Ligonier Valley Rail Road Newspaper Articles
We have compiled over 1,400 newspaper articles that mention the Ligonier Valley Railroad, or related subjects. The articles were originally published starting in 1873 and our collection runs through 1995. Enjoy!
Ligonier Echo
Wednesday, January 13, 1926
P.R.R. Freight Engine Wrecked
Cylinder Blew Out, Endangering Passengers On L.V.R.R. Train
Pieces of Steel Flew 150 Yards
On last Thursday evening at 5:15 as a freight train was passing through Latrobe when the engine was almost opposite the freight elevator on the east bound platform, the cylinder head and piston let go with an explosion that could be heard all over the business section of Latrobe. The force of the explosion was so great that two of the heavier pieces were hurled 150 yards away and smaller fragments were showered all around. Several pieces crashed through windows of the Ligonier train which was standing at the station. Misses Claire Lucas and Mabel Jean Martin of Ligonier were sitting in the train beside one of the windows that was shattered and felt the fanning of the air as the pieces
whizzed by them but fortunately escaped injury either from the flying steel or broken glass.
Samuel Howard, a brakeman on the train, was going through the coach, turning the seats, also narrowly escaped being hit by one of the pieces of flying steel as it crashed through a window.
The fence between Tracks No. 1 and No. 2 had several palings torn out by flying pieces of the cylinder head and piston. A number of persons who were standing on the
eastbound platform narrowly escaped injury.
The freight engine from which the parts were blown was a type I1, the largest used by the Pennsy. It was going west on N. 3 track pulling an exceptionally long train of freight
care, and was proceeding under 250 pounds of steam.
An engine was secured at the Derry yards to replace the damaged one, and the freight was taken on to its destination.