OBIT: Maxwell NASH, 1926, Reservoir Station, Blair County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Michael S. Caldwell

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[Extracts of a very lengthy article; abridgements indicated in 
brackets]

TWO ARE VICTIMS OF PENNSY WRECK
Engineer J. E. Lowe and Maxwell Nash Are Instantly Killed When 
Cumberland Altoona Train Leaves Rails at Kladder station.
PASSENGERS SCALDED BY ESCAPING STEAM
Engine Crashed Through Little Station and Turns Over on Its Side Down 
Bank 250 Feet From Point Where It Left the Rails on Curve.

  Leaving the rails at Kladder station a few minutes before 5 o'clock 
yesterday afternoon, train No. 6373, the Cumberland and Bedford local, 
due in Altoona at 5.25 o'clock, was wrecked and two men, one an 
engineer and the other a resident of Blair county, near Hollidaysburg, 
were instantly killed and several others severely injured.
  The dead:
  James E. Lowe, aged 52, 850 Seventeenth street, engineer.
  Maxwell Nash, aged 50, Reservoir station.

[list of injured]

Crashed Through Station.

  The accident occurred at 4.57 o'clock. The train, hauled by engine 
No. 3004, with Engineer Lowe at the throttle and in charge of Conductor 
W. F. Cessna, was running on time at about the usual speed. The train 
does not stop at Kladder except to discharge passengers and it was not 
scheduled to stop on this trip.
  About 250 feet south of the station the engine and four of the five 
cars that made up the train left the rails. The engine ran along over 
the ties until it reached the station and then it shot through the 
little station which was demolished and turned over on its side over 
the bank.
  In turning off the track the engine and the tank parted and the steam 
shot out from the severed pipes and into the front coach which came to 
a standstill at the station. In this way Mock, Yingling and Creighton, 
who are railroad employes and were commuters aboard the train, were 
scalded.
  The engine turned over on its right side and thus Engineer Lowe's 
life was crushed out and his body badly mangled. Fireman Shover who was 
on the other side was pinned in the wreckage of the engine, struggled 
to free himself, but was unable to get out until assistance arrived.

Nash Killed In Station.

  Nash was in Kladder station at the time with Herman Duffy. The two 
men were in the employ of the Blair township road supervisors. As the 
train approached, Nash stepped towards the track, while Duffy stood 
back.
  Duffy states he saw the engine coming down the track and saw it 
plunge and leave the tracks. He quickly leaped away and made his 
escape. Nash was caught by the engine as it crashed through the station 
and instantly killed.
  Conductor Cessna and others aboard the train, got off and ran to give 
assistance to the enginemen. There were fifty-two passengers aboard the 
train and there was great confusion. Women became hysterical as the 
front car filled with steam, but as far as could be determined only the 
four whose names have been given were scalded by the steam that shot 
out from the pipes of the wrecked locomotive.
  A family living nearby turned their home into a first aid hospital 
and the injured were cared for there until the relief train arrived. 
Word was promptly sent to Altoona and a relief train was made up and 
sent to the scene of the accident. All passengers and the injured men 
were placed aboard the train and brought to the city.
  The Hollidaysburg wrecking force was running west in the vicinity of 
Frankstown when the accident occurred and the train went at once to 
Kladder.
  The only car left standing on the rails was the milk car at the rear 
end of the train.
  Passengers who boarded the train at Cumberland, Bedford and other 
points disregarded minor injuries and worked with the railroad men in 
assisting the injured and the ladies who were aboard the train. Most of 
the passengers were thrown violently to the floor when the train came 
to a sudden stop.
  The body of Engineer Lowe was brought to the city and taken in charge 
by Funeral Directors Lafferty and Tobias, while that of Nash, at the 
request of his brother, was taken in charge by Funeral Director T. B. 
McFarland at Hollidaysburg.
  The repairs to the track were completed by 5.30 o'clock for use by 
the early morning trains at slow speed and the engine and wrecked cars 
were picked up today to be brought to the city for repairs. The engine 
was badly wrecked.
  That more of the passengers were not killed or seriously injured 
seems almost miraculous. The fact that the engine broke away from the 
tender as it left the track probably prevented the coaches from being 
upset.
  A committee was immediately appointed to make an investigation of the 
cause of the wreck. There is a curve just above the station where the 
engine left the rails. Coroner Chester C. Rothrock was notified of the 
fatal accident by the railroad officials and he, too, is making an 
investigation and will hold an inquest in the case.

[Sketch of Engineer James Edmond Lowe omitted]

Sketch of Maxwell Nash.

  Maxwell Nash was a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Nash, both deceased, 
and was born in Scotch valley, Frankstown township. He was 50 years of 
age and resided at Reservoir station. His wife, who was Miss Helen 
Mapes, preceded him to the grave.
  He is survived by three children, Abner, Edward and Grace, at home, 
and by three brothers, William of Canoe Creek, James of Williamsburg 
and Samuel of Reservoir. He was a member of the Methodist church.
  Funeral services will be conducted at the late home at Reservoir at 2 
o'clock Friday afternoon. The body will be laid to rest along side of 
his wife in Geeseytown cemetery.

Altoona Mirror, Altoona, Pa., Thursday, March 4, 1926

------------

BRICK ON RAIL IS CAUSE OF WRECK
Coroner's Jury Establishes Facts Relative to Derailment of Train at 
Kladder Station March 3.

  That the wrecking of the Cumberland-Altoona train at Kladder station 
on March 3, causing the death of J. Edmund Lowe and Maxwell Nash was 
due to a lump of fused arch brick on a tie, leaning against the rail, 
was established as the cause of the derailment and wrecking of the 
train by a jury empaneled by Coroner Chester C. Rothrock, who last 
evening conducted an inquest on the case.
  No blame was attached to anyone by the jury in its verdict. Lowe was 
crushed under the derailed engine and Nash, who was in the station at 
the time was crushed when the engine crashed through it. Pictures of 
the scenes immediately after the wreck were shown the jury. Mrs. Lowe 
was represented by counsel and the testimony was taken down by a 
stenographer. A representative of the Pennsy claim department was also 
present.
  The fact was brought out that several cars of gravel were being 
unloaded that day near the station and the early questioning was 
directed to finding whether there had been any large lumps fallen along 
the track sufficient to cause a derailment. George Baker, who had been 
unloading gravel, said that he had found a large block of some hard 
substance on and near the tracks after the wreck. It was later proven 
that it was a lump of arch brick, presumably among the gravel.
  W. F. Cessna, conductor of the train, was the first witness and he 
testified that the train was on time. S. H. Shover, the fireman, who 
was burned and injured, said:  "I felt the engine lurch, as though the 
pony wheels had come off, then there was blackness."
  Blair Baker, John Weaver and J. H. Vogel, who were working on the 
cinder cars gave their versions of the condition of the tracks and what 
they had seen of the wreck.
  Herman Duffy, who was in the station with Nash who was killed, said 
that he saw the train coming around the curve, "the wheels wobbling 
from side to side and I saw the pony wheels leave the tracks. I yelled 
to Nash and jumped for the door, but there was no knob on the door and 
I jumped for the window and then the crash came. The roof sailed away 
and I landed thirty feet from where the station had been."
  Duffy asserted that the wheels left the track just after it had 
passed the frog, about forty or fifty paces from the station.
  The testimony of C. A. Paulsgrove, supervisor at Hollidaysburg, was 
contradictory of that of Duffy relative to the distance. He said that 
the wheels, judging from the marks on the ties, had left the track 379 
feet from the station and that it was 108 feet from the frog to the 
station.
  Further investigation by Mr. Paulsgrove showed a piece of arch brick 
at the side of the rails, a few feet from where the marks indicated the 
wheels left the track, crumbled by the evident impact of the wheels of 
the engine and there was a depression in the tie, where it had rested. 
He further stated that the rails and the roadbed were in excellent 
condition at the time of the wreck and that a heavier train had passed 
just a few minutes before the derailment of the passenger train.
  C. R. Bell, foreman of the shop where wheels are tested, said that 
all the wheels except one were in good condition and that one evidently 
had been forced, more than an inch, presumably by the jar when the 
wheels struck the block of the arch brick.
  The coroner's jury was composed of M. H. Neaffer, foreman; R. S. 
Rose, F. A. Bagley, W. C. Selwitz, C. S. Romig and S. C. McGuire.
  Separate verdicts were rendered by the jury in the deaths of J. 
Edmund Lowe and Maxwell Nash.

[Lowe verdict omitted]

  The verdict in the death of Nash follows:  "Death was caused by being 
crushed while in depot at Kladder Station while getting warm, waiting 
the return of a truck to haul cinders for road supervisors of Blair 
county, said depot being demolished by train running through it when 
wrecked on March 3, 1926, due to the pony wheels of engine striking a 
piece of arch brick, lying against the rail, which caused the pony 
wheels to jump the track and subsequently coming into contact with 
frog, causing engine to run through the station, and from the evidence 
before us, we find that the accident was unavoidable."

Altoona Mirror, Altoona, Pa., Friday, March 12, 1926