Train wrecks all too familiar on Burlington-Northern

The recent double-fatality railroad accident was a reminder that worse train wrecks have taken place in our county.  In 1920 there occurred a crash that took four lives, and the following article appeared in November of that year.  Warning:  newspapers of the era were a bit less sensitive than those of today.  If you are disturbed by phrases such as “mashed head” and “scalded to death” you may want to skip this and go directly to the gardening section.  

Two engineers and a fireman and an unidentified man about 22 years old were killed at the railroad yards in Stanton Monday morning about 4:30 o’clock when Burlington passenger train No. 10 ran into the rear of  end of extra freight No. 2955 standing on the south track ready to go into the siding, and passenger train No. 1 on the north track ran into a car of wheat which was thrown in front of it when the freight train buckled as it was hit by No. 10.

The dead are Chas. Conklin, engineer on No. 1; Elmer Anderson, fireman on No. 1; C.E. Tindall, engineer on No. 10; and an unidentified man who was beating his way on the front end of No. 1.  

J.E. Tracy, fireman on No. 10, jumped from the south side of the engine as it hit the rear end of the freight and he escaped with scratches and bruises.  No one else was seriously injured.  

According to the account of Tracy and other railroad employees, the signal boards at Stanton were out against No. 10 to prevent that train running past the station, and a red signal was out at the rear end of the freight train.  Tracey stated that engineer Tindall whistled in answer to the signals as he was pulling into the station and then yelled to Tracy to jump.  Tindall jumped from the north side of his engine, falling in front of the freight car just as it was hit by No. 1.  The front and top of his head were mashed, killing him instantly, his right leg was almost cut off below the knee and his left ankle was broken.

Engineer Conklin and Fireman Anderson were both found under their engine.  Anderson’s body was recovered first, buried under the wreckage, but Conklin’s body was not found until about four hours later.  He was still holding the throttle of his engine with one hand and the reverse lever with the other when he was taken out from under the engine where he was scalded to death by the steam. 

The unidentified man was found several feet north of the track where he had been thrown when the car he was riding on was knocked from the rails.  The back of his head was completely crushed.  

The engine on No. 1 was turned over on the north side of the track and  demolished.  The engine tender was thrown to the opposite side of the track, and the three baggage cars at the head of the train were thrown to the north.  The first baggage car was telescoped and the second and third badly broken up.  The fourth baggage car took fire and was completely burned, as was the fifth car.  One of the first three baggage cars also caught fire but was extinguished by buckets of water carried from a nearby house.
 

And so on for two more columns, describing burned and damaged cars on the three trains involved.  Among the passengers was Miss Lulu Black on No. 1, the train in which the engineer, the fireman, and the hobo were killed.  A young lady from Villisca who was teaching school in Lewis, her custom was to board No. 1 at 4 a.m. for the ride to Red Oak, where she changed trains and went north through Elliott and Griswold on her way to Lewis.  The collision threw her into the back of the seat ahead, the car next to her burned, and the overall experience left her badly shaken.  She caught another train, however, and continued on.  Although arriving late, Miss Black taught that day.  

Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com