Stirrin’ up ticket sales the old fashioned way – with a staged train crash.
W.G. Crush worked for the MKT rail road and was tasked with boosting ticket sales. His brilliant idea that was met with much enthusiasm from his bosses? Staging a train crash. Train wrecks, being a novelty, drew HUGE crowds in the late 1800s. Only a single person spoke out against this manufactured accident – an old train mechanic who said he thought there was a good chance that the trains would telescope and the boilers would explode. (Foreshadowing!)
Ignoring the unnamed mechanic’s advice, a date chosen for this staged train wreck: September 15, 1896. The site for this locomotive chaos was in the middle of nowhere – a few miles south of West, Texas. This particular site was ideal because it was close to a main railroad line but also in the bottom of a small valley. Crush ordered 4 miles of rail line to be built specifically so the two trains could get a running start at one another. Additionally, he had constructed a 2 mile spur to shuttle people to a viewing location.
But that was only the beginning of the small town he had built for this event. Stay tuned.
Or, book a tour if you can’t wait to hear the ending!
A lot of the research for this series of posts comes from a great podcast called Wise About Texas. There is an entire episode about the Crash at Crush.
Wise, Ken. “Episode 15: The Crash at Crush!” Wise About Texas (audio blog), April 25, 2016. Accessed July 14, 2017. wiseaboutexas.com.
