SV 1876 Ashtabula OH Railroad Disaster Removing Dead in Wreckage Blakeslee Moore

Original photographic stereoview taken Dec. 30th, 1876. This is by Blakeslee & Moore from the Views of Railroad Disaster AT ASHTABULA series:

Has backlist and stamp. Marked No. 4. - View from the east side, showing the mass of Wreck and West Piers; also workmen removing the dead.
Stamp: Photographed by Blakeslee & Moore Dec. 30th, 1876 Ashtabula - - Ohio.

Card measures about 3.5" x 7"
This one view out of a series of 6. I will be posting numbers 2,4,5 & 6.


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Ashtabula River railroad disaster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ashtabula River railroad disaster (also called the Ashtabula horror or the Ashtabula Bridge disaster or the Ashtabula train disaster) was a derailment caused by the failure of a bridge over the Ashtabula River about 1,000 feet (300 m) from the railroad station at Ashtabula, in far northeastern Ohio. On December 29, 1876, at about 7:30 pm, two locomotives hauling 11 railcars of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway carrying 159 passengers plunged into the river in deep snow when the bridge gave way beneath them. The wooden cars were set alight by their heating stoves, but no attempt was made to extinguish the fire. The accident killed 92 people, including the gospel singer and hymn-writer Philip Bliss and his wife, and was the worst rail accident in the U.S. in the 19th century and until the Great Train Wreck of 1918.

The coroner's report found that the bridge, designed by the railroad company president, had been improperly designed and inadequately inspected. As a result of the accident a hospital was built in the town and a federal system set up to formally investigate fatal railroad accidents.
Bridge collapse and fire

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Train No. 5, The Pacific Express, left Erie, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of December 29, 1876 in deep snow. Two locomotives, "Socrates" and "Columbia", were hauling 11 railcars, including two express cars, two baggage cars, one smoking car, three coaches, and three sleeping cars that carried 159 passengers. At about 7:30 pm the train was crossing over the Ashtabula River about 1,000 feet (300 m) from the railroad station at Ashtabula, Ohio when the bridge gave way beneath it. The lead locomotive made it across the bridge, while the second locomotive and the rest of the train plunged 76 feet (23 m) into the water. Some cars landed in an upright position. The wooden cars were set alight by the heating stoves and lamps and soon small, localized fires became an inferno.

Of 159 passengers and crew on board that night, 92 were killed or died later from injuries; they included the gospel singer and hymn-writer Philip Bliss and his wife. Forty-eight of the fatalities were unrecognizable or consumed in the flames. Sixty-four people were injured.

Aftermath
The crash was heard in the town and the alarm was raised. By the time the townspeople reached the bridge, the wounded passengers had made their way to the shore and the fire was burning fiercely. When the Ashtabula Fire Brigade arrived, the immediate instructions from railroad employees were to get the wounded out and to clear a pathway up the side of the ravine. After this no water was put onto the fire, even after reports of survivors still trapped in the wreck.

The survivors were led, carried and conveyed on sleds to hotels and private houses in the town, there being no hospital. However, people assisting also stole money and valuables from the survivors and dead, $1,500 (about 35,000 dollars today) being returned following investigation by detectives and after the mayor had made a proclamation. The dead were moved the following morning. The railroad bridge was re-built with temporary underpinning.