N&W in 1911--Three victims

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
September 26, 1911

ONE DEAD, TWO DYING
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Three Men Asleep on Track Are Struck by Train

    H. R. Waycaster, N. D. Miller and Hess Smith whose homes are at Roan Mountain, Tenn., met with a serious accident at Banner, Va., some time between the hours of two and five o'clock yesterday morning.  The young men had walked from St. Paul, Va., being en route to the Toms Creek coal fields, and had sat down on the railroad track on the end of the ties to rest and dropped off to sleep.
    Being on the fireman's side they were not seen by the train crew.  It is not known just what time they were struck.  They were discovered by some miners en route to work.  Hess Smith only lived about two hours after they were found.  N. D. Miller can only live a few hours and Waycaster will probably die.
    Smith was a single man but both of the others are married.  Waycaster has a wife and two children and Miller a wife and four children.
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[It was ten miles from St. Paul to Banner, and Toms Creek would have been four miles beyond Banner.  Presumably they traveled from Roan Mountain, TN, to St. Paul, VA, by train.  Roan Mountain was on the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR (3-foot gauge "Tweetsie" RR), so they may have taken the Tweetsie to Johnson City and the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Ry. from there to St. Paul.]

Gordon Hamilton
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