"Along The Blue" #4 | 1 Comments - Click Here :

  These two slightly different articles about the same incident; while both gory and tragic, also gleam a little bit of information about the daily railroad operations at Dickey:

Breckenridge Bulletin; Feb 16, 1907;
TO ETERNITY IN A TWINKLING
  John B. Lasley was run over by the cars at Dickey Wednesday at about noon and instantly killed. Lasley was for two or three years car inspector at Dickey for the C.& S. road.
  On the day he came to such a sudden and untimely end he was engaged in freeing the switch track of some ice which had accumulated upon it. An extra freight train was switching around near him, and all at once while his back was turned toward the moving train and his attention directed to loosening a bolt in the rail, the engine and two cars came upon him. People nearby saw his danger and attempted to warn him, but he either did not hear them or failed to understand what they meant.
  The engineer and fireman, it seems, from the evidence they gave before the coroners jury, did not notice the unfortunate man. A car loaded with ties struck him and in an instant he was in eternity, his body a horribly mangled mass of flesh and bones. One arm and one leg were severed and practically every bone in his body was crushed, and his entrails and pieces of bones and flesh were strewn along the track for over two-hundred feet.
  Dr. Condon was immediately summoned, and at once secured a coroner's jury and they proceeded to the scene of the the accident and held an inquest, returning the verdict of death "as the result of an unavoidable accident". The facts brought out at the inquest were substantially the same as given above.
  Deceased was about 34 years old, a young man of good habits, industrious and honest. Not long since he was married to Miss Elsie Shea, at Dickey. He had been employed as car inspector there some two or three years.

Summit County Journal; Feb 16, 1907;
LASLEY MET HORRIBLE DEATH
  At 1 o'clock Wednesday afternoon, Coroner Condon was called by wire to Dickey to hold an inquest upon the remains of John Lasley, reported killed at that place. Dickey is a coal and water station on the Colorado and Southern, seven miles north of Breckenridge.
  The doctor hastily picked up a jury and left in a sleigh for the scene of the accident. Upon their arrival at Dickey a most horrible sight presented itself. The body of John Lasley was literally ground into an unsightly mass, only the head bore semblance of what was once a strong, healthy man.
  Lasley was in the employ of the railroad company, as hostler in the engine house. On the day above mentioned, a west bound extra freight stopped at Dickey to do a lot of moving and switching of freight cars. The train, in charge of Conductor Williams, was a double header. While the cars were being moved about on the several tracks and sidings, Mr. Lasley was around and on the right of way, and to pass away the time had been assisting the section hands in picking ice from between the rails.
  At about 12:30 o'clock, Lasley and the section foreman ceased work on the icy switches and started to walk down the main line track towards the depot, situate about one hundred yards away. The two men walked leisurly along, paying but slight attention to the shifting of cars.
  Just north of the water tank the trainmen made what is known as a "flying switch", the engine with several cars remaining on the main line and backing down toward the two men on the track. Seeing the pending danger the footmen were in, in continuing to walk the track, the fireman on the other engine, the station agent and others shouted to the men to jump off, but Lasley it seems, did not hear, and certainly did not heed the cry of danger or notice the rapidly approaching cars till hit by a car load of cross-ties. The section boss barely made a clear get-away.
  He was knocked down, run over, dragged and mangled. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of death in accordance with the above facts, but attached no blame upon anybody.
  Deceased was married and resided at Dickey with his wife, formerly a Breckenridge lady by the name of Sellia Shea. He was about 35 years of age. He leaves a young widow but no children. The remains will be sent to Grand Junction today for burial.