Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 1 (1961).pdf/55

 40 road as the visible proof of divine approval of his policy and resisted all attempts to inaugurate Sunday service. Certainly, it was noteworthy that the South Side RR remained conspicuously free of major accidents. True, there were individuals, both employees and juveniles, who met their deaths through taking reckless chances, but the road had escaped those spectacular disasters, the grisly accounts of which filled the press of the day.

A few minor accidents reach our ears:

May 4, 1869: by error an engine was dispatched from the Williamsburgh office over the track which belonged to an express then nearly due. The engine plowed into the express train near Bushwick doing some damage to the two engines, but none to the passengers.

August, 1871: The Babylon accommodation train was thrown from the track at Newtown Switch by a misplaced switch. The locomotive and three cars narrowly escaped falling down a steep embankment. No one was hurt, but travel was interrupted for about five hours.

August 26, 1871: About 8:30 A.M. as the Fire Island Express was approaching Freeport from Merrick, it struck a broken rail which threw the three rear cars from the track down a five-foot embankment, leaving one overturned. Several persons were injured by broken glass.

November 15, 1871: The Merrick accommodation train coming out of Bushwick struck a Metropolitan Avenue horse car which had derailed on the crossing. When the crew and passengers failed to rerail it in time, they left and the locomotive struck the stalled car, smashing it to pieces. No one was hurt.

January 27, 1871: Two passenger trains were scheduled to pass each other at Jamaica. The eastbound one lay waiting at the siding. The westbound train, as it approached, split the switch, derailed, and sideswiped the cylinder head of the standing engine. Both engines were damaged but no one was hurt.

July 4, 1872: A train pulled by the Charles Fox left Bushwick Station later than it should have in order to reach the double track at Newtown Switch on time. Meanwhile a westbound excursion train of six cars from Rockaway, drawn by the engine R. O. Colt, left the double track at Newtown Switch and entered on the single track for Bushwick. Hardly had the engine and two of the six cars moved onto the single line when the Fox loomed up. Neither engine could stop despite flags and whistle blasts and a collision occurred. Since