For me, this episode was doubly informative. I live in Australia and have long enjoyed the movie "The Blues Brothers." Now I know where the song "She caught the Katy" has its origins.
Hits pretty close to home. I live a bit east of where Buckeye Park was. My grandparents had their first date there. And the Blues Brothers is pretty much the best movie ever made.
@@MonkeyJedi99, Long before The Blues Brothers movie, my friends and I were listening to "She Caught the Katy" on the great Taj Mahal double album "Giant Steps/De Ole Folks At Home", which showed the evolution of country blues and folk to urban electric blues styling. A fantastic record.
This story has been in my family since 1896 since William Crush was my great great great grandfather. Pretty cool to see the story getting put out there like this!
We're proud of the Katy trail in MO. Some 240 miles of former railway miles converted into hiking and biking trail for use by the public. I was disappointed when more unused railway beds were just removed rather than converted to trails. I think we missed an opportunity to encourage small town Missouri businesses into supporting the trail system. Most of these Mid Mo towns were railroad fuel and water stops during the middle to late 1800s. I would have loved to ride my bike as a kid from town to town, having no worries about 70 plus mph automotive traffic. And so it goes.
Here in New England we have the East Coast Greenway, a network of former railroad routes that is still being regraded and tied together in places (pedestrian bridges replacing decrepit railroad bridges, old railroad ties removed etc) but which when finished will run from the Appalachias all the way up into Maine. Local sections of the trail run very close to my house and are extremely popular with hikers, bicyclists, and dig walkers; we walk our dogs on them almost every day.
Rode the Katy Trail two years ago and can confirm that it is one of America's great bike routes. Well maintained and very friendly towns along the way.
I live in the Town of Katy outside of Houston. A proud moment hearing the origins of my home town's name explained and seeing everyone in the comments who also band together around this old railroad.
The crash at Crush inspired the rag time composer, Scott Joplin to write the "Crush Collision March". It isn't known whether Joplin was present at the event or not.
I am a major railfan and the Katy is one of my favorite roads. The irony is that the MKT RR was renowned for the care which they gave their steam locomotives.
@@jimmiwoltz6416 I understand that. It is shameful. I'm waiting to see if it yields the same smell as the one on the east side. If it does, it will destroy what's left of this town.
It didn't happen in Waco. I think there is a museum in the town of West, TX about 15 miles North of Waco where there is an exhibit on it. This is interesting I never knew how much they built for the event.
Thank you for sharing this, I worked 30 years on the railroad. I started on the Katy railroad at Waco,TX and then in 1988 the Union Pacific railroad merged with the MKT (Katy). I was able to retire from the railroad. I have worked in that area many times, this brings back so many memories. I was astonished to see that the "History Guy" is sharing a story that I know some about. This was awesome and thank you so much.
These poor steam engines were forced to fight each other to the death for our entertainment. Locomotive abuse is a very real problem in the railway industry.
In your typical steel cage death match, it’s “two men walk in; one man walk out”. In the case steamers butting heads, “two locos walk in; no one walk out”. There is no last train standing in this game! But selling the remainders for scrap is less torching and more gathering so there’s that. 🤠💥💨💯❗️✅
Here in Missouri, part of the railroad was removed and the right of way was converted into a biking/hiking trail called the Katy Trail. Runs north of the Missouri River, roughly between St Charles and Boonville.
Before the expansion of I 35 through the town of West, Texas the historical marker for this event was located there. I have yet to find the new location. There is a song written by a Texas music artist named Brian Burns called The Crash at Crush. I live in the area and a several years ago a woman had a letter from her great uncle to another family member at the time describing the event. It was very cool to hear a first hand account.
Having been born in 1971 i heart yearns to have seen our amazing nation before my time. Thank you for bringing history I would never have know without THG back to life in such superb vernacular detail that I can see it happening in my minds eye.
I grew up in West, Texas. Every kid in school learned about the time West was renamed Crush for one day, and what happened. It was disappointing that West was not mentioned.
As a side note, it's quite likely that the biggest reason that staged train crashes fell out of favor as entertainment at county fairs and the like was because the rise of the automobile meant that promoters could now draw the same sort of crowds at a lower cost through demolition derbies and other destructive *car* stunts.
lol this is an awesome one. I have loved all your snippets over the last several years I have watched them. Now if I can only get my granddaughter hooked on History...
There is a song by country artist Brian Burns called “The Crash at Crush” that talks about this historical event. It’s a cool song if you get a chance to listen to it. Also met him years ago when he was performing in West Texas. He put on a heck of a show
I recommended this subject about a year ago! So glad to see you made an episode on it! I’m from the Waco area and this is an interesting piece of local history
I'm so glad you posted this! Everyone who drives from Austin to Dallas passes through West, Texas, stops at the famous Czech Stop, which is what modern West, Texas is known for. Delicious kolaches. But I knew this occurred in the same town in history and now when I pass through and grab some kolaches, I think of this stupid act of humanity.
They didn't ---- they all kept the cheeks of their cabooses tightly clenched, until the trains actually crashed, at which point they could no longer contain themselves! 😳😖🤫💩💩💩💩💩💩
My great grandfather James Sanford Deer from Falls County Texas, 1872 to 1959, was one of the insanely ill crowd at the crash. He was injured by flying debris and the wound bothered him his entire life. Crazy stuff!
Oddly enough I witnessed the aftermath of what railroaders call a "prairie meet" in the early 60's near Alhambra Illinois. It wasn't done for show, and one man who jumped from the engine was killed by a falling box car. I will never forget the carnage of that afternoon with box cars and otherr frieght cars flipped over, ripped open, and spilling their goods all over the area. Looters and souvenier hunters were everywhere and the police coulld do nothing to stop them.
I grew up north of West, Texas. When I was a kid a Kolache shop in West had all of the pictures and editorials and such all framed on the walls on the backside of the cafeteria. Every time I went in there as a child I was fascinated by the pictures. I went back in that shop about a year ago and the Kolaches are still great but only one of the pictures was still on the wall.
I always eagerly await your latest videos, Mr. Geiger. I've noticed a slightly irritating trend in your recent videos, however. That is, there seems to be trouble with your audio output; The vocal track of the stories no longer matching the volume and tone of your introductions or "narration inserts". This gives the overall production a "patched together" quality. A good example would be to go to about 13:10, then notice the volume spike about 3 seconds later when the inserted narration comes in... the drops again when the narration insert finishes at 13:21. The simple solution would be to assign an assistant to watch each video in its entirety to look for these inconsistencies. They would be easy enough to fix. Did you recently hire a new technical editor? You might want to have a little chat with her/him. 😉
Yes, I've noticed that recently too. Even in this video, it happens again a couple of seconds after 15:23. This audio issue seems to have just started "a few videos ago". What's up with that?
When people have more money than sense. You couldn’t make this up. A train crash wouldn’t be a train crash without casualties. “What about the boilers, are you sure they won’t explode?” “Nah they’ll be fine.” What can possibly go wrong?
Awesome video as always! I still think you should do a video on the 1979 Daytona 500, or you should do a video on DeWayne “Tiny” Lund and the story of the 1963 Daytona 500!!! Seriously the 1963 Daytona 500 is one of the coolest stories of motorsports!!!
But back in the old days, kids didn't learn *instantaneously* about stupid stunts pulled by other kids their age, hundreds or thousands of miles away. Most of that stuff probably didn't make it into the newspaper except locally and even then kids only heard about it if they and their friends read their dad's paper, or dad told you about it.
People have always been people. That being said. While their preparation was insufficient, at least they took a decent number of precautions to make the event safe. There's far too many people these days who do dangerous and stupid stuff with absolutely no attempt at safety what so ever. They often don't even know where the nearest hospital is much less have anyone with even a first aid kit on hand.
I have walked the beach where the whale exploded many times, and parked in the parking lot where raining whale parts totalled all those cars 😂. Such a great reason for your hometown to be known across the country...
Enjoyed the video and also the comments from different folks along the MK&T line. Is it a coincidence that the cities along the old Katy are also great Western-style barbecue cities? St. Louis, Kansas City, on down to Dallas & Fort Worth and Houston, and lots of places along the way. Great, now I'm hungry...
Well that was just one wild story. Thank you for sharing I live here in Texas. There are a lot of old signs around that have the Katy station emblem or logo on them. They are worth a little bit of money. I guess people have been crazy. And crave Xtreme entertainment. All throughout history. As everyone is aware of the Roman Colosseum. Love your channel keep up the good work.
What a deal....Well i have been in one of these...Hold my beer and it put me and my brother in the Hospital......Thank THG🎀 for this amazing Train wreck video Old Flying Shoe🇺🇸
For more information, see the book "The Man Who Wrecked 146 Locomotives; The Story of "Head-On Joe" Connolly" by James J. Reisdorff in 2009. That fellow made a job out of wrecking locos this way.
Interesting to realize how many relatively modern songs include train themes: from "I've Been Workin' On the Railroad" to "Midnight Special", "Crazy Train", "I Heard the Lonesome Whistle Blow", "Folsom Prison Blues", and "She Caught the Katy" (I like Taj Mahal's version better than the later one from the Blues Brothers) to lesser known gems like "The L&N Don't Stop Here Any More" (Michelle Shocked); "Pain Train", (the Guess Who), "Night Train" (Bruce Cockburn), "Train Train" (Blackfoot? or some other southern rock band, with a killer harmonica intro), and songs about building railroads like"Tamp 'Em Up Solid" (I've only heard Ry Cooder's version) and of course "John Henry" where a railroad spike-driver duels against a steam hammer and wins, only to have a heart attack and die. I can't even imagine what harmonica players would sound like if we had never had trains!
@@emilyadams3228 , there's also "Train in Vain" by the Clash, Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh (it takes a train to cry)", and Tull's "Locomotive Breath"........
I honestly would be interested to see such a thing but I’m not entirely sure what the definition of a “Safe Distance” would actually be.😳 Steam boilers are one of the most hazardous types of explosions. Heated water under pressure first expands violently and then condenses causing horrific burns. The underestimated danger of the event should not really have been a surprise.
If my old memory serves me correctly, the photographer was Mr. Gildersleeve for Waco, TX. In a pictorial history of Waco, he commented that he had gotten to bold removed from his head and was back at work, publishing the pictures of the wreck.
Amazing things are published about this photographer Official photographer for a few train wrecks,got a bolt in his eye when the boilers exploded a while after the collision, 2 died 46 severely wounded Got the bolt removed and continued a career of producing amazing pictures Yep The original great Gildersleeve
There's a channel called Todd In The Shadows with music reviews. One series is Trainwreckords, videos about the worst albums ever made. For example, on the one for Allman And Woman (the wonderfully disastrous 1977 album by Gregg Allman and Cher), after a short intro, Todd says "Good Lord, I feel like I'm dying. This is Trainwreckords", then there's a film of two engines smacking into each other. It's probably from the 20's, judging by the look of the film, and the engines look to be about the right vintage to be retired then. Plus, the only movie cameras in 1893 were in Edison's lab in New Jersey, and the studio of the Lumiere Brothers in France.
A more recent song remembering this event was written by Texas singer/songwriter Brian Burns. The song is simply titled "The Crash at Crush". Burn's version is not on TH-cam, but someone did do a cover for it. Very good song.
The first time I learned about this was in the book "Nuclear Accidents" by James Mahaffey. Such an interesting bit of history that affects us to this day in many ways.
I grew up in Fairfield County, Ohio, and the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette was our daily paper when I was growing up. We learned about the train collision in Ohio History.
Hello history guy. Curious what the connection is with the MKT railroad and the blues song "She caught the Katy" by Taj Mahal....but better perfor.ed by the Blues Brothers, is. Keep doing what you're doing
People rubber-neck at car accidents; I've never seen a crushed body under a car, or a huge human blood & brains smear on a windshield or on the pavement, and I hope I never do. I don't know how state police deal with seeing that stuff on a regular basis, but I had a acquaintance with a weak stomach who saw an accident scene like that once and barfed all over the place ---- inside somebody else's car that he was riding in.
For me, this episode was doubly informative. I live in Australia and have long enjoyed the movie "The Blues Brothers." Now I know where the song "She caught the Katy" has its origins.
He said it and now the song is in my head!😂
Hits pretty close to home. I live a bit east of where Buckeye Park was. My grandparents had their first date there. And the Blues Brothers is pretty much the best movie ever made.
And I'm realizing it's probably the namesake of the city of Katy, Texas as well
@@jvleasureThe soundtrack album for that movie is one of my favorite things to play during housework.
@@MonkeyJedi99, Long before The Blues Brothers movie, my friends and I were listening to "She Caught the Katy" on the great Taj Mahal double album "Giant Steps/De Ole Folks At Home", which showed the evolution of country blues and folk to urban electric blues styling. A fantastic record.
This story has been in my family since 1896 since William Crush was my great great great grandfather. Pretty cool to see the story getting put out there like this!
We're proud of the Katy trail in MO. Some 240 miles of former railway miles converted into hiking and biking trail for use by the public. I was disappointed when more unused railway beds were just removed rather than converted to trails. I think we missed an opportunity to encourage small town Missouri businesses into supporting the trail system. Most of these Mid Mo towns were railroad fuel and water stops during the middle to late 1800s. I would have loved to ride my bike as a kid from town to town, having no worries about 70 plus mph automotive traffic. And so it goes.
Here in New England we have the East Coast Greenway, a network of former railroad routes that is still being regraded and tied together in places (pedestrian bridges replacing decrepit railroad bridges, old railroad ties removed etc) but which when finished will run from the Appalachias all the way up into Maine. Local sections of the trail run very close to my house and are extremely popular with hikers, bicyclists, and dig walkers; we walk our dogs on them almost every day.
Rode the Katy Trail two years ago and can confirm that it is one of America's great bike routes. Well maintained and very friendly towns along the way.
I live in the Town of Katy outside of Houston. A proud moment hearing the origins of my home town's name explained and seeing everyone in the comments who also band together around this old railroad.
🤔 never would have guessed that M.K.& T. railroad was the namesake of the city of Katy.
Another one of my Texas questions answered.
The crash at Crush inspired the rag time composer, Scott Joplin to write the "Crush Collision March". It isn't known whether Joplin was present at the event or not.
...you best me to making this observation...
Very good. Thanks.
He was not there. This should have been the music playing in the video, shame on you historyguy.
I played this piece as a kid and knew it was about a train wreck, but never learned the details.
th-cam.com/video/7YRnrZiAlgE/w-d-xo.html
I am a major railfan and the Katy is one of my favorite roads. The irony is that the MKT RR was renowned for the care which they gave their steam locomotives.
As a proud resident of Lancaster, Ohio, I appreciate the shout out, History guy!
I just moved from Lancaster, not a proud resident after what they did to Miller park 😢
@@jimmiwoltz6416 I understand that. It is shameful. I'm waiting to see if it yields the same smell as the one on the east side. If it does, it will destroy what's left of this town.
Hello, fellow Lancaster folks!
A friend of mine grew up in west Texas. He said the local joke was that someone's famous last words were " hey fellas, watch this "
When I lived in Waco this was one of MANY bizarre history events I found out about. It’s a very strange place.
They even misspell "Wacko".
@@nedludd7622It stands for “We Ain’t Coming Out”
Waco is a strange place for sure!
It didn't happen in Waco. I think there is a museum in the town of West, TX about 15 miles North of Waco where there is an exhibit on it. This is interesting I never knew how much they built for the event.
@@robertcagle6156 the really important question is Czech Stop or Slovacek’s?
Thank you for sharing this, I worked 30 years on the railroad. I started on the Katy railroad at Waco,TX and then in 1988 the Union Pacific railroad merged with the MKT (Katy). I was able to retire from the railroad. I have worked in that area many times, this brings back so many memories. I was astonished to see that the "History Guy" is sharing a story that I know some about. This was awesome and thank you so much.
These poor steam engines were forced to fight each other to the death for our entertainment. Locomotive abuse is a very real problem in the railway industry.
Superb.
In your typical steel cage death match, it’s “two men walk in; one man walk out”. In the case steamers butting heads, “two locos walk in; no one walk out”. There is no last train standing in this game! But selling the remainders for scrap is less torching and more gathering so there’s that. 🤠💥💨💯❗️✅
@@joeromanak8797 The first rule of Fight Club is... 🙂
I agree! I get all steamed up just thinking about it!
🤣@@RonGreeneComedian
Here in Missouri, part of the railroad was removed and the right of way was converted into a biking/hiking trail called the Katy Trail. Runs north of the Missouri River, roughly between St Charles and Boonville.
Before the expansion of I 35 through the town of West, Texas the historical marker for this event was located there.
I have yet to find the new location.
There is a song written by a Texas music artist named Brian Burns called The Crash at Crush.
I live in the area and a several years ago a woman had a letter from her great uncle to another family member at the time describing the event.
It was very cool to hear a first hand account.
THG saying "Hold my beer" just made my day 😁
Spent much of my life around the Hocking Valley railroad. This was new History to me. Good night
Visitors to Waco still buy postcards of this wreck - over a hundred years later (though I doubt Mr. Crush's estate receives any royalties these days).
Having been born in 1971 i heart yearns to have seen our amazing nation before my time.
Thank you for bringing history I would never have know without THG back to life in such superb vernacular detail that I can see it happening in my minds eye.
I grew up in West, Texas. Every kid in school learned about the time West was renamed Crush for one day, and what happened. It was disappointing that West was not mentioned.
Great job Lance! I really appreciate your channel. History does deserve to be remembered and shared continuously
As a side note, it's quite likely that the biggest reason that staged train crashes fell out of favor as entertainment at county fairs and the like was because the rise of the automobile meant that promoters could now draw the same sort of crowds at a lower cost through demolition derbies and other destructive *car* stunts.
From San Angelo, Texas learned about this growing up, nice to see its history worth remembering
I’ve heard about this, but not in detail. Thank you
This incident inspired Scott Joplin to write a piano gag called "The Great Crush Collision March"....complete with a train wreck in the 3rd theme.....
I've always wanted to know more about this event. Thanks history guy.
Thank you THG for this "explosive" video of the first Great Train wreck.
I appreciate you and thank you for making content.
Texas singer and songwriter, Brian Burns, has a song about the Crash at Crush. Great song.
Lancaster, Ohio is my hometown and has so much history! Thank you for talking about it!
FINALLY! I suggested this years ago. Glad to see it finally happened.
lol this is an awesome one. I have loved all your snippets over the last several years I have watched them. Now if I can only get my granddaughter hooked on History...
Amazing!!! Thank you for this bit of history ❤
Excellent episode as always. Thank you!
Wow. A crazy bit of history. Thanks.
REALLY enjoyed this episode! As Jim Bob Billy Bob ( John Candy said) " blowed up really good."
There is a song by country artist Brian Burns called “The Crash at Crush” that talks about this historical event. It’s a cool song if you get a chance to listen to it. Also met him years ago when he was performing in West Texas. He put on a heck of a show
Yes he does. Saw him a few times in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Thanks for this bit of Texas history
I recommended this subject about a year ago! So glad to see you made an episode on it! I’m from the Waco area and this is an interesting piece of local history
I'm so glad you posted this! Everyone who drives from Austin to Dallas passes through West, Texas, stops at the famous Czech Stop, which is what modern West, Texas is known for. Delicious kolaches. But I knew this occurred in the same town in history and now when I pass through and grab some kolaches, I think of this stupid act of humanity.
@7:57 Actually, it was more between Ausin and DFW just outside West Tx.
Good morning History Guy and everyone watching...
When I hear about the number of people that showed up to an event back then , all I think is “Where did they all go poop?”
They didn't ---- they all kept the cheeks of their cabooses tightly clenched, until the trains actually crashed, at which point they could no longer contain themselves! 😳😖🤫💩💩💩💩💩💩
They used the very same porta-cans we find at festivals today, still waiting to be cleaned as we speak.
Nice job once again!
My great grandfather James Sanford Deer from Falls County Texas, 1872 to 1959, was one of the insanely ill crowd at the crash. He was injured by flying debris and the wound bothered him his entire life. Crazy stuff!
Today, Illinois would not only allow it, they'd tax and regulate the hell out of it.
and once the Democrats destroyed it they would then steal your money to subsidize it, for a 10% cut for the Big Guy.
And a permit ....,lol
Illinois would ban ownership of trains but let those who crash them off without bail
Aren't you clever.
Oddly enough I witnessed the aftermath of what railroaders call a "prairie meet" in the early 60's near Alhambra Illinois. It wasn't done for show, and one man who jumped from the engine was killed by a falling box car. I will never forget the carnage of that afternoon with box cars and otherr frieght cars flipped over, ripped open, and spilling their goods all over the area. Looters and souvenier hunters were everywhere and the police coulld do nothing to stop them.
This video could have been a real train wreck, but THG crushed it! 😂👍
dad, i know its you with jokes like that. please we need that milk c'mon home dad.....
thb you comment gave me a good chuckle. have a great day buddy
The Joplin sheet music states "Dedicated to the MK&T Railroad" on the cover
My father told me of this when I was a child. Nice to have the story filled out. 👏👏👏
I Could See ... Today... Countless Thousands, Would come to Such an Event.
I've found that "Hey y'all watch this" is probably better than "Hold my beer" for the prelude to something very stupid about to happen.
I knew this story but you of course tell it better.
What an amazing story, thanks.
What incredible history.
I grew up north of West, Texas. When I was a kid a Kolache shop in West had all of the pictures and editorials and such all framed on the walls on the backside of the cafeteria. Every time I went in there as a child I was fascinated by the pictures.
I went back in that shop about a year ago and the Kolaches are still great but only one of the pictures was still on the wall.
I always eagerly await your latest videos, Mr. Geiger. I've noticed a slightly irritating trend in your recent videos, however. That is, there seems to be trouble with your audio output; The vocal track of the stories no longer matching the volume and tone of your introductions or "narration inserts". This gives the overall production a "patched together" quality. A good example would be to go to about 13:10, then notice the volume spike about 3 seconds later when the inserted narration comes in... the drops again when the narration insert finishes at 13:21. The simple solution would be to assign an assistant to watch each video in its entirety to look for these inconsistencies. They would be easy enough to fix. Did you recently hire a new technical editor? You might want to have a little chat with her/him. 😉
Yes, I've noticed that recently too. Even in this video, it happens again a couple of seconds after 15:23. This audio issue seems to have just started "a few videos ago". What's up with that?
Can't believe my man said...."Hold my beer"!!!! LoL
When people have more money than sense. You couldn’t make this up. A train crash wouldn’t be a train crash without casualties.
“What about the boilers, are you sure they won’t explode?”
“Nah they’ll be fine.”
What can possibly go wrong?
“What folly! That crush is a rapscallion!” I suppose they probably would have said an exclamation such as this in 1896.
Awesome video as always! I still think you should do a video on the 1979 Daytona 500, or you should do a video on DeWayne “Tiny” Lund and the story of the 1963 Daytona 500!!! Seriously the 1963 Daytona 500 is one of the coolest stories of motorsports!!!
Just because you could, don’t mean you should.
Just because I shouldn't, doesn't mean I won't.
"Back in the old days, people didn't engage in reckless stunts like the brainless kids today do!"
Old Days: "well........"
Well.... Hold my beer!
But back in the old days, kids didn't learn *instantaneously* about stupid stunts pulled by other kids their age, hundreds or thousands of miles away. Most of that stuff probably didn't make it into the newspaper except locally and even then kids only heard about it if they and their friends read their dad's paper, or dad told you about it.
Makes "Jackass" look tame. 🙂
People have always been people. That being said. While their preparation was insufficient, at least they took a decent number of precautions to make the event safe. There's far too many people these days who do dangerous and stupid stuff with absolutely no attempt at safety what so ever. They often don't even know where the nearest hospital is much less have anyone with even a first aid kit on hand.
LOVE YOUR VIDS BRO!!! ❤🇨🇦
And that, children, is why television was invented. Right up there with the Oregon Exploding Whale of 1970.
I have walked the beach where the whale exploded many times, and parked in the parking lot where raining whale parts totalled all those cars 😂. Such a great reason for your hometown to be known across the country...
Enjoyed the video and also the comments from different folks along the MK&T line. Is it a coincidence that the cities along the old Katy are also great Western-style barbecue cities? St. Louis, Kansas City, on down to Dallas & Fort Worth and Houston, and lots of places along the way. Great, now I'm hungry...
Well that was just one wild story. Thank you for sharing I live here in Texas. There are a lot of old signs around that have the Katy station emblem or logo on them. They are worth a little bit of money. I guess people have been crazy. And crave Xtreme entertainment. All throughout history. As everyone is aware of the Roman Colosseum. Love your channel keep up the good work.
Stunt dreamed up by Ozzy Osborne: "I'm running off the rails on a Crazy Train!"
What a deal....Well i have been in one of these...Hold my beer and it put me and my brother in the Hospital......Thank THG🎀 for this amazing Train wreck video
Old Flying Shoe🇺🇸
For more information, see the book "The Man Who Wrecked 146 Locomotives; The Story of "Head-On Joe" Connolly" by James J. Reisdorff in 2009. That fellow made a job out of wrecking locos this way.
Absolutely-he was staging crashes, all over the country, up to 1932!
A Texas singer/songwriter history buff named Brian Burns wrote a great song about this event.
Interesting to realize how many relatively modern songs include train themes: from "I've Been Workin' On the Railroad" to "Midnight Special", "Crazy Train", "I Heard the Lonesome Whistle Blow", "Folsom Prison Blues", and "She Caught the Katy" (I like Taj Mahal's version better than the later one from the Blues Brothers) to lesser known gems like "The L&N Don't Stop Here Any More" (Michelle Shocked); "Pain Train", (the Guess Who), "Night Train" (Bruce Cockburn), "Train Train" (Blackfoot? or some other southern rock band, with a killer harmonica intro), and songs about building railroads like"Tamp 'Em Up Solid" (I've only heard Ry Cooder's version) and of course "John Henry" where a railroad spike-driver duels against a steam hammer and wins, only to have a heart attack and die. I can't even imagine what harmonica players would sound like if we had never had trains!
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band version of Mystery Train (1965) is another great one. Mike Bloomfield makes whistle sounds on slide guitar at the end.
@@emilyadams3228 , there's also "Train in Vain" by the
Clash, Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh (it takes a train to cry)", and Tull's "Locomotive Breath"........
I honestly would be interested to see such a thing but I’m not entirely sure what the definition of a “Safe Distance” would actually be.😳 Steam boilers are one of the most hazardous types of explosions. Heated water under pressure first expands violently and then condenses causing horrific burns. The underestimated danger of the event should not really have been a surprise.
I used to deliver the Eagle-Gazette back in the 1970s.
I remember that.
I went to high school just up the road in Abbott, Texas.
If my old memory serves me correctly, the photographer was Mr. Gildersleeve for Waco, TX. In a pictorial history of Waco, he commented that he had gotten to bold removed from his head and was back at work, publishing the pictures of the wreck.
Amazing things are published about this photographer
Official photographer for a few train wrecks,got a bolt in his eye
when the boilers exploded a while after the collision,
2 died 46 severely wounded
Got the bolt removed and continued a career of producing amazing pictures
Yep
The original great Gildersleeve
I live in Lancaster Ohio.
The event is nearly forgotten now.
And Buckeye Park location is lost today.
Nice phrenology reference, in that line about Crush's (or was it Streeter's?) "bump of originality". 😹
"we crashed two trains together as a stunt and they both blew up. a couple people died, but still, overall a success"
it really was another time
Cool video.
I was hoping you would've included one of the videos of two locomotives crashing into each other, Probably from the 1930's.
There's a channel called Todd In The Shadows with music reviews. One series is Trainwreckords, videos about the worst albums ever made. For example, on the one for Allman And Woman (the wonderfully disastrous 1977 album by Gregg Allman and Cher), after a short intro, Todd says "Good Lord, I feel like I'm dying. This is Trainwreckords", then there's a film of two engines smacking into each other. It's probably from the 20's, judging by the look of the film, and the engines look to be about the right vintage to be retired then. Plus, the only movie cameras in 1893 were in Edison's lab in New Jersey, and the studio of the Lumiere Brothers in France.
The "bump of originalty" I'm pretty sure refers to phrenology, a dubious method of analysis based on the shape of a person's skull...
Well, he may have had a bump on the head of some sort…
I would pay to watch IIHS auto crash testing live.
A more recent song remembering this event was written by Texas singer/songwriter Brian Burns. The song is simply titled "The Crash at Crush". Burn's version is not on TH-cam, but someone did do a cover for it. Very good song.
Now you know what happened to all the older 19th century steam locomotives.
THG you rock! Peace
The first time I learned about this was in the book "Nuclear Accidents" by James Mahaffey. Such an interesting bit of history that affects us to this day in many ways.
How did you fail to have music in this video, like maybe, Scott Joplin's "Great Crush Collision March?"
Thanks. Very interesting
Simply amazing. People died---"Hey, let's do it again!!!" Thanks again Mr. Guy.
Well told sir!!!
Do you know if it is possible to visit the exact location of the impact?
Off topic, but can you do a video (or series) on the Willow Run Liberator Plant?
I grew up in Fairfield County, Ohio, and the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette was our daily paper when I was growing up. We learned about the train collision in Ohio History.
There is a set of mutoscope cards of a motion picture of this crash. I watched it many times at a penny arcade near my house.
Hello history guy. Curious what the connection is with the MKT railroad and the blues song "She caught the Katy" by Taj Mahal....but better perfor.ed by the Blues Brothers, is.
Keep doing what you're doing
Here i was thinking Katy was a dumb name for a town in Texas.
I’d pay to see that.
People use to picnic at executions…not sure we’ve changed much.
People rubber-neck at car accidents; I've never seen a crushed body under a car, or a huge human blood & brains smear on a windshield or on the pavement, and I hope I never do. I don't know how state police deal with seeing that stuff on a regular basis, but I had a acquaintance with a weak stomach who saw an accident scene like that once and barfed all over the place ---- inside somebody else's car that he was riding in.
Willian George Crush was just an alias for Gomez Addams!
Never underestimate the distructive power of stupid
I was familiar with this story through Texas singer/songwriter Brian Burns' song Crash at Crush which retells the story musically. Check it out
When was the first use of the phrase “Like watching a train wreck.” used?
I live near Crush