakemen coupled up, and they were off again on their run east with a 
loss of less than ten minutes time and a car of provisions that was 
left for the wrecking crew to salvage and the claim agent to settle for.
   Do you wonder why you hear trainmen spoken of as brave above the 
ordinary, when you realize by how narrow a margin they are able to 
preserve their lives from day to day?

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link