Salamanca, NY Train Wreck Aug 1883

A VERY NARROW ESCAPE.
RAILWAY CARS SMASHED BUT NO PASSENGERS KILLED.
BRADFORD, Penn., Aug. 23.-- The brokers' express, consisting of an express, a baggage, and a smoking car and two coaches, losded with passengers, ran through a switch at Red House, a small station on the New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio Railroad, a few miles west of Salamanca, this morning. The accident was caused by gross carelessness, the switch having been left wide open. The train, according to a statement made by F. A. Grant, of Bradford, a passenger, was running at the rate of 60 miles an hur. The engineer when too late saw that the switch was open, but stuck to his post. Over the ties for a distance of nearly two rods the locomotive pounded, and in its wild career jumped, as it were, a long and deep cattle-guard. How the engine cleared the grard is a mystery. Had it gone through the loss of life would have been great, but, as it turned out, no lives were lost. It was certainly one of the most narrow escapes from an awful railroad wreck that has ever happened in this country. The tender, just before reaching the culvert, broke loose and turned a complete somersault in mid-air, crashing with terrible force into the express car, which was almost entirely demolished. The messenger, George Johnson, escaped with a slight scratch on the ankle. The baggage car was jerked out of its course, the wheels going one way and the car the other, the latter landing right side up on the turnpike, 100 feet from the track. The trucks were forced out from under the smoking car, the concussion splitting the car half-way down the centre.
The passengers jumped wildly through the windows, carrying sashes and all with them. One lady threw her child out of an open window, and than made a vain attempt to follow it. The car was landed in the roadway right side up. No one was badly hurt, but a scene of the wildest confusion followed. The trucks were also forced from under the two coaches, and the cars were tipped over. One lady was badly cut about the face by broken glass and all the passengers were shaken up. Several ladies fainted from excitement, and one passenger gave premature birth to a child. The village Postmaster was walking along the side of the track when the train went off. He made a jump for his life, and , landing on a barbed-wire fence, was severely cut. A train was sent to the scene of the wreck from Salamanca, and the passengers were taken to their destinations. Superintendent Dunbar, of the New-York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Road, who was on the train, said the wreck was one of the worst he ever saw. Under ordinary circumstances the list of dead and wounded would have been frightful.
The New York Times, New York, NY 24 Aug 1883

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