MAIN LINE WRECK TIES UP TRAINS

Engineer Scrambles from Tangled Freight and Saves Fast Express

TEN CARS BLOCK FOUR TRACKS

Breaking Flange on Wheel near Devon causes Large Damage, But No Lives are Lost

Much Shifting Follows Crash

The quick wit of the Engineer of a wrecked freight train saved the Metropolitan Express, crack flier on the Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Chicago, from a serious collision just east of the Devon station on the Main Line, at 11 A. M. yesterday.

W. F. Seibold of Newark, N. J., was piloting a thirty-two car fast freight No. P12, bound for Jersey City, when a flange on a wheel of the rear truck of the second car broke, derailing the train and piling up ten freight cars across the four tracks. Seibold, who was thrown to the floor of the cab, by the crash, had seen the curling smoke of the limited coming around the curve from the opposite direction, rising above the trees. The peril of the on-coming train, flashed on him and he picked himself up, grabbed a red flag, and sprinted down the track warning the engineer of the express in time to bring his train to a halt before it struck the wreckage of the freight.

At the same time, D. W. Rudman, of Camden, conductor of the freight, ran to the other end of the train to halt Eastbound trains following. A brake-man phoned to Paoli and Bryn Mawr to halt trains in both directions and to turn off electricty to the catenaries overhead. A few minutes later two trains from the West were halted a short distance west of the wreck.

No one was injured. The foremost car of the freight rammed a car loaded with lumber which stood on a siding of the lumber yard of Lobb & son. Two workmen were thrown from the car by the force of the impact, and two other standing near on the ground jumped aside. The two men on the car were Elmer Buller and Michael Giancioci. The other two were Barnet Dellomini and Alphonso Haynin, all of Devon.

Tracks were blocked for three hours, through trains being routed around the wreck over the Schuylkill division and the Trenton Cut-off. Wreckers were summoned immediately from Paoli, Whitemarsh, Parkside shops and West Philadelphia. Workmen were busy all day clearing away the wreckage.

The Metropolitan Express was taken back to West Philadelphia and send up the Schuylkill division to the Trenton Cutoff, coming back to the Main Line at Glen Loch. Trains No. 20, 30, and 34, eastbound from Pittsburgh, and No. 27, westbound from New York to St. Louis, were operated over the Trenton Cutoff from Morrisville, below Trenton, to Glen Loch. Trains No. 1 and 5, from New York to Pittsburgh, were sent over the Schuylkill division. Local electrical service between Philadelphia and Paoli was promptly resumed, passengers being transferred around the wreck at Devon with a shuttle train running the remainder of the way to Paoli.

Service on track No. 4, westbound, was resumed at about 2 p. m. Track No. 5 was opened shortly after. At 6 o'clock last evening, when eastbound track No. 1 was again opened there were few delays.

The train, known as a preference freight, having right of way over other trains, was carrying foodstuffs, cement, cotton and lumber.

Describing the wreck, Engineer Seibold said: "I was knocked from one side of the cab to the other and then to the floor. At the instant the cars had left the track I sighted the smoke of a train from the east. When I saw the cars spread all over the four tracks I grabbed a red flag, ran towards the curve and stopped the limited."

Daily Local News, 1924-02-15