Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Train Wreck Site 100 Years Later in Gary, Indiana

#SteelCityStorm #CircusTrainWreckSite #GaryIndianaRailfan

Check Out Gary Indiana Railfan by hitting the link below
   / @garyindianarailfan  

In the early morning hours of June 22, 1918, Alonzo Sargent was at the throttle of a Michigan Central Railroad troop train pulled by 20 empty Pullman cars. He was aware that his train was closely following a slower circus train. Sargent, an experienced man at the throttle, had slept little if at all in the preceding 24 hours. The effects of a lack of sleep, several heavy meals, some kidney pills, and the gentle rolling of his locomotive are thought to have caused him to fall asleep at the controls.

At approximately 4 a.m., he missed at least two automatic signals and warnings posted by a brakeman of the 26-car circus train, which had made an emergency stop to check a hot box on one of the flatcars. The second train plowed into the caboose and four rear wooden sleeping cars of the circus train at a rail crossing known as Ivanhoe Interlocking. (5 1⁄2 miles east of Hammond, Indiana) at an estimated speed of 35 miles per hour.

The circus train held 400 performers and roustabouts of the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus. Most of the 86 who were killed in the train wreck perished in the first 35 seconds after the collision. Then, the wreckage caught on fire. Among the dead were Arthur Dierckx and Max Nietzborn of the Great Dierckx Brothers, a strongman act, and Jennie Ward Todd of The Flying Wards. There were also 127 injuries.

NOTICE : All Our Videos Are For Entertainment Purpose Only And Should Not Be Consider 100% accurate.
*Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
No copyright infringement intended.
ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS*