Weekly Monitor - February 8 1882 - Engine Disabled

Weekly Monitor - February 8 1882 - Engine Disabled

A news article was published in the February 8 1882 issue of the [Bridgetown] Weekly Monitor newspaper describing an incident on the Windsor and Annapolis Railway. A connecting rod broke on a locomotive with significant consequences. Happily no one was hurt. The scan of the article appears below, while the article text is shown here for search purposes:

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Weekly Monitor (February 8, 1882)

Engine Disabled.—On Friday last, as the night freight train was running between Berwick and Aylesford, one of the connecting rods of the engine broke. The momentum of the train carried it some distance, and each revolution of the engine's wheels threw the broken connecting rod around with fearful force, smashing the cab and foot board running around the engine. The latter in breaking away loosened a number of the bolts in the boiler and permitted the steam to escape, seriously endangering the lives of the engineer and fireman. They, however, jumped off and escaped injury. The broken rod also acted as a lever, and as it struck the road bed or sleepers would lift the engine several inches, and then let it down suddenly, breaking the rails at each stroke, though this fact was not discovered until some time later. The engine finally stopped some thirty rods from the place where the accident happened. A message was then immediately sent to Kentville for another engine to take the train through. Before this engine arrived, a section man discovered a broken rail in that portion of the track over which the train passed after the accident, and on making an examination, upwards of thirty rails were found to be broken. On discovering this, Conductor Edwards started back to signal the expected train to stop; but it commenced snowing, and darkness set in, consequently those on board the train could not see the signal and were passing by, when Mr. Edwards placed his fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly, which was fortunately heard, and the engine brought to a standstill. Another message was then sent to Kentville for rails, tools and men necessary to repair the track, which were sent out—the track relaid and the thoroughly disabled engine pushed into the siding. The train then continued on its interrupted journey, arriving at this station a few moments after midnight.

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Reference Tag

Please use this citation when referring to this article: Weekly Monitor - February 8 1882 - Engine Disabled