Historic Pelham

Presenting the rich history of Pelham, NY in Westchester County: current historical research, descriptions of how to research Pelham history online and genealogy discussions of Pelham families.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Two Boston Globe Accounts of What Happened in the Mail Car During the Great Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885


On December 27, 1885, the mail express train out of Boston known as the late night "Owl Train" and the "Boston Express" reached Pelhamville during a major windstorm. The train was running late and was trying to make up some time by speeding along the downgrade that passed through Pelhamville.  The train was traveling between thirty five and forty miles an hour.  Just as the train sailed past the Pelhamville Station, the gale lifted the station's massive wooden passenger platform into the air and flipped it upside down onto the tracks. 

Engineer Riley Ellsworth Phillips saw swirling dust ahead, but did not see the platform on the tracks.  Accounts differ as to whether he cut the steam, and braked.  One account indicated he ran up on the obstruction too fast and never had time.  If he did apply the brakes before hitting the overturned platform, it did not help. The locomotive engine smashed into the obstruction, left the rails, and tumbled end-over-end down the 60-foot embankment, dragging the fire tender and a large mail car with it. Though the passenger cars left the rails and bounced along throwing the passengers inside about the cabins, no passenger car tumbled down the massive embankment.  The mail car, locomotive, and fire tender came to a crashing halt only a few hundred feet from the little wooden trestle that carried the train tracks over the Hutchinson River.  

Engineer Phillips and his fireman, recently-married Eugene Blake, were thrown out of the cab of the locomotive as it flipped end-over-end down the embankment. Phillips was bruised, but lived. Fireman Blake, however, was crushed during the incident. He was found at the foot of the embankment and was carried into the nearby Pelhamville train station. Some accounts say Fireman Blake was laid on a "cot" of some sort in the Pelhamville station. Others say he was laid on the floor. 

Most accounts agree, however, that once carried into the Pelhamville station, the mortally-injured Eugene Blake suffered tremendously for an agonizing forty minutes. During most of that time, he was administered to by an angel -- a woman who stepped out from among uninjured train passengers to offer help. The woman was Emma Cecilia Thursby, a famous American celebrity and singer who traveled the nation giving concerts.  Fireman Eugene Blake died of his injuries.  A number of others were injured including, as one might expect, most of the mail clerks who were in the mail car as it tumbled down the slope.

There are hundreds and hundreds of accounts of the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.  There is one known photograph of the aftermath (see below) and a number of engraved images that appeared in an article about the wreck that appeared in Scientific American (see below).  

 Two accounts of the wreck that appeared in The Boston Globe shortly afterward are particularly significant because they piece together what happened in the mail car during and shortly after the wreck.  Those accounts are transcribed below, followed by citations and links to their sources.

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 "THE GLOBE EXTRA! 
3 O'CLOCK.
IN AN INSTANT, Enveloped in a Cloud of Dust, The Locomotive Takes the Fearful Plunge, Graphic Description by Engineer Phillips of the Disaster at Pelhamville.  Terrible Experience of the Men in the Mail Car.  Helpless, They Listen to Turner's Agonizing Appeals.  How Help Came When Hope Had Almost Fled.
-----
NEW YORK, December 28. -- Ira Phillips, the engineer of the Boston express which was wrecked at Pelhamville last night, gives the following account of the disaster:  'When I struck the crossing just north of the depot a cloud of dust rose up.  I had been keeping a sharp watch, as we were then a little behind time, and I was making it up on the down grade.  We were running about thirty-five or forty miles an hour.  Before I had time to put on the brakes, or, in fact, do anything, we came on the overturned platform.  The next I knew I was at the bottom of the ditch, where the water-boy found me.  After he had helped me, I sent him back to see if any one was signalling the Adams express train that I knew ought to be ten or fifteen miles behind us.  When the boy returned, we hunted for poor Blake.

 The crash came in an instant, and there was nothing I could do to check the speed of the train.  It is a miracle we are not all killed.  On a straight track I could see a long distance ahead, and if there had been anything in the way I would have noticed it.  I am quite sure the platform must have been torn up by the same gust of wind that enveloped the track in dust less than 100 feet ahead of me.'

 When the locomotive struck at the bottom of the ravine Phillips was thrown violently against the fire-box, the door of which was open.  He was stunned for a few moments, and when the water-boy found him the boot of his left leg was burned off, his heel burned and his overalls on fire.

 'We had all our mail sacked and pouched,' said Chief Clerk F. S. MCausland, who was in charge of the mail car.  'Without any warning, we went tumbling down the embankment, and dust and dirt filled the car almost to suffocation, and, to make it worse, the lights were put out.  Oil from one of the lamps trickled down my back, and I thought it was water and supposed we had gone into Hutchinson's creek at the end of the filling, about 1000 feet from the depot where the accident happened.  It was very cold in the car, and the door of the safety -valve was opened.  My first thought was that perhaps coals might be shaken out among the sacks.  I called to some one to close the slide; but J. H. McCoy, one of my six assistants, with great presence of mind, had already done this.  Then I called each of them by name to learn if they were safe.  They answered me, and Turner, who was jammed between a table and the side of the car, said:

 'For God's sake, help me.'

 'The car had turned over on its side, the iron rods were twisted all out of shape, the sacks and pouches torn from the stanchions, and the heavy tables all heaped in the middle of the car.  Peter Conaty of Worcester and Charles Mitchell, the only New York boy, were buried under this, and were nearly smothered.  There was a glass window in the top side of the car, and McCoy smashed this, crawled out, and hastened for hep.  I told the men to save themselves, for I had no idea where we had landed, nor what might follow.  They did the best they could, but Turner cried piteously for help.

 'I can't hold out much longer.  For God's sake hurry,' he called.

 'Help came and I tried to encourage him by the light of a lantern, E. E. Clark of Haddam, Conn., C. P. Turner of Malden, Mass., W. F. Hart of Charlestown, Mass., Conaty, Mitchell and myself were helped out.  Clark, Turner and Hart were the ones most injured, although McCoy's ankle was twisted."

 Source:  THE GLOBE EXTRA! 3 O'CLOCK.  IN AN INSTANT, Enveloped in a Cloud of Dust, The Locomotive Takes the Fearful Plunge, Graphic Description by Engineer Phillips of the Disaster at Pelhamville.  Terrible Experience of the Men in the Mail Car.  Helpless, They Listen to Turner's Agonizing Appeals.  How Help Came When Hope Had Almost Fled, The Boston Globe, Dec. 28, 1885, Vol. XXVIII, No. 181, p. 4, col. 3 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

 "BURIED UNDER THE SACKS.
-----
Mail Clerk Conaty's Graphic Story
-----
Of His Experience When the Awful Crash Awoke Him at Pelhamville.
-----
Turner Pinned to the Floor by the Mail Bags.
-----

 WORCESTER, December 28. -- Peter F. Conaty, a mail clerk on the 'Owl,' which was derailed at Pelhamville Sunday morning, arrived home today.  He was seen at the residence of his brother, Rev. T. J. Conaty, and gave an account of the occurrence.  With six other clerks he was locked in the mail car, and all having finished their work, made beds of the mail sacks upon which they laid down.  Conaty and Mitchell were at the end of the car near the engine and Turner was lying on a table with McCoy, who got up at Stamford and threw off the mail.  Fortunately he did not return to the table or he would have been crushed also with Turner.  They were rushing, of course, at a high rate of speed and were startled by a crash and jarring of the car as if glasses were being broken.  The uproar seemed to increase until suddenly the car seemed to snap and jump the track.  In an instant it was tossed down the embankment, going lengthwise, so that all the mail matter crowded to the upper end of the car where Conaty and Mitchell were lying and entirely covered them.  The men at the other end were of course knocked about but escaped the accumulating baggage except Turner, who was caught under the table upon which he was lying and pinned to the floor.

 Young Conaty tried to extricate himself from the burden, while his imprisoned companions were groaning and crying for air as they were nearly all suffocated.  He was fortunately near a window, and grasping with both hands the iron bars he pulled himself from beneath the mail bags and immediately drove his fist through the window.  In extricating himself the full weight of the mail matter fell upon Mitchell, whom, after a struggle, he succeeded also in getting out, and both then crawled through the window.  They then clambered up the hill to get at the other end of the car, where they heard their companions struggling and crying for fresh air.  They took a stone to break in the door, but just then McCoy, another mail agent, who had also climbed out of the car window, opened the door with a key he had.  All the other clerks were then easily assisted out except Turner, who was severely hurt and bleeding, and it required the efforts of two men to bring him to the open air.  He was bleeding badly, and after being carried to another car was cared for by a young lady passenger.  The clerks released themselves from the mail car by their own exertions, and it did not require the use of axes to break open their prison box.  They were not confined in all more than thirty minutes.  Mr. Conaty is injured much more seriously than at first supposed, and tonight was scarcely able to move on account of injuries to his leg and his spine.  He is under medical care, and will not be able to attend to his duties for several weeks."

 Source:  BURIED UNDER THE SACKS -- Mail Clerk Conaty's Graphic Story Of His Experience When the Awful Crash Awoke Him at Pelhamville -- Turner Pinned to the Floor by the Mail Bags, The Boston Globe, Dec. 29, 1885, Vol. XXVIII, No. 182, p. 4, col. 6 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

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I have written before about the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885 that resulted in the death of Fireman Eugene Blake and injuries to several others including a number of the mail clerks and the train engineer, Riley Phillips. See:






Mon., Sep. 24, 2007:  The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885





Bell, Blake A., The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885: "One of the Most Novel in the Records of Railroad Disasters, 80(1) The Westchester Historian, pp. 36-43 (2004).

*          *          *          *          *

Only known photograph showing the aftermath of the
"Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.” The January 16, 1886
issue of Scientific American included an artist’s depiction
of the same scene in connection with an article about the
wreck describing it as "A Remarkable Railroad Accident"
that occurred on the New Haven Line in Pelhamville
(now part of the Village of Pelham) at about 6:00 a.m.
on December 27, 1885. See A Remarkable Railroad Accident,
Scientific American, Jan. 16, 1886, Vol. LIV, No. 3, pp. 31-32.
The engine and tender lie in the foreground with the mail
car behind. NOTE: Click Image To Enlarge.





Front Cover and Images of the January 16, 1886 Issue
of Scientific American that Featured a Cover Story About
the Pelhamville Train Wreck Entitled "A Remarkable Railroad
Accident." NOTE: Click on Images to Enlarge.

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posted by Blake A. Bell @ 4:44 AM 0 comments

Friday, August 25, 2017

Pelham Remembered in 1922 the Remarkable Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885


On December 27, 1885, the mail express train out of Boston known as the late night "Owl Train" reached Pelhamville during a major windstorm. Just as the train sailed past the Pelhamville Station, the gale lifted the station's massive wooden passenger platform into the air and flipped it onto the tracks. 

 Engineer Riley Ellsworth Phillips saw the obstruction ahead, cut the steam, and braked. It did not help. The locomotive engine smashed into the overturned platform, left the rails, and tumbled end-over-end down the 60-foot embankment, dragging the fire tender and a large mail car with it. Though the passenger cars left the rails and bounced along throwing the passengers inside about the cabins, no passenger car tumbled down the massive embankment. 

 Engineer Phillips and his fireman, recently-married Eugene Blake, were thrown out of the cab as it flipped end-over-end down the embankment. Phillips was bruised, but lived. Fireman Blake, however, was crushed during the incident. He was found at the foot of the embankment and was carried into the nearby Pelhamville train station. Some accounts say Fireman Blake was laid on a "cot" of some sort in the Pelhamville station. Others say he was laid on the floor. 

 Most accounts agree, however, that once carried into the Pelhamville station, the mortally-injured Eugene Blake suffered tremendously for an agonizing forty minutes. During most of that time, he was administered to by an angel -- a woman who stepped out from among uninjured train passengers to offer help. The woman was Emma Cecilia Thursby, a famous American celebrity and singer who traveled the nation giving concerts.

 Periodically over the years, local newspapers have carried accounts of the Pelhamville Train Wreck.  One that seems to be one of the earliest such accounts appeared in the December 15, 1922 issue of The Pelham Sun.  In addition to describing the wreck based on a famous account of it that appeared in the January 16, 1886 issue of Scientific American, the article contained a host of interesting information.

 It described Pelhamville and its homes, structures, farms, and wooded hillsides as they existed at the time of the wreck.  It noted that old-timers still remembered the accident, including old-timer John T. Logan who had kept a copy of the January 16, 1886 Scientific American with engravings of the wreck and surrounding area.  Logan provided his copy of the Scientific American to The Pelham Sun in 1922 for use of the images and description of the wreck in the story.  

 Additionally, the story noted that when the Pelhamville Train Station eventually was torn down (after a fire damaged it rather badly, though the story does not mention that fact) timbers used in the structure and in the massive wooden passenger platform that stood adjacent to the tracks were used to build a nearby garage located on First Street.  The article states:

"Interesting, too, is the fact that many of the timbers which were contained in the old station house and platform were used in the construction of the building on First Street, which is now used as a garage by Terence Mackel."

 The text of the 1922 article appears immediately below.  It is followed by a citation and link to its source.

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 "Railroad Wreck Featured Christmas In The Pelhams Thirty-Seven Years Ago
-----
Remarkable Happening Caused Derailment of Train at Fifth Avenue Station of New Haven R. R.

 THE PELHAMS have been remarkably free from disasters of any consequence, seemingly being favored by the Goddess of Fortune in this respect.  Last summer when the whirlwind and thunderstorm cut a wide swath through this section of Westchester County leaving death and destruction in its wake, and strewing the shores of the Sound with the wreckage of hundreds of pleasure boats which were victims of its unexpected onslaught, the Pelhams escaped practically scatheless.

Thirty-seven years ago -- December 26, 1885 [sic; Dec. 27]-- Pelham (then known as Pelhamville), was the scene of a remarkable railroad accident when part of the Boston Flyer en route for New York, left the rails and plunged down the embankment at the Pelhamville station of the New Haven Railroad.  The train left Boston Christmas night at 10:30 and had a full complement of passengers.  It consisted of engine and tender, mail coach, and five passenger cars, the mail coach being next to the engine.

 'Christmas, of 1885, was a raw, blustery winter day, and as night approached the wind increased in velocity until it blew a gale, and at 6 o'clock on the morning of the 26th it was still whirling the snow around in huge flurries.

 In those days, the main line station of the New Haven was west of its present site, being located on the other side of Fifth Avenue, extending from where is now the Burke Stone, Inc. real estate office down to the taxi barn of Terence Mackel, on First Street.  At that time Fifth Avenue was a mudhole of a road, which wound its way along the wooded hillside on which now is located the fine residential district of Pelhamwood.  It was little more than a wagon track which led from the surrounding farms to the little wayside railroad station of Pelhamville, with a plank sidewalk from Fourth Street to the depot.

 The depot itself was built of brick with a tower to give grace to the structure, and the platform outside the the waiting room was of solid oak planks spiked down to heavy uprights driven into the ground.  Fifth Avenue of those days crossed the track at grade and it was not until six years afterward that the track was tunneled under and the bridge built so that traffic could go on undisturbed and trains would not have to slow down at the crossing.  The track was raised too, to make the grade of the tunnel [sic] less.

 As the train approached at top speed, a terrific gust of wind got underneath the platform, tore it from its fastenings and turned it completely over on to the tracks directly in the path of the oncoming train.  The engineer saw the danger and applied the brakes, but too lat to save crashing into the timbers.  It ploughed [sic] through the obstruction with a terrific tearing sound, smashing it to kindling wood.  Then the engine, tender and mail car left the track and plunged down the embankment, but the rest of the train containing a large number of passengers fortunately remained on top, although entirely derailed, with the exception of the forward truck of the baggage car at the rear.  The fireman was killed, the engineer and three of the seven mail clerks were seriously injured, while a number of the passengers sustained a severe shaking up.

 There was little aid to be gotten nearer than New Rochelle, for the Pelhamville of thad day consisted of four houses on what is now Fifth Avenue and a few scattered farms in the vicinity.  The nearest house to the depot was the building now owned by Earl Shanks and housing his druggist business.  That can be seen in one of the accompanying illustrations.  Up Fifth Ave. within 50 feet of Peter Ceders' real estate once stood a house owned by John Case, and on the other side of the street where Caffrey's gasoline station is now was the home of Mr. Straly.  One other building, the store of Jacob Heisser at Fourth Street [today's Lincoln Avenue] and Fifth Avenue, now occupied by the Progressive Grocery Company, completed 'Main Street, Pelhamville.'

 The news of the train wreck caused a number of people to come from New Rochelle and Mount Vernon to visit the scene.  A large body of workmen were sent to Pelhamville by the railroad company, and for several days they worked constructing a track up the bank.  The engine, tender and mail car were righted, placed on the auxiliary track and pulled up to the place on the main line.  The work occupied over a week.

 The train wreck is well remembered by some of the older inhabitants of Pelham, and particularly by John T. Logan of Second Avenue.  Mr. Logan carefully preserved the account of the accident and the accompanying pictures which appeared in the Scientific American of January 16, 1886, and to him The Pelham Sun is indebted for loan of the pictures and the story of the wreck.

 Interesting, too, is the fact that many of the timbers which were contained in the old station house and platform were used in the construction of the building on First Street, which is now used as a garage by Terence Mackel.

How great a change has been wrought in this locality since that time can be imagined from the statements of Mr. Logan.  Pelhamwood and Pelham Heights were then wooded hillside.  The Boston and Westchester Railroad had not been built, paved streets were unknown, as were street lights.  The inhabitants of Pelhamville found their way at night by the aid of lanterns, and these used to be taken to the country store of Jacob Heisser at Fourth Street and Fifth Avenue to be filled and trimmed."

 Source:  Railroad Wreck Featured Christmas In The Pelhams Thirty-Seven Years Ago -- Remarkable Happening Caused Derailment of Train at Fifth Avenue Station of New Haven R. R., The Pelham Sun, Dec. 15, 1922, Vol. 13, No. 42, p. 7, cols. 1-3.

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I have written before about the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885 that resulted in the death of Fireman Eugene Blake and injuries to several others including the train engineer, Riley Phillips. See:






Mon., Sep. 24, 2007:  The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885





Bell, Blake A., The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885: "One of the Most Novel in the Records of Railroad Disasters, 80(1) The Westchester Historian, pp. 36-43 (2004).

 *          *          *          *          *

Only known photograph showing the aftermath of the
"Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.” The January 16, 1886
issue of Scientific American included an artist’s depiction
of the same scene in connection with an article about the
wreck describing it as "A Remarkable Railroad Accident"
that occurred on the New Haven Line in Pelhamville
(now part of the Village of Pelham) at about 6:00 a.m.
on December 27, 1885. See A Remarkable Railroad Accident,
Scientific American, Jan. 16, 1886, Vol. LIV, No. 3, pp. 31-32.
The engine and tender lie in the foreground with the mail
car behind. NOTE: Click Image To Enlarge.





Front Cover and Images of the January 16, 1886 Issue
of Scientific American that Featured a Cover Story About
the Pelhamville Train Wreck Entitled "A Remarkable Railroad

Accident." NOTE: Click on Images to Enlarge.

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posted by Blake A. Bell @ 4:50 AM 0 comments

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Three More Pelham Train Wrecks


Pelham has been the scene of many train wrecks in the last 170 years since the first railroad tracks were laid through the town.  The most infamous such wreck, of course, was the Pelhamville Train Wreck on December 27, 1885.  (I have written extensively about that train wreck.  See the following article with links to additional articles about the incident, a full bibliography, and images of the aftermath:  Fri., Dec. 30, 2016:  Pelham Recalled the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885 Upon Death of Riley Ellsworth Phillips in 1927.)  There have been a host of other train wrecks as well, many of which I have written about before as well.  See, e.g.:

 Bell, Blake A., Train Wrecks Near Depot Square in Pelham Manor, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 44, Nov. 5, 2004, p. 13, col. 1.

 Wed., Sep. 21, 2016:  Truck Smashed by Express Train Landed on Pelham Station Platform in 1925.  

 Fri., Feb. 26, 2016:  108 Years Ago Today: Freight Train Wreck on the Branch Line Between Pelham Manor and Bartow Station.

 Fri., Apr. 25, 2014:  Freight Train Wreck at Pelham Manor Station in 1896.

Detail from Front Cover of the January 16, 1886 Issue of
Scientific American that Featured a Cover Story About the
Pelhamville Train Wreck Entitled "A Remarkable Railroad
Accident." NOTE: Click on Images to Enlarge.

 Today's Historic Pelham article details three additional Pelham train wrecks.  The first was a major freight train wreck on the Branch Line near Pelham Manor Depot on June 25, 1899.  The second was a derailment of cars on a New Haven Main Line passenger train on March 10, 1905.  The third was a freight train wreck on the Branch Line near Pelham Manor Depot four days later on March 14, 1905.

 June 25, 1899 Freight Train Wreck

 At about 1:00 p.m. on June 25, 1899, a westbound freight train with sixty cars carrying merchandise, beef, and vehicles was traveling about thirty-five miles an hour between the Pelham Manor and Bartow stations on the Branch Line when a drawbar (a heavy bar helping to connect the railroad cars) either broke or was removed by a vagabond seen climbing aboard the train earlier.  As the front half of the train slowed near the base of a steep grade, the runaway rear half of the train smashed into it.  About twenty cars derailed and scattered their contents along the tracks.  

 The conductor was about to leave the caboose when the wreck occurred.  He was thrown about, knocked down, and "severely bruised."  The brakeman, William Cooney, was badly hurt.  He was in one of the cars that derailed.  He was caught in the wreckage.  His leg was crushed and he was cut badly about the face.

 After the accident, the vagabond was seen crawling from the wreck unhurt, though his coat and hat were missing.  Although a wrecking train was dispatched to the site immediately, it was several hours before the tracks could be cleared and traffic along the Branch Line could be resumed.

 March 10, 1905 Passenger Train Derailment

 At 7:35 a.m. on March 10, 1905, a passenger train traveling through Pelham reached an area where the Main New Haven Line rails had spread.  As the wheels of the train passed over the defective section of the track, five cars were derailed.  

 No one was hurt in the accident but, according to a brief newspaper account "six women on the train fainted."  Luckily, someone had the presence of mind to get down the tracks and flag down the express train that was bearing down on the scene from behind and flagged it to a stop in time to prevent a major collision with the derailed cars.

 June 14, 1905 Freight Train Pile Up

 On the afternoon of March 14, 1905, a westbound freight train passing the Pelham Manor Depot snapped an axle.  Four cars of the train derailed and piled up along the tracks in a terrible wreck.  

 Though there is no record of injuries, a brief reference to the accident indicates that the Branch Line tracks were blocked for two hours as a result of the wreck.

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 "FREIGHT STREWN ALONG TRACKS.
-----
SMASH ON THE NEW-YORK, NEW-HAVEN AND HARTFORD ROAD NEAR BARTOW CAUSES MUCH DAMAGE.

 A westbound freight train, consisting of sixty cars of merchandise, beef and vehicles, was badly wrecked about 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon on the Harlem River branch of the New-York, New-Haven and Hartford Railroad.

 The accident was caused by the pulling out of a drawbar while the train was descending a steep grade between Bartow and Pelham Manor at a speed of about thirty-five miles an hour.  Before the locomotive and forward section could get out of the way the rear section could get out of the way the rear section overtook it and struck it with a crash, throwing about twenty cars off the rails and scattering their contents along the track.  Conductor Llewellyn was about to leave the caboose when the crash came, and was knocked down and severely bruised.  William Cooney, a brakeman, was standing on one of the cars that left the track.  He was caught in the wreckage and had his leg crushed, in addition to being cut about the face.

 Just before the accident one of the brakemen saw a tramp board the train and take refuge in an empty box car near the place where the train was broken in two.  After the wreck he was seen crawling out from under the car hatless and coatless, but unhurt.  The accident blocked all trains and delayed traffic on the road about six hours."

Source:  FREIGHT STREWN ALONG TRACKS -- SMASH ON THE NEW-YORK, NEW-HAVEN AND HARTFORD ROAD NEAR BARTOW CAUSES MUCH DAMAGE, New-York Tribune, Jun. 26, 1899, Vol. LIX, No. 19,216, p. 1, col. 5.  

 "A Wreck on the Branch Line.
-----

 Pelham Manor, June 26. -- The west-bound freight train on the Harlem River branch of the New Haven road at one o'clock Sunday noon, was badly wrecked at Pelham Manor.

 The accident was caused by the pulling out of a drawbar.  Several of the freight cars left the track and some of them were badly wreck.   

 A brakeman by the name of Cooney, had his leg crushed, and was otherwise badly bruised.

 The grade between Bartow and Pelham Manor is very steep, and when the drawbar pulled out, the forward cars, with the engine, moved away from the rear section, and [as] the engine slowed up, the broken section crashed into the cars ahead of it and a general smashup took place.

 The wrecking train was soon on the scene, and after a few hours delay the tracks were cleared for traffic."

 Source:  A Wreck on the Branch Line, Mount Vernon Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Jun. 26, 1899, Vol. XXIX, No. 2,222, p. 1, col. 4.  

 "FREIGHT STREWN ALONG TRACKS.
-----
Smash on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Road Near Bartow Causes Much Damage.

 A west bound freight train, consisting of sixty cars of merchandise, beef and vehicles, was badly wrecked about one o'clock Sunday afternoon on the Harlem River branch of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.  

 The accident was caused by a broken flange while descending the grade between Bartow and Pelham Manor at a speed of about thirty-five miles an hour, throwing fifteen cars off the rails and scattering their contents along the track.  Conductor Llewellyn was about to leave the caboose when the crash came, and was knocked down and severely bruised.  William Cooney, a brakeman, was standing on one of the cars that left the track.  He was caught in the wreckage and had his leg crushed in addition to being cut about the face.  

 Just before the accident one of the brakemen saw a tramp board the train and take refuge in an empty box car near the place where the train was broken in two.  After the wreck he was seen crawling out from under the car hatless and coatless, but unhurt.  The accident blocked all trains and delayed traffic on the road about six hours.  The cars are still piled along the track, some of them standing on an end, and others with the wheels in the air.  The trucks of some of the cars are thirty feet away from the body."

 Source:  FREIGHT STREWN ALONG TRACKS, The New Rochelle Press, Jul. 1, 1899, p. 1, col. 2.  

 "NEW HAVEN TRAIN DERAILED.

 Mount Vernon, N. Y., March 10. -- The 7:35 a.m. westbound local was derailed at Pelham, on the New Haven Railroad by the spreading of the rails.  Five loaded cars were thrown from the track.  Six women on the train fainted but none was injured.  The express train was flagged in time to prevent a collision with the derailed cars."

 Source:  NEW HAVEN TRAIN DERAILED, The Daily Saratogian, Mar. 10, 1905, p. 2, col. 3.

"WRECK ON CONSOLIDATED.
-----
Four Cars of Westbound Freight Piled Up.

 New York, March 14. -- Four cars of a westbound freight train on the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad, were wrecked by the breaking of an axle at the Pelham Manor Station this afternoon.  The suburban branch was blocked for two hours."

 Source:  WRECK ON CONSOLIDATED -- Four Cars of Westbound Freight Piled Up, The Daily Morning Journal and Courier, Mar. 15, 1905, p. 1, col. 3.  

 Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

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posted by Blake A. Bell @ 4:38 AM 0 comments

Friday, December 30, 2016

Pelham Recalled the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885 Upon Death of Riley Ellsworth Phillips in 1927


On December 27, 1885, the mail express train out of Boston known as the late night "Owl Train" reached Pelhamville during a major windstorm.  Just as the train sailed past the Pelhamville Station, the gale lifted the station's massive wooden passenger platform into the air and flipped it onto the tracks. 

Engineer Riley Ellsworth Phillips saw the obstruction ahead, cut the steam, and braked.  It did not help.  The locomotive engine smashed into the overturned platform, left the rails, and tumbled end-over-end down the 60-foot embankment, dragging the fire tender and a large mail car with it.  Though the passenger cars left the rails and bounced along throwing the passengers inside about the cabins, no passenger car tumbled down the massive embankment.  

Engineer Phillips and his fireman, recently-married Eugene Blake, were thrown out of the cab as it flipped end-over-end down the embankment.  Phillips was bruised, but lived.  Fireman Blake, however, was crushed during the incident.  He was found at the foot of the embankment and was carried into the nearby Pelhamville train station.  Some accounts say Fireman Blake was laid on a "cot" of some sort in the Pelhamville station.  Others say he was laid on the floor.  

Most accounts agree, however, that once carried into the Pelhamville station, the mortally-injured Eugene Blake suffered tremendously for an agonizing forty minutes.  During most of that time, he was administered to by an angel -- a woman who stepped out from among uninjured train passengers to offer help.  The woman was Emma Cecilia Thursby, a famous American celebrity and singer who traveled the nation giving concerts.  

 I have written about Riley Ellsworth Phillips and the Pelhamville Train Wreck on a number of occasions.  See the bibliography with links at the end of today's article.  

 The Pelhamville Train Wreck was so significant and so affected Pelhamville residents that it was written about repeatedly in the local newspaper, The Pelham Sun, for many decades after the wreck.  Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog transcribes yet another article about the wreck in 1885.  The article appeared in The Pelham Sun the week following the death of Riley Ellsworth Phillips.  Its text is immediately below, followed by a citation and link to its source.

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 "DEATH OF ENGINEER RECALLS WRECK OF BANKERS EXPRESS AT PELHAMVILLE
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Riley Ellsworth Phillips, 80, Dies After Sixty-one Year Service, Was Seriously Injured When Locomotive Left Rails At Pelhamville in 1885
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 The death last Thursday of Riley Ellsworth Phillips, veteran locomotive engineer of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad recalls to many of the older residents of the Pelhams, the wreck of the 'Bankers' Express' at the old Pelhamville station, on the night of December 27, 1885.  That accident in which one man was killed and Phillips' locomotive and tender were hurled from the railroad embankment at what is now Pelham station, was the only wreck charged against the record of the veteran engineer.  

 Old timers can tell a vivid story of the wreck at Pelhamville.  To them it brings a living picture of the little town as it was in the old days.  The railroad embankment was crossed by a grade crossing at what is now Fifth avenue.  It was little more than a wagon track made by the carts of the farmers from the farm districts between the railroad and Long Island Sound.

 A brick station stood to the west of the grade crossing.  A platform of oak planking extended some distance past the station.  It was this platform that was responsible for the wreck of the crack 'Bankers' Express' with Phillips at the throttle.

 The high wind of a winter storm tore the platform from its moorings, and lifting it up turned it over onto the railroad tracks, shortly before the express was due to pass through Pelhamville.

 Making up time, Phillips had the big locomotive doing its best when the train approached Pelhamville station.  Suddenly he saw the wrecked platform lying right in the path of the train.  He endeavored to apply the brakes, but the danger was unavoidable.  The heavy locomotive crashed into the timbers, leaving the rails hurtled through the air to the foot of the embankment, carrying the tender and baggage car along with it.  Fortunately the passenger coaches did not leave the rails.

 Phillips crawled out of the wrecked locomotive, seriously injured.  The body of his fireman was later found in the wreck.  Three mail clerks were injured.  Removal of the wreck took more than a week with the inadequate wrecking machinery used in those days.  

 Phillips recovered and was absolved from all blame.  He continued in the service of the railroad and was one of the road's most trusted employees.  He would have completed his sixty-second year with the railroad in July.  

 He was eighty years old and was a veteran of the Civil War."

 Source:  DEATH OF ENGINEER RECALLS WRECK OF BANKERS EXPRESS AT PELHAMVILLE -- Riley Ellsworth Phillips, 80, Dies After Sixty-one Year Service, Was Seriously Injured When Locomotive Left Rails At Pelhamville in 1885, The Pelham Sun, Feb. 25, 1927, p. 10, cols. 1-2.  

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Only known photograph showing the aftermath of the
"Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.” The January 16, 1886
issue of Scientific American included an artist’s depiction
of the same scene in connection with an article about the
wreck describing it as "A Remarkable Railroad Accident"
that occurred on the New Haven Line in Pelhamville
(now part of the Village of Pelham) at about 6:00 a.m.
on December 27, 1885. See A Remarkable Railroad Accident,
Scientific American, Jan. 16, 1886, Vol. LIV, No. 3, pp. 31-32.
The engine and tender lie in the foreground with the mail
car behind. NOTE: Click Image To Enlarge.








Front Cover and Images of the January 16, 1886 Issue
of Scientific American that Featured a Cover Story About
the Pelhamville Train Wreck Entitled "A Remarkable Railroad
Accident." NOTE: Click on Images to Enlarge.

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I have written before about the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885 that resulted in the death of Fireman Eugene Blake and injuries to several others including the train engineer, Riley Phillips. See:






Mon., Sep. 24, 2007:  The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885





Bell, Blake A., The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885: "One of the Most Novel in the Records of Railroad Disasters, 80(1) The Westchester Historian, pp. 36-43 (2004).

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