Two trains, one tragedy: Remembering the deadly wreck that shook Naperville 75 years ago

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ ... story.html



The school day ended earlier than usual for Ron Keller when his father drove over to pick him up from Miss McDermond’s class on April 25, 1946.

Dad didn’t want the young boy anywhere near the railroad tracks at Loomis Street, which he’d typically cross on his walk home from Ellsworth School.

In the car, the elder Keller told his son about a horrific wreck in Naperville, explaining how one train ran into the back end of another.

“As a first-grader, I didn’t quite understand what the problem was because all I could relate to was my Lionel train. When one train ran into the other one, you’d put it back on the track,” said Keller, who for more than 50 years has been the Naperville Municipal Band conductor.

When their car reached the wooden bridge on Columbia Street over the railroad tracks, Keller’s dad stopped so they could survey the jumbled crash site.
[Most read] Daily horoscope for April 25, 2021 »

“You could see the mess that was there,” Keller said. “The locomotive of the second train ran almost completely through the back car of the lead train. Peeled it open like a tin can.”

Sunday marks the 75th anniversary of the crash, one of the worst train wrecks in Illinois history in which 45 people were killed and many more injured.

Naperville residents — the town had a population of about 5,000 in 1946 — rushed to the aid of survivors and collect the dead in a disaster that shattered the early afternoon peace.


The wreck

The day was clear and temperatures in the 60s on Thursday, April 25, 1946, when the Advance Flyer and the Exposition Flyer trains left Union Station westbound at 12:35 p.m., filled with families headed home from Easter celebrations the weekend before and soldiers returning from World War II, according to former Naperville resident Chuck Spinner. His 2012 book, “The Tragedy at the Loomis Street Crossing,” has made him the authority on what happened that spring afternoon and the lives that were changed both on and off the trains.

Because the two passenger trains shared the same Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad tracks outside of Chicago, it was the custom that the Advance Flyer would take the lead with the Exposition Flyer trailing two to three minutes behind at speeds of 80 to 85 mph, Spinner said.

“It was an accident waiting to happen,” he said.

Pretty sad that trains regularly went 85-90 mph back in the fucking 1940s, and they’re now limited to 60.

_________________

remember when the chemical plant blew up by the oasis on the interstate? that was awesome

_________________
the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

they were wearing masks back then

_________________
the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Damn. You could get to Naperville in 17 minutes?

Or die tryin'.

_________________
You know me like that.

By train.

You really want to thrilling, try getting from Wrigleyville to Lake Geneva in less than 90 minutes on a Friday afternoon via the roads.

_________________