(The following appeared on the Clay County Leader website on June 26.)
HENRIETTA, Texas — Passengers on a commemorative train ride from Fort Worth to Quanah got more than they bargained for Saturday morning when a man with blue paint on his face and wielding an ax brought the iron horse to a halt.
Nathan Ray Daniels, 40, was first seen by a Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad official riding a coal train east. When the BNSF took a side track to allow the Quanah Zephyr commemorative train passage, witnesses on the Zephyr claimed Daniels began chopping at hoses on the freight train with an ax.
Clay County deputies and DPS troopers received a report of a man lying on the tracks. When deputies arrived, railroad workers reported seeing a man with a blue face hiding near the coal train. He was crawling under and around the trains, said Clay County Cheif Deputy J.T. Mitchell.
When BNSF Railway Officer Stephen Stove arrived on the scene, Daniels was laying on the ground along the tracks with the ax. Daniels was apprehended at gun-point by railroad police and brought to the patrol car of Clay County Deputy Kenneth Anthony. Daniels gave Anthony a false name and false information before he was finally identified.
Daniels kept the Zephyr at a standstill for one hour, 23 minutes.
Intial reports claimed Daniels, thought to be from Graham, was wearing a dress and that his face was painted blue. In fact, Daniels was wearing blue jeans and a pink shirt. Clay County authorities believe he had been “huffing” blue paint to become intoxicated.
Daniels was charged with failure to identify by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and charges of interfering with railroad property by BNSF.
The Quanah Zephyr ride, a mix of vintage coach cars and modern Amtrak passenger cars, was organized by the National Railway Historical Society as a one-day excursion for anyone attending the NRHS convention in Fort Worth and included a 1923 Pullman car. The Texas Zephyr, on which the Quanah Zephyr was based, was a passenger and mail train based in Fort Worth with stops throughout West Texas. It ran from 1940 until 1967.
For the 450 train enthusiasts on board, most of which were from the Northeast, the incident took place at a key location in Texas railroad history. It happened at Dick Worsham, which in the late 1800s was a railhead along the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad near the W.S. Worsham Ranch Headquarters between Henrietta and Bellevue.