Articles appearing 12/27/1934 regarding the Powellton, Fayette County, WV train crash. Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Tanya Mai ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb *********************************************************************** Two Score Men Injured in Mine Train Engine's Blast Montgomery, Dec. 27 - Thirteen men were killed and at least 35 were injured Thursday morning in the explosion of the boiler on a locomotive drawing a train loaded with miners en route to work at McDunn, Fayette county, near Powellton. Approximately 350 men were in the train. They had been picked up at their homes along Armstrong creek by the work train operated daily by the Elkhorn-Piney Coal company. All of the men killed where in the first of three coaches on the train. The coach was torn apart by two explosions as the train halted while the locomotive picked up steam. Bodies were hurled along the tracks and a building nearby was shattered by the blast which tore the locomotive to bits. Charles Kitchen, 16 years old, both hands burned, his face scalded, head bandaged and ankles sprained, told of the explosion from his bed in the Coal Valley hospital at Montgomery. "We were sitting in the coach, talking and waiting for them to move on when we heard a blow," he said. The first one blew the cap off the front of the engine and hit a lot of us in the coach. Then a minute later, there was another and it tore our car to pieces. About 100 men were riding in the first coach. Nearly all were hurt. Many others in the 3 other coaches on the little work train were cut or bruised by flying debris. The only man identified quickly was Engineer Blankenship of the work train. Meanwhile ambulances and private automobiles from all the sections of Armstrong creek poured injured into the hospital at Montgomery where 35 had been received this morning and others still were being rushed there. BLOWN TO PIECES Stories of men being literally blown to pieces were told by the injured men as they reached the hospital. "One man said he saw another's head blown off", said Dr. W. R. Wilkinson, as he took a moment from treatment of injured to answer questions. "We've been so busy we haven't had time to try and piece together a coherent story of just what happened." The place where the explosion occurred is about 12 miles up Armstrong Creek from Montgomery in the thinly settled coal regions of the hills. The men live in tiny settlements along the valley and the ride to work on the train which stops at their doors each morning. Others employed in the mine - one of the largest in this field - ride buses from their homes in larger villages. TAKE DEAD AND INJURED AWAY Montgomery, Dec. 27 - At least 13 men were killed and two score were injured early Thursday morning when a locomotive hauling 350 miners to work at the No. 5 mine of the Elkhorn - Piney Coal Mining company, at McDunn, exploded near Powellton. The dead were brought in busses and ambulances to a Montgomery undertaking establishment, and the injured, nearly all of them who were scalded, were rushed as quickly as possible to the Coal Valley hospital, where they were placed for in a room in some instances. The train consisted of four passenger coaches, loaded with workmen. There were two explosions, according to eye witnesses, so violent that the locomotive and the first coach was torn to bits, and steam under terrific pressure, swept through the coaches. One man died in the hospital entrance before he could be admitted. Although the last blast occurred about 6:30 o'clock, so great was the confusion at Montgomery that no complete list of the casualties was available at 9:30 o'clock. LIST OF INJURED: Coal Valley hospital attaches said that the following were admitted, and that others were in the hospital but their names had not yet been obtained: John Moore M.D. Goheen Jack Cole Marion Wills Felix Romine Theodore Tappaix Clarence Cook Alec Wood A.F. Gearhart Steve Letosk Russell Simon John Lowe Blaine Vanetta (no first name given) Bailey Norman Brooks Charles Owen Richard Mays Charles Hagan Louis Waymer Homer Cast Henry McMillion Ray Carter Glen Nelson Spencer Hurley George Seiner John Hanna O.P. Hammack Willie Hurley O.V. Litton D.H. Holstein George Bragg Lee Jones Thomas Ridenour Charles Kitchen Robert Montgomery William Taylor Ralph Shaver Herbert Harris Jim Giovianazzo Simon Erby Bodies are Hurled At the Hoover undertaking establishment, it was said that a complete check of the dead had not been made, but that an employee of the coal company was en route to Montgomery to identify the victims. Bodies of the victims were hurled for great distances along the tracks, according to eye witnesses. Many of them suffered severe injuries, and in addition to their scalds from the steam. The entire countryside was rocking by the terrific blast of the exploding locomotive, and a building near the tracks where the train was at a standstill was wrecked. Most of the men live in the vicinity of Powellton, and were being taken to the mine on the work train.