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Steam Engines Collide Head On | Last Moments

Qxir

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Two steam locomotives crash directly into eachother at high speed in Texas, USA 1896.

"The Crash at Crush was a one-day publicity stunt in the U.S. state of Texas that took place on September 15, 1896, in which two unmanned locomotives were crashed into each other head-on at high speed. William George Crush, general passenger agent of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad, conceived the idea in order to demonstrate a staged train wreck as a public spectacle. No admission was charged, and train fares to the crash site – called Crush, set up as a temporary destination for the event – were offered at the reduced rate of US$2 (equivalent to $62.22 in 2020) from any location in Texas.
As a result, an estimated 40,000 people—more people than lived in the state's second-largest city at the time—attended the event. Unexpectedly, the impact caused both engine boilers to explode, resulting in a shower of flying debris that killed two people and caused numerous injuries among the spectators."

More on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_a...

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20 Comments

@Qxir Creator 4 years ago Pinned

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@ianmacfarlane1241 4 years ago

"is this dangerous?"
"absolutely no idea"
"is it okay to stand here?"
"absolutely no idea"
"where are you standing?"
"a lot further away than you"

@AndrewCamarata 4 years ago

They need to start doing these again. I would go watch.

@endgovernmentextremism 4 years ago

I have to say, I'm a huge fan of putting the press closer to explosions.

@eggballo4490 4 years ago

It's sickening what they did. Making engines fight each to the death for people's entertainment, it's barbaric. To this very day, locomotive abuse is a serious problem and we must band together to stop it.

@pleadinsanity621 4 years ago

Fun Fact: The Katy became a massive state park in Missouri when it was decommissioned. They covered the tracks path in gravel and now many people walk and bike the flat path, stretching 237 miles across Missouri. Living close to the trail, I’ve personally walked and biked on it many times. It has some awesome historic and beautiful sites along the trail.

@billyjoe8185 4 years ago (edited)

One of the victims who died was teenage boy named Ernest Darnell. He was sitting in a tree when the trains exploded and sent a hook flying straight towards his head, hitting him right in the middle of the eyes and splitting his skull, killing him instantly.

@chris2610 4 years ago (edited)

I grew up a few miles from where this happened, and its a well known local story, glad to see it getting more of an audience

Also, the reason it didn't generate much negative publicity, is because the only people who were killed, were people who got way closer than they were told to, so the general feeling was that they only had themselves to blame. At least, that's according to local tales

@BronsonTheCat 4 years ago

The poor photographer who lost his eye to a flying bolt! He didn’t see that coming!

@purplejay8030 4 years ago

It's insane how this actually generated POSITIVE publicity, despite multiple people dying in a violent explosion. Truly different times, I guess.

@AM-ce4of 4 years ago

Joe’s train was traveling north at 50mph and Jane’s train was traveling south at 60 mph. Where should stands be positioned to ensure spectators are as close as possible to the catastrophic explosion? Remember to show your work!

@valwaree 4 years ago

Boiler explosions were a real concern back then. They have the force to level a city block or two, so the fear the people had were real when he brought up that concern.

@anthonyhayes1267 4 years ago

If I had a nickel for every time Qxir covered a story about runaway trains, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

@schonnj 4 years ago

Wouldn't want to be the engineers that claimed the boilers wouldn't rupture after the collision. Also love the "Hey! I'm Alive! Quick, let's get a souvenir from the wreckage!" mentality after the explosion.

@purplehaze2358 4 years ago

I love how this actually resulted in two human deaths and a LOT more injuries, yet the people there still only saw it as an opportunity to collect souvenirs. They even got hurt further doing so.

@firebeardlongfellow5295 4 years ago

I'm surprised they fired Crush instead of the engineers he consulted. Or more so prosecuted the engineers with a fine or two somehow.

Crush did everything right from the information presented. He set up a seperate section of track for these trains to collide so as not to hamper operations of the main line. Along with consulting with engineers about whether the boilers might explode.

Back in a time where safety standards were laughable, and people were more likely to just say duck it and do whatever they wanted.

So for the company to sack Crush so quickly, and not the engineers is bonkers to me. Crush basically set up a nice controlled experiment and flashy showcase for the company with the knowledge it should be completely safe at the judgement of the consulted Engineers.

Like what.

@PrinceAlorian 4 years ago

Considering the difficult operation of the camera's of that era, it's amazing that they literally got the split second just before the impact, and just after.

@randomuser22 4 years ago

People today: "Oh no, the internet is making people do dangerous things for attention"

People of the past: "lmao, lets crash these two trains together to get people to take our railway service"

@gonnfishy2987 4 years ago

Astounding that it was deemed impossible that the boilers could explode. Also, people having disregard enough to stand that close. How has humanity made it this far????

@SQUAREHEADSAM1912 4 years ago (edited)

Fun fact:
Famous ragtime composer Scott Joplin composed a piece on the event called the “Great Crush Collision March”. He possibly witnessed it first hand.