Amsterdam, NY Train Wreck

April 8, 1918

ONE KILLED, 61 INJURED, AS EMPIRE STATE EXPRESS RUNS INTO FREIGHT WRECK ON CENTRAL RAILROAD.

Engineer and Two Firemen Victims of Crash Near Amsterdam – New York Express Plunges Into Pile, but Passengers Escape.

Schenectady, April 8. -- One dead and sixty-one injured, was the toll of a wreck involving three trains, which occurred in Amsterdam shortly after noon today.

JOHN R. BOTT of No. 14 South Grove avenue, Albany, engineer of the Empire State Express, one of the trains, was blown out of his cab when the boiler of the huge locomotive exploded as a result of the wreck and his body was found 600 feet distant from the wreck.

WILLIAM BARRINGER, the Empire State Express fireman, who was also blown out of the cab, is in St. Mary's Hospital, Amsterdam, hovering between life and death.

EDWARD DAVIS of No. 1130 Midland avenue, Syracuse, engineer of train No. 16, an eastbound passenger train, is also in the hospital with a fractured skull, and little hope is held out for his recovery.

Sixty-one persons were treated at the Amsterdam City Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital, for injuries received. Most of them were lacerations, fractures and bruises, but among this number there are several who will be permanently injured.

The wreck, which was declared by railroad employees to be one of the worst in the history of the New York Central, occurred between Henrietta and Ann streets in the City of Amsterdam, opposite the Bowler Brewery, and about a mile west of the business center of the city.

A mass of distorted iron and steel, mixed with splintered freight cars, whose contents were strewn along the tracks, and the charred remains of several of the cars which caught fire, mark the scene of the wreck.

The Empire State Express was bowling along at a rate of between fifty-five and sixty miles an hour. A freight train eastbound on track four was progressing when suddenly one of the trucks of a freight car broke and the train buckled, throwing two of the freight cars across the rails of track two, directly in the path of the Empire State, which crashed into the freight.

In an instant twisted debris covered the rails and almost at the same instant the huge boiler of the Empire State exploded, hurling the cab, with Engineer BOTTS and the fireman, BARRINGER, a distance of more than 600 feet from the scene of the wreck.

At this moment train No. 16, eastbound from Syracuse was approaching. Two employees of a nearby knitting mill, seeing the freight cars buckle, endeavored to run across the track and flag the Empire State but were unable to reach the track in time. One of the men ____ JOHNSON, was hurled several yards by the shock of the explosion and was taken to his home suffering from shock and bruises.

EDWARD DAVIS, the engineer of train No. 16, which was traveling east, saw the collision between the Empire State and the buckled freight train and endeavored to bring his train to a stop but without success.

The eastbound passenger train crashed into the wreck, throwing the engine off the track, wrecking it completely.

DAVIS was thrown from his cab and buried beneath the debris, but was quickly extricated and rushed to the hospital, where it was found he had sustained a fracture of the skull.

When the city officials reached the scene they assisted in removing the injured, who were hurried to the two hospitals. Many of them, however, were but slightly injured and after having their injuries dressed were able to proceed on their journey.

Large steel billets weighing more than a ton each which were loaded on one of the freight cars were hurled through space and completely penetrated the sides of cars which they struck.

Windows within two block of the wreck were broken by the force of the concussion when the boiler exploded and the report was heard at Hageman four miles away.

Assemblyman Albert A Copeley, of Lowville was a passenger on the eastbound train. He escaped injury.

Lowville New York Journal and Republican 1918-04-11

Submitted & transcribed by Stu Beitler  Thank you, Stu!

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