Bacon’s pocket watch played in the tragedy. Norton says that either the Toledo Express’ conductor and engineer miscalculated their progress, disregarding established regulations, or “their watches must have been wrong.”īoth engineers died in the crash, so there was no way to know what role Mr. I was informed that it was not run down and as to whether it was stopped before the train left Oberlin or from some cause at the time of the collision I cannot say.Īt no point does Mr. On April 22, four days after the accident occurred, engineer Bacon’s watch was found by one of the section men while clearing away rubbish a little east of the passenger station at Kipton. Here’s his account of Engineer Bacon’s watch: Norton, Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs, the trains collided sometime between 4:52 and 4:54 P.M. The mystery: was a defective or poorly maintained pocket watch really to blame for the carnage?Īccording to the official report by Hon. There’s no question that the Toledo Express was supposed to be on a siding to let the fast mail train pass. Had the conductor looked at his own watch he could have prevented the accident. Leaving Oberlin, he supposed he had seven minutes in which to reach the meeting point. There were several stations between Elyria and Kipton, but the engineer pounded his train slowly along in the belief that he had time to spare. But the engineer’s watch stopped for four minutes and then began running again, a little matter of life and death of which he was unconscious. He said that he supposed the engineer would look out for No.4. Here’s a typical account:įrom the time the train left Elyria until it collided with the Fast Mail at Kipton, the conductor, as he admitted afterward, did not take his watch out of his pocket. Historians blame the engineer’s pocket watch for the collision. The postal clerks had not a chance to escape, they were caged like rats and the telescoping cars crushed the life out of them without a moment’s warning.

His hands and face were so badly scalded that blackened flesh dropped from his bones when his body was taken out.įireman STEALY of the fast mail jumped from the train and died soon afterwards. According to the Bismarck Daily Tribune North Dakota.īodies were all horribly crushed and mutilated, arms and legs being torn off, and corpses were almost beyond recognition.ĬHARLES TOPLIFF, the engineer of the fast mail, was found with his hand on the throttle, dead. Both engineers and six postal clerks died. The head-on collision destroyed both engines, three mail cars and one baggage car. On that day a fast mail train collided with the Toledo Express at Kipton Station, 40 miles west of Cleveland, Ohio. According to most historic accounts, the railroad watch was born on April 18, 1891.

Ball railroad pocket watch value