When last we left our staged train wreck, the engines plus six cars were hurtling towards each other in Crush, TX, a small town specially built as a publicity stunt for the Katy Railroad.
When they met in the middle of 4 miles of rail, the trains slammed in to each other. As predicted by the one old timer mechanic, the trains ‘telescoped’, meaning that the cars furthest back slammed through the ones in front. The pressure from several boxcars barreling through one another lead to one of the boilers exploding. Debris was blasted in to the crowd, killing three and wounding many more. The photographer from Waco who had been hired especially for the event was blinded by a bolt, complete with attached nut, going through his eye. He was praised because although blinded, he created quite a number of popular photographs beforehand. And more astonishingly, during.
What was the fallout? Look out for our next installment of this wild ride.
Image: the trains slamming in to one another, courtesy of the Joplin Globe newspaper. Photos of the trains that day and of the crash are at Baylor University in their John Oscar “Swede” Johnson collection. They appear to be postcards or commemorative cards with frames and printed captions.
