Toledo, OH train wreck, Nov 1891

TWO INSTANTLY KILLED.

A DISASTROUS WRECK ON THE LAKE SHORE RAILROAD.

TOLEDO, Ohio, Nov. 28. - The Lake Shore was the scene of a serious run-in accident this evening on the Boston and Chicago special going East, which left Chicago at 10:30 A. M. On the edge of the city the road runs under the Miami and Erie Canal, through the tunnel some seventy-five feet long. Some 200 yards east of the tunnel is a target. The Lake Shore train passed through the tunnel, but not getting the signal at the target to come ahead, put on the brakes and backed up. The south-bound express on the Flint and Pere Marquette Road, which goes over the Lake Shore tracks to Union Station, came through the tunnel immediately after the Lake Shore train and plunged into the rear coach.

The Lake Shore train was vestibuled, but an ordinary coach for the accommodation of way passengers was attached at the rear, and it was this which suffered. The Flint and Pere Marquette engine plowed its way through the car until the pilot was more than midway of the coach. The seats and floor were torn up, and the passengers, bruised and maimed, were badly scalded by the escaping steam from the broken pipes. The crash is described by those who heard it as terrific, and was followed by screams of agony from the wounded.

The time of arrival of the Flint and Pere Marquette train is 4:53, that of the Lake Shore train 4:55 - thus giving but two minutes between them. The former train seems to have been a couple minutes behind time. The engineer of the former train says that just as he was coming to the tunnel, running fast, he saw the rear lights of the Lake Shore train and believed it to be in the tunnel. Knowing a collision inevitable, he shut off steam and both he and his fireman jumped, escaping with a few bruises, they knowing that a collision in the tunnel would give them no chance for life.

The list of casualties reported at this hour is as follows:

KILLED.

Mrs. SUSAN McCOY, Rawson, Ill.
HER INFANT, eighteen-months-old.

INJURED.

Mrs. McCOY'S SON, aged eight, badly scalded and dying.
Miss ELLEN MYERS, 387 Prospect Street, Cleveland, badly injured; will probably die.
Mrs. MELSON, Toledo, badly scalded.
S. L. WALKER, Goshen, Ind., injured, but left on next train for home.
C. J. ANDERSON, Riverside, Ill., bruised and scalded.
D. TAYLOR, Hyde Park, Mass., not fatally.
JOSEPH LUDWIG, Peoria, Ill.; injured in abdomen.
WARREN L. POTTER; scalded.
H. VAUGHAN, Auburn, N. Y., en route for Cambridge, Mass.; bruised and scalded.
THOMAS McQUEEN, Elkhart, Ind.; badly hurt, probably fatally.
JOHN CONWAY; bruised.
Miss DOLLIE FISHER, Toledo; severely scalded on arm.
Mrs. GALLOWAY, Toledo; severely bruised.

The New York Times, New York, NY 29 Nov 1891
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!