New Braunfels, TX Head On Train Collision Kills Four, Dec 1947

RAIL WRECKAGE YIELDS BODIES OF 4 CREWMEN.

New Braunfels, Tex., Dec. 11 (UP) -- The bodies of four crewmen were recovered Thursday from the smoking wreckage of two Missouri-Kansas-Texas passenger trains which collided head on in a straight section of trackage.
Railroad officials identified the dead as:
GEORGE W. STEINTHORPE, a car-man, San Antonio.
JACK B. COLEMAN, fireman, Waco, Tex.
R. O. CALLOWAY, engineer, Smithville, Tex.
WILL MANEY, porter, San Antonio.
5 Crewmen Hospitalized.
Five members of the train crews were hospitalized. One J. B. BAYLES of Arlington, Tex., was in critical condition. He was crushed in a baggage car.
CALLOWAY was engineer of the southbound "Katy Limited." FLOYD JENKINS of San Antonio, among the five injured, was at the controls of the northbound "Katy Flyer."
Both Traveling 60 M.P.H.
The trains collided at 11:43 p.m. Wednesday about 10 miles south of here. Each was traveling about 60 miles an hour, the authorized speed on that section of track.
The accident occurred in a long, flat valley. There was about a mile of straight track on either side of the spot where the trains piled up in a farm pasture.
Fire broke out in the forward cars. Flames, however, did not reach the passenger coaches and Pullmans, end cars of both trains. Both locomotives and tenders overturned.
3 Required First Aid.
Only three of the 43 persons on the southbound limited required first aid. Minor scratches and bruises appeared to be the worst injury suffered by passengers.
Employes of the railroad declined to speculate on the cause of the wreck but at the scene it was pointed out that the "limited" was more than an hour behind schedule.
The new Braunfola National Guard company guarded tons of mail and express shipments which escaped the flames.
The Katy line in this section is single track. There are no block signals. Trains operate in orders from way stations.

Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake City Utah 1947-12-12
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!