Green Mountain train wreck | |
---|---|
Details | |
Date | March 21, 1910 8 am |
Location | Spring Creek Township, Tama County, Iowa, between Green Mountain and Gladbrook |
Coordinates | 42°9′53″N92°46′00″W / 42.16472°N 92.76667°W |
Country | United States |
Line | Chicago Great Western Railway |
Operator | Rock Island Line |
Incident type | Derailment |
Cause | Undetermined |
Statistics | |
Trains | 1 |
Deaths | 52 [1] |
The Green Mountain train wreck is the worst ever railroad accident in the state of Iowa. It occurred between Green Mountain and Gladbrook on the morning of March 21, 1910, and killed 52 people. [1] [2]
A train wreck earlier that morning at Shellsburg meant that the Rock Island Line trains were being diverted from Cedar Rapids to Waterloo over Chicago Great Western tracks via Marshalltown. [3] The trains concerned were the No. 21 St Louis-Twin Cities and No. 19 Chicago-Twin Cities; which had been combined into a ten car train with the two locomotives travelling backwards, tender first.[ citation needed ] The new combined train now had two wooden cars sandwiched between the locomotives, a steel Pullman car, and other steel cars. [2]
Between Green Mountain and Gladbrook, just east of the Marshall County border, the lead engine left the tracks and hit a clay embankment coming to a sudden stop. The steel cars sliced through the two wooden coaches: a smoking car and a ladies' day coach containing many children. [1] There were no fatalities in the Pullman cars. [4] One of the uninjured passengers said, "I saw women in the coach crushed into a bleeding mass, their bodies twisted out of human shape. I have seen what I shall see all my life when I dream." [3] A relief train arrived two hours after the accident. It was later reported, "The sight was one of horribly crushed, mutilated, and dismembered bodies." [5]
One the day after the wreck, the New York Times reported 46 dead (45 in the main headline, 46 in the continuation on page 2). The Times identified 36 names, adding that "ten are so badly disfigured that their identity cannot be discovered. [6]
No official cause was ever released for the wreck, nor were any charges of neglect made [1] although the crash did result in the introduction of new safety procedures. [2]
The Great Train Wreck of 1918 occurred on July 9, 1918, in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Two passenger trains, operated by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway ("NC&StL"), collided head-on, costing at least 101 lives and injuring an additional 171. It is considered the worst rail accident in U.S. history, though estimates of the death toll of this accident overlap with that of the Malbone Street Wreck in Brooklyn, New York, the same year.
The Arkansas and Missouri Railroad is a Class III short-line railroad headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas.
The Ghost Town & Calico Railway is a 3 ft narrow-gauge heritage railroad and amusement park attraction within Knott's Berry Farm, an amusement park located in Buena Park, California.
The Abraham Lincoln, also known as Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Business Car No. 101, is the oldest operable passenger car in the United States allowed to run on tracks operated by Amtrak. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Indiana Transportation Museum was a railroad museum that was formerly located in the Forest Park neighborhood of Noblesville, Indiana, United States. It owned a variety of preserved railroad equipment, some of which still operate today. ITM ceased operations in 2023 and the line is now owned and operated by the Nickel Plate Express.
The Los Angeles Limited was a named passenger train in the United States. It was operated by the Union Pacific Railroad from 1905 to 1954.
The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad of Colorado was a heritage railway that operated from 2006 to 2019 in and around the San Luis Valley as a subsidiary of the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad. The heritage railroad ceased operating excursions following a wildfire that damaged some of their facilities, as well as the parent company SLRG entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2019.
The New Market train wreck happened when two Southern Railway passenger trains traveling at great speed collided head on near New Market, Tennessee, on Saturday, September 24, 1904, killing at least 56 passengers and crew and injuring 106.
The Connellsville train wreck was a rail accident that occurred on December 23, 1903, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near Connellsville, Pennsylvania. The Duquesne Limited, a passenger train, derailed when it struck a load of timber lying on the tracks. The timber had fallen from a freight train minutes before the collision. The crash resulted in 64 deaths and 68 injuries.
The Corning train wreck was a railway accident that occurred at 5.21 a.m. on July 4, 1912, on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad at East Corning freight station in Gibson three miles east of Corning in New York State, leaving 39 dead and 88 injured.
The 1910 Rogers Pass Avalanche killed 58 men clearing a railroad line just outside of Revelstoke in Rogers Pass through the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia on March 4, 1910. It is Canada's worst avalanche disaster.
The Indianola Train Wreck was a railway accident that occurred at 7:08 a.m. on May 29, 1911, on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad one half mile west of Indianola, Nebraska leaving 18 dead and 32 injured.
The Land O'Corn was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Illinois Central Railroad between Chicago, Illinois, and Waterloo, Iowa, from 1941 until 1967. Its inception was due in no small part to John W. Rath of Ackley, IA and part owner of the Rath Packing Co. of Waterloo, Iowa as well as a member of the Illinois Central's board of directors. It featured a wide range of equipment over its existence, including self-propelled Motorailers and steam locomotives, before finally adopting conventional diesel locomotives and lightweight cars. The Illinois Central discontinued the Land O'Corn in 1967; Amtrak later operated the Black Hawk over part of its route.
The Camp Creek train wreck was a railroad disaster that took place on 23 June 1900 just outside McDonough, Georgia. The northbound Southern Railway train hit a washout 1.5 miles north of the town, plunging 60 feet into the swollen creek below before bursting into flames, killing 35 of the 45 aboard the train.
The Colebrookdale Railroad, also known as the Secret Valley Line or colloquially as The Colebrookdale, is a tourist railroad located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The railroad operates between Boyertown in Berks County and Pottstown in Montgomery County.
The Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad was an electric passenger railroad from Chicago west through its suburbs. The western portions were high-speed heavy lines, but access to the downtown area was on an elevated railway, part of Chicago’s “L” system. Because of the electric power and tight loading gauge, the cars were of unusual designs. One other area railroad, the “North Shore Line”, also used the “L” to enter Chicago and had similar cars.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: location (link)