Green Mountain train wreck
 Telescoping of the wooden coaches | |
| Date | March 21, 1910 |
|---|---|
| Time | 8 am |
| Location | Spring Creek Township, Tama County, between Green Mountain, Iowa and Gladbrook, Iowa |
| Country | United States |
| Rail line | Chicago Great Western Railway |
| Operator | Rock Island Line |
| Type of incident | 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; the two locomotives travelling backwards, tender first.[4] The new combined train now had two wooden cars sandwiched between the locomotives, a steel Pullman car, and other steel cars.[2]
At a place 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;[5] 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 "The sight was one of horribly crushed, mutilated, and dismembered bodies".[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]
References
- 1 2 3 4 http://gazetteonline.com/blogs/ramblin-with-rasdal/2010/03/01/iowas-great-train-wreck Iowa’s Great Train Wreck
- 1 2 3 http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=12182884 Fatal Train Wreck 100 years ago
- 1 2 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2211&dat=19100326&id=Nx4mAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6v0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=3190,5506551 Afro American, March 26, 1910
- ↑ http://www.nightwatchmanchronicles.com/Newspaper/NW6Nov09.htm Evening News Republican, March 21, 1910
- ↑ http://www3.gendisasters.com/iowa/8060/gladbrook-ia-train-wreck-mar-1910-horrifying-disaster Lincoln Evening News, Lincoln, NE, 22 Mar 1910
- ↑ Railroad Wrecks by Edgar A. Haine, p74-78, publ 1993, ISBN 0-8453-4844-2
External links
- 100th anniversary of record Iowa train wreck remembered
- Gladbrook, IA Train Wreck, Mar 1910
- Gladbrook, IA Train Wreck Photos
Coordinates: 42°9′53″N 92°46′00″W / 42.16472°N 92.76667°W