Spring Creek Township Railroad Accident
In the Spring Creek Township railroad accident on March 21, 1910, a train southwest of the town of the same name in Tama County between the stations of Green Mountain , Iowa , and Gladbrook , Iowa, derailed . 52 people were killed.
Starting position
In the early morning of the day of the accident, there had been another railroad accident in Shellsburg , Iowa, which blocked the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad and required diversions between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo , Iowa, over a stretch of the Chicago Great Western Railroad via Marshalltown made. In order to save routes , trains No. 21 from St. Louis to Twin Cities and No. 19 from Chicago to Twin Cities were combined into a single train for this diversion . This train consisted of ten coaches , two older wooden cars and modern cars , steel construction, including a Pullman car . The second locomotive ran as a push locomotive at the end of the train, with both locomotives leading with the tender .
the accident
At Spring Creek Township , the lead locomotive derailed and rammed it into a clay - embankment . As a result, it came to a very sudden standstill, with the sliding locomotive and the steel wagons slashing and smashing the wooden wagons between them and the locomotive. The two wooden wagons were a smoking wagon and a wagon reserved for women, in which many children also traveled. The victims all died in these two vehicles , while there were no deaths in the steel wagons.
consequences
A rescue train did not arrive until two hours after the accident.
The cause of the derailment of the locomotive was never determined, so no charges were brought. Not even negligence could be found. Nevertheless, new security guidelines were the result.
See also
literature
- Edgar A. Haine: Railroad Wrecks . 1993. ISBN 0-8453-4844-2
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Afro American v. March 26, 1910 .
- ^ Evening News Republican v. March 21, 1910 ( Memento of February 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ).
- ^ Lincoln Evening News, March 22, 1910
- ↑ Haine, pp. 74-78.
Coordinates: 42 ° 9 ′ 51.9 ″ N , 92 ° 45 ′ 58.1 ″ W.