Virginian in 1910--Passenger train wreck

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
May 17, 1910

PASSENGER TRAIN ON VIRGINIAN WRECKED
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Three Cars Left Track, Smoker Falling on Its Side, But No One Was Injured
    Passenger train No. 13, on the Virginian Railway, was wrecked yesterday by a spread rail between Glen Lyn and Oakvale, opposite the Kelley Axe Handle Factory.  The train consisted of the engine, combination smoker and baggage car, day coach and club car.  All of the cars and the tender left the track, the smoker falling on its side in the cut where the derailment occurred.  If it had not been for the cut it is likely that the car would have broken loose and fallen over the bank.  No one was injured, but passengers arriving in this city last night said all were badly frightened.
    The train left Roanoke at 7:45 yesterday morning and the wreck occurred at 10:45.  The afternoon train which reached the scene of the wreck about 4 o'clock transferred passengers, taking them to Princeton and the west, while another train carried passengers east.  A telephone message to the superintendent's office at Princeton elicited the information that the cause was under investigation, but an unofficial report stated that a spread rail was the cause.  Passengers on the Norfolk and Western afternoon trains had a good chance to see the wreck and the workmen replacing ties and rails.  This is the first passenger wreck of any importance which the new road has had.
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[Has this wreck been chronicled in any publication about the Virginian?]

Gordon Hamilton
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