train wreck
A train wreck, train collision, train accident or train crash is a type of disaster involving one or more trains. Train wrecks often occur as a result of miscommunication, as when a moving train meets another train on the same track; or an acc ...
occurred on December 18, 1867, just after 3 p.m. when the last coach of the Buffalo-bound ''New York Express'' of the Lake Shore Railway derailed at a bridge in
Angola, New York
Angola is a village in the town of Evans in Erie County, New York, United States. Located east of Lake Erie, the village is southwest of downtown Buffalo. As of the 2010 Census, Angola had a population of 2,127. An unincorporated community kn ...
, United States, slid down into a gorge and caught fire, killing approximately 49 people. At the time, it was one of the deadliest train wrecks in American history.
Train
On the morning of December 18, 1867, the ''New York Express'' left
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
, at 1:30 p.m.
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
planned to make the journey, but arrived a few minutes late. His baggage made it onto the train; he did not. That day the train consisted of four baggage cars, one second class car and three first-class cars. Each wooden passenger car had a
pot-bellied stove
A potbelly stove is a cast-iron, coal-burning or wood-burning stove that is cylindrical with a bulge in the middle. Gove PB (editor in chief) (1981). ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged''. Springfield ...
at each end to provide heat, and kerosene lamps for light. The train lost time on the journey. By the time it passed
, it was running two hours and forty-five minutes late, traveling rapidly to try to make up lost time. Its last passenger stop before the accident was at
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label= French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Silver Creek, but only to take on wood and water.
Accident
The train was formed of so-called "compromise cars", which were designed to allow trains to run on both the of the
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mi ...
as well as the of the Lake Shore Railroad. This allowed lateral movement on the Ohio gauge and created instability. As the train neared the
truss bridge
A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...
over Big Sister Creek just east of Angola at 3:11, it ran over a
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" '' Triadobatrachus'' is ...
(the crossing point of two rails). The front
axle
An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, beari ...
of the rear car was slightly bent, and the frog caused a wheel on the defective axle to jump off the track, derailing the rear car, which then swayed violently from side to side. The brakes were applied, but the train still traveled at considerable speed as it crossed the bridge. The last car uncoupled from the train and plunged down into the icy gorge. The second-to-last car also derailed, but made it to the other side of the gorge before sliding down the embankment. Only one person was killed in this car.
Deaths
The last car plunged down the ice-covered slope to the gully bottom and came to a rest, at a 45-degree angle, with a fearful crash. The passengers were thrown together at the end of the car onto the overturned stove. The stove from the other end of the car fell upon them and released hot coals. The carriage immediately caught fire, the fuel from the kerosene lamps fueling the flames. Only two people escaped alive from the carriage; some may have suffocated, but the majority were burned alive. Witnesses spoke of hearing the screams of those trapped inside lasting for five minutes.
Reporting
The accident, dubbed the "Angola Horror", gripped the imagination of the nation. Accounts of the tragedy, accompanied by grisly illustrations, filled the pages of newspapers for weeks and showed the tragedy of those trying to identify their loved ones among the charred remains that were pulled from the wreckage.
Frank Leslie
Frank Leslie (March 29, 1821 – January 10, 1880) was an English-born American engraver, illustrator, and publisher of family periodicals.
Biography
English origins
Leslie was born on March 29, 1821, in Ipswich, England as Henry Carter, the ...
's '' Illustrated Newspaper'' carried five sketches of the scene and concluded, "This railroad disaster is accompanied by more horrible circumstances than ever before known in this country, and its results are truly sickening to contemplate".
Aftermath
The accident and the public outcry that arose from it influenced many railroad reforms that soon followed, including the replacement of loosely secured stoves with safer forms of heating, more effective braking systems and the standardization of
track gauge
In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...
s.
Memorial
In 2008, the villagers of Angola reserved a parcel of land along Commercial Street and erected a sign to mark the site of the accident, dedicated to its victims. A second memorial to at least 17 unidentified victims buried in
Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo
Forest Lawn Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in Buffalo, New York, founded in 1849 by Charles E. Clarke. It covers over and over 152,000 are buried there, including U.S. President Millard Fillmore, First Lady Abigail Fillmore, singer Rick J ...
was planned and later erected in 2015.
See also
*
Lists of rail accidents
This is the list of rail accident lists.
Lists By year
By type
* By country
* By death toll
* Terrorist incidents
See also
* Classification of railway accidents
* Derailment
*Rail Transport
* Train wreck
* Tram accident
* Train-pedestrian ...