Three Killed in Wreck of Erie Train 7

Lima, OH, Dec. 22 (A.P.) - Crashing through a signal tower after jumping the tracks, a speeding Erie passenger train was wrecked two miles south of here last night, killing three men and injuring several passengers.

The train, No. 7, westbound from New York to Chicago, was going about 70 miles an hour, trainmen said, when it left the rails.

Nine cars and the engine overturned in the ditch, and two of the cars caught fire. Four other coaches, containing most of the 30 passengers aboard, remained upright.

Charles Scott, engineer, and Earl Swihart, fireman, both of Huntington, IN, were trapped in the cab of the locomotive and were killed, probably instantly.

Charles Aldrich of Lima, working in the tower, was killed when the crash hurled him from his lofty room onto one of the burning coaches.

Only one passenger, Miss Georgia Deerwester of Huntington, IN, required hospital treatment.

The wreck occurred at a crossing of the Erie and the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton railroads. Trainmen said the flier left the tracks as it struck a side switch near the crossing.

Harry F. Farquharson, of 43 Front Avenue, Salamanca, NY, express messenger on the Erie Railroad, was the only Salamanca man in the wreck, and he escaped injury, according to word sent to relatives. The wreck was the second serious one in which he has been in in 20 some years of express messenger work, it is said. Several years ago, when the train on which he was running was in a wreck, he crawled onto a high shelf provided for such emergencies in the baggage cars, and so saved himself, although the car was reduced to splinters.

Erie Train 2, Chicago to New York, due here at 8:42 o'clock this morning, was about four hours late as a result of the wreck, it was reported at the local offices.

From the December 23, 1932 issue of the Zanesville, OH Signal:
Engineer's Body Taken From Wreck
Lima, O. Dec. 23 - With the body of Engineer Charles Scott, one of three men killed in the wreck of an Erie passenger train here early yesterday, recovered from beneath the engine, the working crews had virtually cleared the debris from the right of way this morning.