Well, this just goes to show that even railfans can have a bad day on the road:
Reality applies to all.
Except to those that do not believe in it.
From the reports I heard, the fans were taking it pretty much in stride. At $100 a crack, do you think they got their money’s worth in excitement?
Only if they were permitted to stay around for the equipment to be rerailed.
Labor day 1950.
The National Model Railroad association holds its national convention in Milwaukee.
10 railroad fans die as a result of a head on collision between 2 interurban trains at 100th and National Ave…
Railfan trips actually have a remarkable safety record considering the mileage.
Randy
One of my relatives was involved in that crash, so I had these links readily available.
http://www3.gendisasters.com/wisconsin/11533/milwaukee-wi-interurban-crash-sep-1950
http://my.execpc.com/~jruss/NMRAspeedrail.html
detailed article with old photo: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=19961206&id=N6caAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DC8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6811,1272493
A link to other Chicago “L” accidents: http://www.chicago-l.org/mishaps/index.html
I suspect that CTA and its lawyers are thanking their lucky stars this incident happened with this train and not a service train. First of all, the riders on this train - most of whom are active IRM members who are very familiar with railroad operations or professional railroaders - understood exactly what had happened, understood what they needed to do (or not do), and did not panic. To them (and I know many of them), it was an unexpected diversion, not a calamity. Secondly, the chances of any of the passengers filing a lawsuit against CTA are virtually non-existent. I expect that CTA will be taking a hard look at why this happened (based on the information I’ve seem, it may have been caused by a switch throwing under the train, which is potentially very serious), but CTA dodged a bullet on this one.