With our date and location chosen, our rail lines built and our small town erected, just how many people showed up to see the manufactured train wreck, the Crash at Crush?
Mr. Crush was actually quite conservative when he estimated that 25,000 people would attend the Crash at Crush. After the arrival of 33 fully loaded passenger trains delivered all of the spectators, the town of Crush swelled to 40,000 people, making it the second largest town in Texas for that day. The entire event was wildly financially successful for the “Katy”(aka MKT Railway Company, aka the Missouri Kansas Texas Railway Company) even though the crash spectacle itself was free to the public. The stacks of money were earned via concession stands and the fact that the Katy offered special $2 to $5 round trip fares to ride their lines to the site.
Book a tour to see the beautiful MKT building in the West End.
Image: taken from the KWTX.com website. It shows the crowd gathered after the crash to give you some idea of just how many people were there that day. There do not appear to be any photos in existence of the midway or the crowd prior to the crash.
