N&W in 1903 -- Engineer off the N&W

[NW Mailing List]

[The following two newspaper articles go together.  With all of the talent contributing to this Mailing List maybe someone will be inspired by these two articles to memorialize this tragedy by composing an appropriate song about it.  A good tune to use would be "The Ship that Never Returned."]

NINE WERE KILLED
            AND SEVEN HURT, NOT ONE OF CREW
            OF SIXTEEN ESCAPING INJURY,
                    IN SOUTHERN WRECK
------
Frightful Tragedy Witnessed by Women and Children and One Little Boy was So Badly Frightened that His Reason Has Fled.
Five of Dead Mail Clerks
------
    Danville, Va., Sept. 28 -- Train No. 97, operating between New York and New Orleans, the fastest train on the Southern railway, was wrecked just outside of the city limits yesterday afternoon.  The train left the track just as the engine was entering upon a high trestle that spans a creek north of the city.
    The engine, followed by three mail and one express cars, ran some distance on the trestle, plunging along the cross ties, and falling seventy-five feet to the water below.
    Of the sixteen men who composed the train crew, nine were killed and seven hurt.
    Engineer J. A. Broady of Saltville stuck to his post.  He was thrown some distance from the engine, and was found lying in the water of the creek, dead.

 [The remainder of the article listed the other crew members killed, and is omitted here.]

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
September 29, 1903



BLUEFIELD ENGINEER KILLED ON SOUTHERN
------
    The many friends of J. A. Broady here were shocked to hear of his untimely death which occurred in a wreck on the Southern, near Danville, Va., Sunday night.
    "Joe," as he was familiarly known among the boys here, left the service of the Norfolk and Western about three month ago.  He was unmarried and came to this city about eight years ago and went to firing on the Norfolk and Western.  He was promoted in the due course of time and "ran" here for four or five years.
    He was very popular and his sudden taking away has cast a gloom over his many friends in this city.
    Very little could be learned of the accident that snuffed out his life.  He was about 25 [??, blurred, best estimate] years of age and a member of the B. L. E., Bluefield Chapter No. 20, and a member of the other secret orders.
    His remains were shipped to his old home at Saltville, Va., and were joined at Radford by a large number of friends from this city, who will accompany them to the place of interment.

[The remainder of the article listed relatives and those who went from Bluefield, and is omitted here.  It's interesting that an engineer who had only three month's experience on the Southern would be assigned to the Southern's fastest train.]

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
September 29, 1903

Gordon Hamilton
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