OBIT: Charles McCLOSKEY, 1880, Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA

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RAILROAD ACCIDENT.
Charles McCloskey, Express Messenger, Buried Under the Ruins.

  Yesterday morning a railroad accident took place near Johnstown, 
resulting in the death of one man and the wounding of some others.  The 
locomotive tender, two express cars and one passenger coach of the 
pacific express west, were ditched near the west end of the high iron 
bridge which spans the Conemaugh river at a point two miles about East 
Conemaugh and an equal distance from Mineral Point.  The accident is 
supposed to have been caused by the spreading of the rails on the 
bridge, about three feet from the west end.  The train had slowed up 
somewhat on approaching the structure, but was moving at a rapid rate 
of speed, and the locomotive ran one hundred yards beyond the bridge, 
after the cars left the track, before it could be checked.  The tender 
of the locomotive was the first to leave the track.  The engine itself 
remained on the rails.  The tender was followed down into the ditch by 
the two express cars and one passenger coach.  The remainder of the 
train was unharmed.  Express Messenger Charles McCloskey, of 
Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh, formerly brakeman on the Johnstown 
accommodation, was buried under the ruins of his car and killed.  The 
car caught fire and was almost entirely consumed, but the body was 
extricated from the debris before the flames reached it.  Eight or ten 
passengers were injured by the rough ride they took over the embankment 
in the front of the coach, but none of them sustained serious injury.  
The train was run by Conductor Carney and Engineer Burbanks, both of 
Altoona.  Among the slightly injured was Isaac Peck, resident of this 
city, who had one leg considerably bruised.  However he will probably 
be about in a day or two as he was able to walk around the house last 
night with the aid of a cane. The remains of McCloskey were very much 
disfigured, and death must have been instantaneous.  The body was 
removed to Pittsburgh.

Morning Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Friday, October 22, 1880