Flomaton, AL Train Accident, Feb 1900

BOTH ENGINES TURNED OVER.

BAD WRECK ON THE LOUISVILLE AND NASHVILLE.

OCCURRED NEAR FLOMATON.

DOUBLE-HEADER TRAIN OF PASSENGERS AT FULL SPEED.

RUNS INTO AN OPEN SWITCH.

BOTH ENGINES THROWN FROM EMBANKMENT -- FIREMAN KILLED -- TWO ENGINEERS AND A FIREMAN INJURED -- PASSENGERS SHAKEN-UP.

Flomaton, Ala., February 25. -- (Special) -- Train No. 2, northbound, on the Louisville and Nashville
railroad, was wrecked half a mile north of this place at 4:05 o'clock this morning, killing one negro fireman and iinjuring both engineers and another fireman.
The train, which was a double-header on account of heavy mardi gras traffic, had been somewhat late, and was running at a high rate of speed in order to regain her schedule time. When half a mile north of here she ran into a switch which had been set for the Pensacola branch to allow a freight train to pass to that division, and which had not been reset for the main line. Between the time of the departure of the freight train for Pensacola and the arrival of No. 2 at Flomaton, train No. 3, southbound, had passed south, forcing its way through the wrongly set switch, bending the points of the switch so that they made contact with neither rail.
When the forward engine of No. 2 struck the switch the wheels went between these open points and almost immediately were on the ground. Engineer COPELAND immediately applied the airbrakes, but before the train could be suddenly checked, both engines had plowed through the gravel for a distance of 190 yards and turned over, the forward falling to the right, the rear one toward the left. The momentum of the train forced the mail car in on top of the engines, wrecking its forward end and derailing it and the forward baggage car.
The killed:
SOL ABNER, colored fireman, caught while trying to jump and crushed between tender and cab.
Injured:
Engineer JOHN GOINGS, scalded below the knees and injured in back and internally.
Fireman BRAGG ANDERSON, badly scalded from the shoulders to shoe tops. Will die.
Engineer HENRY COPELAND, engineer on foremost engine, very slightly scratched on wrist and ankle.
Engineer COPELAND was thrown from his seat by the sudden lurch of the engine and his seatbox smashed to splinters, while that of the dead fireman was left uninjured. Had the latter kept to his seat instead of trying to jump, no one would have been killed.
Traffic was tied up for eight and one-half hours.

Atlanta Constitution Georgia 1900-02-26
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!