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Show Wreckers Deliberately Nisplcce Rails, Throwing Keystone Limited on Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania Railroad Off Track; Slow Speed Prevents Plunge 'Down Bank. Because one train was late, a collision which inevit- ably would have resulted in frightful loss of life'was avert- , ed in Pennsylvania this morning. But for the fact that it was running at a slow rate of speed, the Keystone express ori the Pennsylvaliia railroad, would have plunged down a 42-foot embankment; I Whether in a spirit of revenge or for purposes df robbery, rob-bery, wreckers misplaced the rails near , Wilmerding, and the engine and two cars of the express train were thrown ' from the track. The train hung perilously, cjose to the precipice but was held in place. As if by a miracle trainmen train-men and passengers escaped injury. ' PITTSBTJBG, MARCH 27. TRAIN NO. 20, ON THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD, KNOWN AS THE KEYSTONE KEY-STONE EXPRESS, EASTBOUND, WAS DERAILED NEAR WTLMER-DINQ, WTLMER-DINQ, PA., FOURTEEN MIXES EAST OP HERE, EARLY TODAY. THE ENGINE, TWO MAIL OARS AND A COMBINATION AND SMOKER. LETT THE TRACK, BUT NO ONE WAS HURT. IT IS BELIEVED THE TRAIN WAS INTENTIONALLY DERAILED AND THAT THE DEED WAS DONE BY THE SAME PERSONS WHO WRECKED THE CHICAGO LIMITED AT STEWART LAST FRIDAY. THE SAME PLAN .WAS . CARRIED OUT AND ONLY THE SLOW SPEED OF THE TRAIN (THIRTY MILES AN HOUR) SAVED IT FROM TURNING TURTLE, DIVING OVER A STEEP BANK AND CRUSHING OUT A NUMBER NUM-BER OF LIVES. "The work of the perpetrators was thorough, and in this their evil intent ia phown, for both the eastbound and westbound tracks were tampered with, on rail joint on each track being displaced dis-placed within a few rods of each other. Had trains coming in opposite directions direc-tions met, there would nave been a frightful collision. Following the derailment of the coaches, the passengers rushed out in their night clothes. When they discovered discov-ered there was no immediate danger they returned to the ears and all acted as coolly as was possible under the circumstances. cir-cumstances. The officials at Pittsburg were notified noti-fied and a special train was quickly made up and run out to the scene of the accident. The passengers upon the derailed cars were transferred . to this ' train and sent east. Railroad detectives promptly started start-ed an investigation and the announcement announce-ment was made that the derailment was , undoubtedly the work of trainwreckers, whether for revenge or robbery was not . known. . ' . - . , The spikes, bolts and fish plates from' an entire rail bad been removed and the rail turned inward on tracks'Nos. 3 and . . 4, the main tracks east and west. Nearby Near-by was track wrench and a. pair pt gloves, while in the. creek .below a.clawTt . bar; nuts, bolts and fish plates were' . found." ' -.i . It is supposed the tool were obtained by breaking open a company chest. A yardman- who passed the point where the train was wrecked a tew minutes before the accident occurred, reported that he saw two men walking along the track. He gave the detectives a description descrip-tion of the men and every effort is being be-ing made to find them. Escape by Miracle. It is regarded as almost miraculous that no one waa hurt in the wreck. When the pony trucks of the engine struck the projecting corner of the rail that had been tampered with,' the engine en-gine leaped from the track, carrying . the two mail cars with it. Engineer Poorbaugh and Fireman Johnson remained re-mained at their posts and were none . , the worse for their experience. As the sleepers all remained upon tha track the passengers were not even jolted. The scene of the wreck Is at a sharp curve near Turtle Creek, and the outside out-side rail held against the, grinding of the heavy train and prevented the whole train from plunging over a forty-two-foot embankment Into the river. The two rail joints tampered with were not more than twenty-five feet apart and it is stated that had a train ' on the westbound track come along it would certainly have crashed over the embankment. This would have probably prob-ably happened had not the Chicago Limited Lim-ited train No. 23, running on track No. 4, westbound, been late. Fortunately it was delayed and reached Wilmerding some time after the Keystone express . had been derailed. - 1 |