TRANSPORT: Rickety Rails

Early one morning last week, a Pennsylvania Railroad freight train was chuffing through the Juniata River Gap, west of Huntingdon, Pa. A heavy steel plate broke loose from its lashing on a flatcar, swung out wide. The P.R.R.'s crack New York-to-St. Louis American was passing on the adjoining track. The steel nicked the engine, scraped three mail and baggage cars, then slashed murderously into the side of a coach. Sleeping passengers were hurled, dazed and bleeding, into the aisle. Another plate toppled over to the opposite track into the path of an eastbound freight, derailed the engine. Five were...