As has been pointed out, the book on the break through of the Susquehanna very well describes the circumstances and events. There ceratinly was enough blame to go around: caless miners, mining contractor taking cahnces, corrupt union officials that looked the other way, negligence on the part of the State Bureau of Mines, etc. I have some personal knowledge since my wife's aunt and an elderly mining engineer were the last two employees of the E-L. They were both formerly employed by the Pennsylvania Coal Company and came under the E-L because the railroad still controlled a lot of mining rights and properties that all went back to the tie between the Erie and the Pennsylvania Coal Co. They worked upstairs in the DL&W Scarnton depot long after CR was formed and Mary's aunt evtually retired with an E-L pension. The coal involved was owned by the Pa Coal Co which in turned leased the mining rights to the Know Coal Co. As I reacall they in turn hired some sub contractor to do the actual mining. The facts are in the book. In the course of writing a book on the LV some eyars ago I met the conductor of the LV work train that actually pushed the LV hoppers into the gaping hole and whirlpool. Told me the LV never got paid for the cars, even though he had kept an accurate record of the car numbers. He also gave me the name of the LV despatcher (now in Florida) who recieved a message from the crew of an LV local freight that saw the embankment along the river was washing away. Fortunately the despatcher was able to reach a towerman and stop the Black Diamond which was due at the site within 20 minutes. So there very nearly was an even bigger disaster with a passenger tain going into the breach. ------------------------------
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