1943 Wayland Train Wreck (original) (raw)

No newspaper name, 03 Sep 1943,

28 Dead, 110 Injured in Wreck at Wayland

Clayton L. Roloson, of Bath and Mrs. Francis Ripley, of Painted Post, Among Those Who Lost Thier Lives.
The Lackawanna train wreck at Wayland at 5:25 last Monday afternoon piled up a death toll of twenty-eight, two of whom were residents of Steuben County--Clayton L. Roloson of Bath, and Mrs. Frances Ripley, of Painted Post.
The train left Bath twenty minutes late and the engineer was said to have made up the minutes when the train roared past the Wayland station. About those hundred yards west of the station the engine of the crack Lackawanna Flyer No. 3 crashed into a switch engine, sideswiped it, tearing a hole in its side. When the train stopped, Coach 6, counting from the front, was alongside of the switch engine which poured a terrible volume of live steam from its open side into the coach, out of which nineteen dead were taken a few minutes later.
It was one of the worst railroad wrecks in Steuben County in many years. The big engine of the "flyer" plunghed ahead, after hitting the switch engine, twisting the heavy steel rails as if they had been ribbons, then tipped over.
It is quite apparent that had it not been for the escaping steam there would have been onlyone death. Frank Meincke of Scanton, supentintendent of locomotives, was believed to have been riding in the cab of the locomotives and was crushed under the engine as it overturned.
Within an hour after the crash, all the dead had been removed and scores of those who had been more or less injured had received first aid. Many were wearing patches on their cheeks, their foreheads, and their hands, having been cut by jagged pieces of glass or severely burned on theri hands, arms and legs.
Deputy Sheriff Clearwater of Wayland, about to conclude his day's work was parked at the top of the overhead bridge west of the station as the train passed below, He called Sheriff Balcom over the sheriff's inter-radio system and told him it looked as if there might be a wreck and within a minute it happened. No sooner had he notified the sheriff than the entire department with the Bath police, had ten doctors from the Soldiers Home and several others from the village, rushed to Wayland to take charge.
It is known that eight persons from Bath were aboard the train, Clayton L. Rolonson, production manager at the Mercury Aircraft Company in Hammondsport was one of those Killed. Others from Bath on the train were Wallace V. Pitt, president of the J. W. Pitt Co, and Clyde Robinson his factory superintendent; Mrs. Joseph D'Angelo and her daughter Betty; Cpl. Edsel Townsend; Gibson Seager, who was on his way to Buffalo for induction into the Navy and Joseph L. Brown, who also was on his way to camp.
Cpl. Townsend, upon his return from the wreck to Bath and that he and Rolson entered the train together and went into Coach 6. He decided that he wanted to talk to Brown in a car at the rear of the trainand invited Mr. Roloson to go along. Mr. Roloson said he would be along in a few minutes. Cpl. Townsend said he had not been out of the coach two minutes when the wreck occurred.
Walace Pitt and Clyde Robinson returned to Bath uninjured.
The three young Bath soldiers were not hurt, and all of them have gone to their army duties.

Mrs. Francis Ripley mentioned in this article is Mrs. Judson Ripley, nee Frances Ferris.