John Wiley (-1908)

WILEY

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 3/13/2017 at 22:30:59

From Nevada Representative September 4, 1908

County Correspondence

CAMBRIDGE.

A terrible accident occurred Wednesday on the Short Line at the bridge over Four Mile Creek in Which John Wiley, engineer and fireman Jas. Long, were killed. Wiley was well known in Cambridge. Dr. H. P. Hanson was called to the wreck, he being the surgeon for the company.

From Nevada Representative September 4, 1908

WRECK ON THE SHORT LINE

Freight Train Goes into Four Mile Creek--Engineer and Fireman Killed

The south bound freight train on the Short Line went off the track and into the hollow of the crossing of Four Mile Creek, between Enterprise and Des Moines, about five o'clock Wednesday. The bridge was destroyed, the engine, fender and five freight cars were dumped into the creek bed and Engineer Wiley of Des Mones and Fireman Long of Iowa Falls were killed. The men were dad when the brakeman reached them but they were not buried in the wreck, and their bodies were picked up and carried to Des Moines.

The cause of the wreck appears to have been the breaking of a flange on the tender, the piece being found several rods back from the bridge, and some of the wheels having bumped over the ties for some distance. If the accident had happened in some other place the consequences might not have been so serious; but at that particular place it was necessarily followed by disaster. The hollow is the deepest on the line of the road, excepting perhaps where the bridge is over the river at Iowa Falls; and though it is not very wide, it is the worst sort of place for a train to pile into. It does not appear that the railroad was at fault in this matter. Wheel flanges do break once in a while, and this one broke so as the derail the train at one of the two or three worst places on the road.

The Short Line trains have since the accident been run around on the Milwaukee by way of Cambridge and Madrid, the extra run making them an hour to an hour and a half late. The Milwaukee also sent its wrecking outfit for picking up the wreck. The work of rebuilding the bridge has been pushed as rapidly as possible, and the hope last night was that the trains might be run as usual this evening.