The
development of roads brought a stage line and later there were
narrow and broad gauge railroads. One such railroad ran a line off
into the bay, at an angle to the present San Rafael to San Quentin
road. The line connected with "Agnes Island," a piece of
land that juts out from the point and is now used as a connection for
the ferry pier.
After
many years of use, the pile supported line became shaky and was
condemned. The train was halted at a point nearer to land, from that
time on. But one day a conductor, preoccupied with some other
thoughts, sped the train out to the end of the line toward Agnes
Island. The pier split under the weight.
The
conductor, his engine, his fireman and engineer and a train load of
chickens folded with a big splash into the bay. The people were not
injured but many a squawking fowl learned how to swim.
Recollections
of Mary Newby as told to the
Independent
Journal - March 18, 1950 - Pages M8-10
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Two
Trainwrecks In A Day
Near
San Quentin Point
Engine
And Car Plunge Into the Bay
Disabled
Engineer Is Rescued From Drowning by His Brave Fireman
Special
Dispatch To The Call
SAN
RAFAEL, Sept. 22, 1908 --Running on a disused trestle at San Quentin
point, a branch terminus of the California Northwestern Railroad, the
morning passenger train crashed through the rotten timbers yesterday,
the engine and smoking car being precipitated into the waters of the bay.
The
sound of rending timbers was followed by the hiss of escaping steam
from the broken pipes and then the big engine turned over on its side
and nearly sank out of sight in the soft mud and water.
Behind
the submerged engine lay the combined baggage and smoking car, also
on its side, the water lapping half way up the splintered body of the
coach. In the car were a dozen panic stricken passengers who, after a
frantic struggle, succeeded in working themselves out of the car.
When
the engine turned over, Engineer Sam Louis and his fireman, V.
Brooks, were thrown from their seats into the water. Louis was struck
on the head as he fell and sank. Brooks, on coming to the surface,
missed Louis and immediately dived for him. After a few seconds of
delay, he managed to find him, half suffocated, and with great effort
pulled him out of the mud to a breathing place on the engine. Louis
was treated at the prison hospital by Dr. Stone. His injuries
consisted of bruises, lacerations and a possible fracture of the base
of the skull. Brooks, in company with H. W. Griggs, an employee of
the company at Ukiah, and Harold Carter, a newsboy, who were also
slightly injured, were taken to San Rafael and attended by Dr. Wickham.
The
wreck was indirectly due to another earlier in the day at Greenbrae.
The "horseshoe freight" had stopped at the Greenbrae
trestle waiting for the drawbridge to close when a special freight,
bound for Healdsburg, crashed into it from behind. There was thick
fog at the time and the engineer of the Healdsburg train did not know
of the other freight in front of him until his engine had smashed
into the caboose.
Conductor
James Hailey, who was standing on the caboose platform, saved
himself by jumping into the bay. In this wreck, two freight cars were
smashed into kindling wood.
Because
of the Greenbrae wreck, the regular Sonoma Valley engine and a coach
were ordered to make the run to San Quentin. Neither the engineer nor
the fireman knew the track and followed the signposts. They did not
know that the broad gauge track stopped at a bridge which had been
condemned six years before and in consequence ran right on it.
A
third wreck was reported from Ignacio, where two freight cars were
smashed in a collision with a freight engine.