Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 1 (1961).pdf/76

 The South Side Falls to the Long Island the engine soon afterwards, but lost it in the Woodfield disaster. The two passenger coaches, which White originally purchased for $10,000 were exempted from the assignee's sale, but were included in the sale of the trust company. When the Poppenhusens assumed control of the South Side in November 1874, they took the cars, repainted them and transferred them to their Central Railroad of Long Island.

White, in retaliation, placed men at work to fence in the Hempstead-Valley Stream right-of-way, for every foot of which he had deeds in his name. A compromise between the Poppenhusens, new owners of the South Side RR, and White was reached in June 1875. The former purchased the disputed road, and proposed to open it immediately. On June 28, 1875 trains of the Southern RR began service on the old New York & Hempstead.

Only five months later another major wreck drew newspaper attention to the Southern RR and its operations. On July 4, 1875 a train consisting of the engine Montauk, a tender, a baggage car, smoking car and passenger car left the Neptune House at Rockaway and at 1140 P.M. reached Far Rockaway and took the siding there. Meanwhile, a train of seven cars drawn by the engine Norwood left Bushwick at 12:30 P.M. and by the time it reached Valley Stream, was running ten minutes late. When the train came to the turnout between Valley Stream and Woodsburgh, the engineer and conductor decided not to wait in the hope of passing the up train at Far Rockaway station turnout.

The crew of the Montauk, meanwhile, waited the mandatory interval of ten minutes on the siding and the customary five minutes further for the variation in watches. Then it started out. It so happened that the switchman was absent that day, and the engine, after clearing the switch, had to send back the conductor to lock the switch. This cost about two minutes' delay, and then the engineer opened full throttle to make time up the ascending grade toward Lawrence.

Beyond Far Rockaway station the track began a long curve through Mott's Woods for about a half mile and then a straight stretch of a full mile. The Montauk had barely gone into the woods over 1000 feet when the Norwood was seen belching smoke dead ahead. Both engineers blew "down brakes" (one sharp