Childs Station, PA Train Wreck, Feb 1913

TWO TRAINMEN ARE KILLED, ONE HURT, IN FREIGHT WRECK.

Lake Erie Trains Collide at Childs Station Today.

VICTIMS LIVED AT VANDERBILT.

Ernest Burton, Conductor, and Alva A. Snyder, Brakeman, Meet Death; Flagman Harry Snyder is at Hospital Here; Train Struck by “Drag.”

Two trainmen were killed and another seriously hurt in a rear end collision on the Pittsburg & Lake Erie railroad between Dickerson Run and Fuller at 10:45 Tuesday morning. An eastbound freight train was struck by a “drag” from Fayette City.

THE DEAD.
ERNEST BURTON, Liberty, conductor of freight train.
ALVA A. SNYDER, Vanderbilt, rear brakeman.

THE INJURED.
HENRY SYNDER, Vanderbilt, flagman, fractured skull, lacerated about the head.

Extra freight train drawn by engine No. 9327, which left New Castle at 7:15 last night in charge of Conductor BUTON and Engineer O. B. COONS, was traveling at a slow rate of speed near Childs Station when struck by the “drag” which was backing up the same track.

Trainmen declare the drag was going at a good rate when the crash came. The three men were in the caboose. Brakeman SNYDER'S body has not yet been recovered.

Both tracks were blocked and traffic held up. It is declared that nearly every one of the 20 cars in the freight train were piled up.

The Glassport wrecking crew was called to the scene. Flagman HARRY SNYDER was taken from the wreckage unconscious. He was revived and hurried to the Cottage State Hospital here. It is said that members of the “drag's” crew were badly shaken up and some of them painfully hurt.
Engineer COONS, ALBERT SMITH, his fireman, and Head Brakeman BURT McLAUGHLIN, the latter of Vanderbilt, escaped injury. All three were riding on the locomotive when the crash came.

The “drag” was made up of 15 cars. I came off the Fayette City branch at Whitsett. The “drag” was backing, and the engineer could not see the train ahead because his own cars were in the way.

The Weekly Courier Connellsville Pennsylvania 1913-02-13

--------

ENGINEER IS ARRESTED.

Charged With Criminal Negligence in Wreck.

UNIONTOWN, March 13 – CHARLES F. GRIFFIN, engineer on the Pittsburg, McKeesport & Youghiogheny railroad, was arrested by Constable CHARLES BETIS yesterday, charged with criminal negligence, and was held for court by Justice of the Peace DANIEL M. BLEROR. He was committed to jail in default of $5,000 bail.

It is alleged that February 11, GRIFFIN, while running a freight train, ran past three danger signals and crushed into the rear end of another freight train at Childs station. ALVA A SNYDER, a brakeman, and ERNEST C. BURTON, a conductor, were killed.

The Weekly Courier Connellsville Pennsylvania 1913-03-20
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!