Naperville, Il trainwreck 75 years ago today.

Jon, Thanks for posting the story.

There is a memorial trackside Naperville that remembers this tragic train wreck.

Franktrain, appreciate your interest in this story and thank you for posting the memorial pics.

Horrific.

One of the interesting fall-outs/developments which resulted from that wreck, was directly related to how the CB&Q generally operated, not only those two specific passenger trains, but other regular cases of operating at track speed (80 to 90 MPH) on a yellow signal. In other words, back in those days, the CB&Q, as well as most major railroads, had a simple "green", "yellow", and "red" signaling system governing train operations & separations. As a result of that famous Naperville Wreck, where the following train was running at track speed "on the yellow", the CB&Q up-graded their signal system to "green", "flashing yellow", "yellow", and "red".

In the specific case of the Naperville Wreck, the following passenger train was running at track speed, approaching a "red" signal, which would change to "yellow" just as the train got to that signal. Thus indicating that the train ahead was still also proceeding at 80 to 90 MPH. However, when the first train stopped to make an inspection, the rear passenger car had just cleared the signal, so the following train saw the "red" signal change to "yellow", just as they got to it. The Engineer thus assumed that the train ahead was still proceeding, but rounding a curve at Naperville he then saw the next "red" signal, with the passenger train stopped just past the signal. At such a high speed, there was no way for him to stop in time.

As the late Paul Harvey famously said, "And,,, that's the rest of the story.".

So,  the "Flashing Yellow" gives the following train an extra block of "cushion"?

@Dominic Mazoch posted:

So,  the "Flashing Yellow" gives the following train an extra block of "cushion"?

Correct, plus it gets the speed reduced to about 40-45 MPH.

The Kroehler Furniture factory from which a number of photos were taken of the wreck scene, still stands across from the memorial. The point of impact was at the Loomis Street crossing. Surprisingly, the scene is little changed from 1946 - The Kroehler factory remains (although now residential), the Naperville Station and the Loomis St crossing are unchanged, and the large city water tank still stands in the background. One of the beloved E5 diesels ("Silver Speed") was lead on the following Exposition Flyer, which crashed into the standing Advance Flyer.   Burlington Route Historical Society Bulletin #42 has a detailed write-up of the wreck. Still available for $35.

Beyond the tragic loss of life (a number of whom were  presumably war veterans on their way home) was the head end crew. The engineer was seriously injured, but the fireman was killed. He jumped before impact, which took his life. Why wasn't the stopped Advance Flyer seen?  There is a long curve which completely obscures vision until near the Loomis St crossing - far too late to stop a fast-moving passenger train.

Naperville remains a very busy spot and attracts a goodly number of railfans every day.  Alas, some of the business is probably on borrowed time, as Metra commuter trains are much less used, what with people working from home. It was essentially a break-even operation when heavily used and with full parking lots. Now......well it looks less then optimistic.

"YOU'VE REACHED YOUR FREE ARTICLE LIMIT"

My "free article limit" must be "zero" since I have never in my lifetime read an article from that newspaper.

The Mississippi still survives today, as Northern Lights. After the wreck, it was turned into a streamlined observation car. Being a stainless steel heavyweight, it is HEAVY. I circled the pictures of it in yellow.

As it appears today, on the Allentown and Auburn Railroad in Kutztown, Pa. (photo by Brandon Bartolotta)

It is a private car, but on rare occasions does come out on the passenger trains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ville_train_disaster

Brendan

I've known about the Naperville train wreck for sometime.  What I wasn't aware of after reading the posted article was the story of Lawrence Cena, who at that time was attending North Central College and aided in the recovery.  A couple of years later in 1948, he hired on at the Santa Fe and eventually became the CEO.

Here's a paperback about train wreak. Lot of info about the passengers and investigation.

Geez, that cover photo says it all Frank. It split the last car right down the middle.