From the Alamosa Journal Mar 19, 1903
NO. 161 PUT UP AGAINST IT
As Engineer Beatty is well known to many of our readers, we take the following article from the Durango Democrat--
Engine No. 161 is having her hard run of luck just now. At Dulce, Sunday, March 15th, a deaf Jicarilla Apache Indian got in the way of 161 and was so badly injured that he died soon after.
Monday morning, while pulling out with the Eastern, a measly boulder, about the size of a mans fist, became wedged between the board and rail at the Animas road crossing, and while the rate of speed was slow, the engine, tender, and front trucks of the mail car left the track and when all wheels ceased to move the engine and tender were a conglomerate mass.
J. F. Martin, who resides at Flora Vista, New Mexico, was driving a team attached to a spring wagon, and was waiting close to the track for the train to go by. He said in describing the actions of the monster---
"I don't want to see anything like it again, but I wouldn't have missed it for a hundred dollar note. She came creepin' along as nice as you please, and when she hit that little rock, you orter seen her hunch; she bobbed along on them ties and behaved pretty well until she lost her front runnin' gears, but she couldn't cutter. when them running gears stuck in against the rails they humped their backs and the engine stuck her cow catcher in the bank and flopped over on her sides, smokin', puffin', steamin', and spewin'.
I was watch' all the time fer them boys to jump" meaning Engineer Frank Beatty and Fireman Lon Dunnbar, "but hey never offered to leave that engine until she fell over and when they lit they both tumbled out, and there waz iron and coal and wood and dirt and most everything a flyin' in the air. My hosses never skeered a dern bit until after the engine lit on her side and the noise of the final crash come, and that with stem escapin' made 'em jump, and it made me mad, for I wanted to shake them fellers' hands. they stayed right by the old gal until she flopped."
When Fireman Tom Roberts went to the scene of the wreck and sighted Fireman Dunbar, he shook his hand and said "I am glad you 'bumped' me, Lon" Tom had been firing for Beatty for the past two months and only laid off Saturday and Dunbar was assigned to the run.
Mr Beatty received only a few scalp bruises and a severe scratch on the back, Dunbar received a hard bump on his shin bone. That neither was killed or seriously injured
is miraculous, for both men stuck to their posts as long as the wheels turned.
The engine is very badly damaged, the tender is not much worse for the accident, and the mailcar is very little damaged. Many of the passengers hardly realized that an accident had occurred until the train stopped. Their praise was plentiful for the brave engineer and fireman. Mr Beatty reversed and put on the air brakes when the engine left the track, and stuck to his post. What more could an engineer do? His first remark was "Is any body hurt?". What could be more trying in sucj=h an instance as the above fireman? Nothing left for him to do but to save himself, yet he chose to stay at his post. Fireman Dunbar showed by his actions that his nerve is of the true sort.
By 5:10 o'clock the coach and tank had been put back on their trucks and hauled to the yards.
