N&W in 1912--Wreck of No. 16

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 6, 1912

TWO DEAD AND MANY HURT IN WRECK OF 16
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Eight Cars of Norfolk and Western Passenger Train Were Derailed
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SUPERINTENDENT RITON IN ONE OF THE PULLMANS
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Statement Issued by Him Says Tender of Engine and Eight Coaches, Including Three Sleepers, Left Track at Sixty Miles an Hour
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PULASKI AND CHRISTIANSBURG MEN AMONG THOSE HURT
    Richmond, Va., Feb. 5 (Special)--Eastbound fast mail and passenger train No. 16, on the Norfolk and Western railway, was wrecked twenty-two miles south [no, west] of Petersburg at 5:40 o'clock this morning.  Eight cars were derailed and completely wrecked and a dozen or more persons were injured, two fatally. The train was running sixty miles an hour to make up lost time.
    The dead:
    JOHN BROWN, of Roanoke, a colored porter; injured internally and died in the Petersburg hospital.
    AN UNKNOWN NEGRO, died in hospital.
    Superintendent Riton was in one of the rear Pullmans and immediately took the situation in hand.  Wreck trains were run from Crewe and Petersburg, the injured being taken to the Petersburg hospital.
    An official statement issued by Superintendent Riton says:
    "Train No. 16, passing a point about one-half mile east of Hebron [N-105.6] at 5:40 o'clock this morning, was derailed, the tender of the engine and eight cars, including three sleepers, leaving the rails, caused by an arch bar breaking under the front truck of the engine, the bar catching a crossing plank at a road crossing, carrying the plank to the switch at 105-Mile Siding where it caught in a frog, derailing the tender and cars.
    Those injured:  [A list of the injured followed, but it is omitted here.]
    Senator W. A. Garret, of Henry, and Delegate W. A. Land, of Blackstone, were among the passengers on the wrecked train.
    Delegate Land, in an interview this evening, said the wreck was one of the most remarkable he had ever seen, all of the cars being wrecked and splintered and no one killed out right.
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Three Fatally Hurt
    Petersburg, Va., Feb. 5--Nine persons were injured, three probably fatally, when eastbound Norfolk and Western passenger train No. 16 was wrecked near Ford [N-102.1], twenty-five miles west of Petersburg.  The tender and seven coaches left the rails, the mail, baggage and "jim crow" coaches being badly smashed.
    Seriously hurt; Samuel Holmes, Layton Moore, Lynchburg, and an unknown negro [sic] passenger.
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[Remember these were probably wooden cars.]

Gordon Hamilton 
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