1912 Railroad Disaster: Boiler Explosion at San Antonio Southern Pacific Shop Yards. Bexar County, Texas History

1912 Railroad Disaster at
San Antonio's Southern Pacific Shop Yard

32 MEN KILLED AND 50 INJURED

When a Passenger Mogul Lets Go at San Antonio.

Most of Victims Were Strike-Breakers -- Explosion Due to Carelessness --
Force of Explosion Terrific, San Antonio Being Jarred as by Quake.

San Antonio, Texas, March 18 -- At least thirty-two men were killed and
more than fifty injured today when the boiler of locomotive No. 704
exploded in the shop yards of the Southern Pacific railroad here. The
property damage will approximate $200,000!

A committee of railroad officials, army officers and citizens made an
investigation this afternoon, and is of the opinion that the explosion
probably was due to carelessness of one of the men killed in allowing an
inrush of cold water into the superheated boiler, in which the water was
already low.

Some of the Dead

The identified dead:
WALTER JOURDAN, engineer
B. MANSKER, SR., foreman blacksmith shops
WILLIAM R. BREMER, machinist
J. BRUDY, machinist, Pittsburg, Pa.
RAYMOND F. BRADY, Allegheny, Pa.
W. H. HOEBLER, machinist
JAMES VALENTINE, engine inspector
H. C. DURBIN, machinist
_____ WEBBER
J. R. MILLER, Orange, Texas
ALBERT ROBERTS, helper
E. B. SHAW, Cleburne, Texas, machinist
_____ MAY
J. GORDAN, roundhouse employee
CARL ZYSKO, blacksmith
FIVE NEGRO HELPERS
Except where indicated, the former residences of those killed are not known.

Human Fragments Scattered

In addition, twelve bodies have not been identified, and human fragments
picked up within a radius of several blocks probably account for several missing.

The engine, a big passenger mogul, practically new, had been brought to
the shops for inspection. Those in the vicinity who escaped immediate
death declare that the boiler burst without warning, tearing the huge
machine to bits. Parts of the locomotive and the wrecked roundhouse and
adjoining shop buildings, together with the arms, legs, heads and mangled
trunks of the victims, were scattered for blocks around.

Jourdan was in the cab of the engine at the time of the explosion.

The buildings wrecked are the copper house, the blacksmith shop and the
round house, which formed the square in which the locomotive stood. Of
those killed the greater number were shopmen sent from northern and
eastern cities several months ago to replace employees on strike.

Victims Fearfully Mangled

The army hospital corps here was rushed to the yards and police,
ambulances and Y. M. C. A. workers were organized into rescue bands to dig
out the dead and try to save the fast ebbing lives of the wounded. So
mangled were some victims that there seemed no hope of piecing the
fragments of their bodies together sufficiently to identify them.

The locomotive boiler was blown three blocks. The roundhouse and copper
shops were practically demolished and the men working in them were hurt by
falling walls.

The locomotive was standing in the yards near the shops and the explosion
came without warning. Parts of the roadhouse collapsed and several small
buildings in the shop inclosure were wrecked, including part of the
machine shops. Engines in the roundhouse were smashed as if hit with huge
mallets. The roundhouse caught fire for a time. The half-ton jacket of
the exploded locomotive boiler dropped between two houses on Duval street,
while the tender was catapulted several hundred feet and twisted into a
big shapeless chunk of steel.

Windows were blown for many blocks and the entire city felt the jar.

Bits of Bodies Everywhere

Fragments of bodies were picked up for blocks around the shop's yards.
Bodies and parts of bodies were dragged out of the wreckage in the
immediate vicinity of the explosion.

Portions of the locomotive's machinery were hurled to an incredible height
into the air and rained in bits of steel over the adjacent buildings.
Some of these fragments were big, tearing jagged holes in roofs.

The bed plates and the drivers of 704 seemed to escape the impact, for
they stood meekly near their original position, but the tender was
wrenched loose from her coupling and shot down track for 150 feet, where
it ricochetted against another engine and was wrecked.

Inside the machine and blacksmith shop workmen never knew what happened.
More than fourteen in that building were dismembered, portions of trunks,
torsos or limbs being found jammed in crevices in the roof, sides or
entanglede in machinery. A great portion of the wall fell inwards,
burying a dozen.

Robert U. Lipscomb, foreman of the shops and a brother of City Alderman
Joel A. Lipscomb, was picked from his feet, hurled 30 feet and rose semi-
conscious, grasping in his hand the hat of a dead man.

In the copper shop T. A. Williams, the foreman, was knocked under a heavy
work bench, the entire structure plunging down over him, but he escaped
with nothing more than burns and bruises. He remained under the debris
until half and hour after then explosion. Among the shrieks of the
injured after the explosion arose the roar of flaming oil from the feed
pipe through which the oil-burning locomotives filled their tenders. This
pipe had broken and ignited. It was choked off finally.

Woman Injured in Her Home

Pieces of boiler iron weighing from a small fraction of a pound to several
tons were hurled through the air as far as six blocks and houses a
distance of half a mile were damaged by the force of the concussion.

Mrs. B. S. Gillis, in her home seven blocks away, was severely, if not
fatally, injured when the front end of the locomotive crashed through the
roof, demolishing three rooms and continuing through the ground floor of
the house. A splinter of wood about an inch square was driven through her
head, a gash about 6 inches long was cut in her right leg and her left
shoulder was dislocated. Mrs. Gillis is 62 years of age.

[End of transcription of article from The Atlanta Constitution,
Atlanta, Georgia, 19 March 1912. Viewed at Ancestry's Historical Newspaper Collection.]

Note: The offical death count was 26... As already stated, the above article is from The Atlanta Constitution. If anyone has an article from a local newspaper, such as the Express-News, that possibly lists more of the victims, and are willing to share, please email Stephanie Lincecum. Thanks!