The New Market Train Wreck occurred when two Southern Railway passenger trains traveled at high speeds colliding near New Market, Tennessee on Saturday, September 24, 1904, killing at least 56 passengers and crew and injuring 106.
Video New Market train wreck
Cars
The train is the 15th local passenger train to the west (pulled 4-4-0 # 1838) from Bristol to Knoxville with three cars carrying 140 passengers, and No. 12 to the east of 'Carolina Special' (drawn by 4-6 -0 # 1051) from Chattanooga to Salisbury, North Carolina. The line is a single track and the normal procedure for allowing the train to be skipped is for local trains to stop on the side lane on Hodges' Switch but when the engineer stops at Morristown he is given a special order to stop siding in New Market only. Both the conductor and the engineer signed that they had read the command but then the conductor told the reporter that he had misread it. After stopping at New Market, the train should stop after a few hundred meters to the side lane but it is not.
Meanwhile, 'Carolina Special' has reached Strawberry Plains; it consists of nine cars: two letter cars, three wooden passenger trainers and four Pullman steel cars, many of its 210 passengers returned from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. When leaving the station, a telegraph arrives from Pasar Baru; from the frightened depot staff read "Number 15 has run the switch and is on the main line!", but it was too late, despite waving his arms and throwing stones at him, no one on the ship noticed that the train was accelerating. There is one last chance to alert the train; telegraph sent to Hodges' Switch, where passing normally; but no one was on duty and the message was never received.
Maps New Market train wreck
Collision
Trains meet at New Market Hill at 10:18 am; which specially managed to collect speed on upgrades and traveling at a speed of 60 mph; local on downgrade try to make lost time and reach 70 mph; when they see each other the emergency brake is applied but the train collides at a combined speed of over 100 mph (although contemporary sources say 70 mph) and the crash could be heard 15 miles away. Both engineers were killed. Locomotives and coal tenders from local trains are thrown into the air, upside down, they fly over Special machines, tenders and luggage, landing right on top of a wooden passenger car which is also beaten from behind by weights. sturdy Pullman steel cars, which remain relatively undamaged. In seven seconds, the wood coaches 'crumbled like egg shells'. Death is very fast, with many victims being beheaded or mastered horribly; 'Wood, iron, and steel flakes are stacked in a chaotic mass on the tracks, mixed with the human body'. When news of the accident reached Knoxville, a relief train was organized to take doctors and medical supplies to the scene and bring the wounded to Knoxville General Hospital. Reporters also managed to get on the train and many scenic photographs were made (see here) Estimated number of deaths varied from 56 (with 106 injuries) to 113 people dead.
The investigation can not determine why engineers and firefighters are in No. 15 did not stop at the side lane in Pasar Baru because both were killed by a collision; Engineers may have fallen asleep.
References
External links
- History of New Market Train Ruins
- Disaster Relief in 1904 New Market, Tennessee Sled: A Surgeon's Role
- Hodges, New Car Train Car Wreck, Sept 1904
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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