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Ulster & Delaware
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Wreck of the
Flyer | ||||||
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From the
Catskill Mountain News, September 8, 1911
ONE MAN KILLED, SEVERAL INJURED
IN Big Engines meet head-on
and wreck both trains.
R.R. MEN WILL NOT GIVE CAUSE OF
THE ACCIDENT Wreck made great excitement in vicinity of
Halcottville, The most serious wreck
that has ever occurred on the Ulster and Delaware took place 1.5
miles west of Halcottville last Thursday night when two monster
locomotives came together in a head on collision, which reduced the
big machines to junk, killed one man, injured several others, and
telescoped some of the passenger cars that the enginers were
drawing.
The collision was
between the Rip Van Winkle Flyer, the pride of the road that leaves
Arkville at 5:45 p. .m and a special pay train that had been over
the road on Thursday to pay the employees and was returning post
haste to Rondout. There was only one passenger coach on the pay
train which was drawn by engine No. 9. The Rip Van Winkle Flyer
consisted of three passenger coaches and a baggage car. It was drawn
by engine No. 39.
The officials will not
give any authoritive statement as to the cause of the wreck but the
general opinion among railroad men seems to be that the Rip Van
Winkle should have stopped at Halcottville and waited for the pay
train to take the switch. Experienced railroad men criticize the
Ulster and Delaware for tunning a special train on the time of their
fast passenger train and they say that according to all the rules of
railroading the special train should not have remained at Roxbury
and not have been given orders to proceed to Halcottville on the
time of the Flyer.
The trains met just
opposite the home of Chester Mead which is a few rods below a sharp
turn in the railroad track. Engineer Sherman of the Flyer saw the
approach of the special and threw his reverse and applied the brakes
and with his fireman, jumped. The engineer of the special did the
same thing. There were several eye witnesses to the wreck and they
say that the Flyer came almost to a standstill but the lighter
special train could not stop and there was a crash that was heard
for miles. The whistle valve of engine No. 39 was opened by the
collision and screamed, like a huge monster in distress, until the
big boiler full of 190 pounds of steam, was exhausted.
When the engines struck
they raised themselves 7 feet off the ground and then fell to the
rails again. It was fortunate for the engineers and fireman that
they jumped for both cabs were wrecked. The smokestacks of the
engines were about 8 inches apart and the steam chests touched
eachother. Many heavy braces and castings had been broken off like
pipe stems and the monster machines seemed welded together like one.
The baggage car behind engine 39 was telecoped for about 10
feet.
Louis J. Simmons of 61
Elmdorf street, Kingston, unmarried, and a trainman on the pay car,
was killed when the tender of the pay train locomotive telescoped
the pay coach and Henry Sherman of Oneonta, engineer on train 35,
had his right lef and foot badly smashed, Walter Harrington of
Oneonta, trainman on 35, sustained numerous minor injuries, none of
which are serious. There were less than a dozen passengers on the
flyer and aside from being badly shaken up and receiving numerous
slight bruises none were injured. Simmons, the trainman who was
killed, had opened the front door of the pay master's coach to step
out on to the platform when the tender telescoped the car and he was
almost instantly killed. None of the cars left the track either,
neither did the locomotives. Conductor Arthur Stratton was in charge
of the pay train. Claude Lasher was the engineer. Paymaster Fowler
and assistant Paymaster Gunner were riding in this coach, but aside
from a few slight bruises were not injured. Train 35 was in charge
of Conductor J. A. Halsted of Oneonta and Engineer Henry Sherman.
The Oneonta-Arkville local was flagged west of the wreck and the
passengers from train 35 were transferred and the local ran west to
Oneonta as number 35. Engineer Sherman was taken on this train to
his home in Oneonta. The body of Simmons was taken to
Kingston.
News of the accident
quickly spread about the countryside and by eight o'clock the
highway near the scene of the wreck was filled with a long line of
wagons and automobiles and hundreds of people were present to view
the wreck.
Wrecking trains arrived
at about 9 o'clock and the work of clearing the track was begun but
was not finished until after daylight Friday morning. The tender of
engine 39 was tipped over the bank and the rest of the wreck was
carefully towed back to the switch at Halcottville and Sunday night
was taken to Rondout.
A second after the Flyer
passed the depot Halcottville the operator there was notified that
both trains were on the raod headed for each other between him and
Roxbury. It is said that he figured that they would come together on
the crossing, a few rods above the scene of the accident. He could
do nothing but wait for the crash and later report
it.
All photos from the
collection of P.M.
Goldstein. From The Ulster and Delaware . . . Railroad
Through the Catskills by Gerald M. Best, p.
140. "The only serious
passenger train accident during Samuel D. Coykendall's regime
happened on August 31, 1911, a mile west of Halcottville about 6:30
P.M. The Rip Van Winkle Flyer, with Henry Sherman at the throttle of
engine
No. 39, collided head-on with engine
No.
9, which was hauling the pay-car.
Edward Griffin, the agent at Halcottville, said he signalled the
Flyer to stop, but engineer Sherman said that since Halcottville was
not a station stop for his train, he was not looking at the station.
When the engineers saw that a collision was inevitable they yelled
to their firemen and all four men jumped. Engineer Sherman fell next
to his engine just at the moment of impact and was badly scalded,
trainman Lewis J. Simmons on the Flyer was killed, trainman
Harrington was seriously injured, and trainman Edward Van Etten and
paymaster Edward D. Fowler in the pay-car were injured. Though the
passengers were badly shaken, none of them required medical
treatment. Engine No.9 , the 4-4-0 which hauled the first train into
Oneonta in 1900, was so badly damaged that it was scrapped, but the
Flyer's engine was repaired and placed back into service. Engineer
Henry Sherman of the Flyer was held responsible for the accident by
the Interstate Commerce Commission, because he had failed to observe
the train order for a meet with the pay-car at Halcottville. In
justice to Sherman, the "flimsy" or train order copy handed to him
at Arkville had been accidentally folded under the carbon paper and
the part regarding the meet at Halcottville was written on the
printed head of the form and was almost illegible. Sherman spent the
rest of his working years as foreman of machinists at the roundhouse
in Rondout."
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