Western Maryland Railroad Tragedy at High Bridges

Submitted by Joan Bittner Fry

On my way home from Thurmont today, I drove under the railroad bridges (High Bridges). The train “ran over” me twice. I was reminded of the stories I’d read and heard about of the head-on collision over High Bridges in 1915 (119 years ago). At that time, the bridges were wooden. Here is the story, excerpted from Chapter 15 of George Wireman’s book Gateway to the Mountains, published in 1969.  –Joan Fry

Story from Gateway to the Mountains

“The tragic train wreck occurred on June 25, 1915, involving the Blue Mountain Express and a mail train near Thurmont, Maryland. The two trains collided head-on, causing significant damage and casualties. Mrs. W. C. Chipchase and her son, Walter, were among the victims. They were in the baggage car that fell into a ravine due to the collision. Unfortunately, Mrs. Chipchase died in the collision, and Walter succumbed to his injuries later that night.

This accident was a result of a mix-up in right-of-way orders, which led to the tragic collision.

On June 25, 1915, the famous Blue Mountain Express met a mail train from Hagerstown in a head-on crash on High Bridge just west of Thurmont, killing six persons and injuring several others. Fifty-two years (since 1969) have passed since this wreck, but there are a number of local citizens still living that recall the wreck and its effect on the community. One of these is Charles W. Eyler, who was only 17 years old at the time. His account of the wreck follows:

Charles W. Eyler Recalled

“I was 17 years old at the time, and had a paper route in town with a friend, Earl Rout, now of Biglerville. We would meet the Western Maryland’s Blue Mountain Express every afternoon about 5:10, get the Baltimore papers from the baggage men and deliver them before supper.

The express, known to the railroad and the townspeople as No. 11, was a crack passenger train, rarely off schedule. On the afternoon of June 25, however, it was off. Earl and I waited around the station for twenty minutes and finally heard its whistle coming up the line.

It pulled in and we asked the fireman, Fred Hayes, what had happened. He said that they had had a hotbox which they had repacked at Union Bridge. The one-legged baggage man, Luther Hall, was complaining that he would be late getting home to supper in Hagerstown.

Earl and I got our papers and walked around the engine toward town. Sometimes we waited until it had finished taking on water and pulled out, but we were late ourselves and wanted to get the papers delivered. This afternoon the conductor would have to get new orders from Hagerstown, telling him which siding to use to let the eastbound mail train pass. Much of the line through the mountains was single track.

We heard the train pull out from the station as we were almost finished making our rounds, and about five minutes later we heard the whistle blow again. But this time it didn’t stop blowing, and we knew right away that something was wrong. We got rid of the rest of our papers in a hurry and took off up the track, half running.

We got almost to the bridge over Owens Creek, about two miles west of town, when we met the flagman running back down the line. He told us the express had crashed head-on into the mail train right on the bridge, and that some people had been killed. A terrible sight met us when we got to the bridge.

The two engines were locked together with their front sections telescoped. They must have met with a terrific impact. How they stayed on the bridge, nobody could understand, but that surely prevented further loss of life. Coals were falling from one of the boilers and for a time threatened to set fire to the wooden structure of the bridge. The whistle on one of the engines had stuck in an open position and kept blowing until all of the steam was gone.

The wooden baggage car of the express was lying down in the ravine 100 feet below, completely smashed. The heavy steel Pullman behind it had been thrown forward by the sudden stop, crushing both the baggage car and the engine’s tender, knocking them off of the bridge. The Pullman fell half off the bridge.

Most of the passengers had come out of the cars by the time we arrived and some were trying to help those trapped in the wreckage in the ravine. Besides the baggage man, a Baltimore woman, Mrs. Edwin Chipchase, and her son had been riding in the baggage car. She was an invalid and had to lie on a cot while she traveled, which is why she was not riding in the Pullman.

Also dead were Luther Hall, who had been worrying about being late for supper, and the fireman we had talked to at the station. The engineer, Frank Snyder, had been thrown out on the locomotive’s running board and had both legs broken.

Both the engineer and the fireman of No. 10, the mail train, were dead. The engineer, Coleman Cook, was from Baltimore. He had been thrown down to the road under the bridge and killed instantly. Both engineers had been close friends and had seen many years of service with the Western Maryland.

Six people died altogether, and twelve were injured. The first rescue parties arrived by car from Thurmont. We helped some of the injured to neighboring homes, where they awaited transportation to the hospital in Hagerstown. Darkness was fast approaching and there was nothing anybody could do for the people in the ravine.”

It might be well to state here that so many people had gathered at the scene of the wreck that work of identifying the dead and injured and locating those who were hurt was quite difficult. Dr. E. C. Kefauver, of Thurmont, the official physician of the Western Maryland at Thurmont, was in charge of the rescue work. Other doctors who assisted in the rescue work were Dr. Victor F. Cullen, Dr. C. L. Wachter, both of Sabillasville, and Dr. Morris A. Birely of Thurmont.

End of George Wireman’s Gateway to the Mountains, Chapter 15, from 1969.

Added by Joan Fry

Funeral services for Fannie B. Chipchase and her 27-year-old son, Walter Nelson Chipchase, were held June 27, 1915, at St. Michael and All Angels’ Church. (Published in The Evening Sun, June 26, 1915.)

Mrs. Chipchase’s will was published July 16, 1915, in The Baltimore Sun. It began with the sentence: “Knowing the uncertainty of human life, I now make this my last will and testament.” To her husband, W. Edwin Chipchase, she bequeathed a dwelling in Washington County, Maryland, for life and then to her children.

Her husband’s obituary from The Baltimore Sun, March 6, 1939, read, in part ‘funeral services for W. Edwin Chipchase, 86, retired commission agent, will be conducted at Christ Protestant Episcopal Church by the Rev. Arthur G.W. Pfaffko of the Church of the Transfiguration, Blue Ridge Summit, PA. It was largely through Mr. Chipchases’s efforts that the Blue Ridge Summit church was erected’.”

High Bridge above Mechanicstown.