Chatsworth Railway Accident

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Image of the accident site from Harper's Weekly
Memorial plaque from 1954 (some of the information is incorrect)

The Chatsworth Railroad Accident occurred on August 10, 1887, about three miles east of Chatsworth , Illinois , when a train collapsed a timber truss bridge while crossing . The result was at least 81 deaths and a large number of injuries.

Starting position

The crashed Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad (TP&W) train was on its way from Peoria to Niagara Falls at night . It was pulled by two locomotives , consisted of six fully occupied passenger cars , six sleeping cars and three baggage cars and was occupied by a total of around 700 passengers .

The scene of the accident was a wooden truss bridge that had suffered fire damage during the day. The summer of 1887 was hot and dry in Illinois. In order to prevent bush fires caused by flying sparks from steam locomotives under these conditions , the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad kept the fire strips along their railway lines free by means of controlled burning. Such an action had also taken place near the bridge on the day of the accident and it was subsequently suspected that the fire at the bridge was caused by the fact that such a controlled fire was not completely extinguished.

the accident

The Tunis sleeping car above the 1.70 m high and 2.50 long wooden bridge, the destruction of which triggered the accident, as well as 17 bogies of the railway wagons that crashed

The train drove over the bridge at about 65 km / h. The first locomotive had just crossed the bridge when it collapsed due to the fire damage. The second locomotive hit the slope under the bridge and the following vehicles fell behind and pushed into one another. Only the sleeping cars at the end of the train came to a stop in the tracks in front of the bridge . The accident resulted in between 81 and 85 deaths and the number of injuries fluctuated between 169 and 372.

consequences

Onlookers on the wreck of the Niagara Excursion Train

Four days after the accident, the wreckage of the train was burned on the spot. The accident pointed to the greater safety of passenger coaches in steel construction, which were increasingly procured in the period that followed.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The New York Times : Over One Hundred Dead; And Four Times As Many Wounded. A crowded excursion Train crashes through a burning bridge - perhaps the work of thieves .
  2. ↑ a b c Bill Kemp: 1887 train wreck near Chatsworth one of worst in US In: The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois) v. May 8, 2007.
  3. ^ NN: The Illinois Railroad Accident . In: Harper's Weekly v. August 20, 1887.

Coordinates: 40 ° 45 ′ 17.7 "  N , 88 ° 15 ′ 28.1"  W.