The Great Chatsworth train wreck was a major rail accident that occurred late on the night of August 10, 1887, east of

Chatsworth, Illinois Chatsworth is an incorporated town in Livingston County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,332 at the 2020 census. Geography Chatsworth is located in southeastern Livingston County at (40.754256, -88.293023). The town is in northern ...

, in the

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. A

Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad The Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway is a short line railroad that operates of track from Mapleton, Illinois, through Peoria across Illinois to Logansport, Indiana. TP&W has trackage rights between Galesburg, Illinois, and Peoria, between Log ...

(TP&W) train bound for

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

crossed over a

trestle ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laborato ...

, weakened earlier in the day by a fire, causing it to collapse. In 2007, staff of the McLean County Museum of History wrote that "the Chatsworth Train Wreck probably ranks as the second- or third-deadliest U.S rail accident in the 19th century."

Crash

The summer of 1887 had been hot and dry. Fearing that sparks from the steam engines of the trains could ignite

brush fire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

s, the TP&W company began performing

controlled burn A controlled or prescribed burn, also known as hazard reduction burning, backfire, swailing, or a burn-off, is a fire set intentionally for purposes of forest management, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. A control ...

s to prevent an uncontrollable brush fire. On the day of the accident, TP&W crews performed a controlled burn near the site of the accident—it is suspected that failure to extinguish the fire resulted in charring of the bridge. That day, a TP&W train carried vacationers taking advantage of a special offer to visit Niagara Falls. It had picked up passengers all along the TP&W line as far back as Iowa, and left

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

around 8 p.m.: Two steam engines pulled six fully-loaded wooden passenger cars, six sleeper cars, and three luggage cars. It travelled east through

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and

Chenoa María Laura Corradini Falomir (born June 25, 1975, in Mar del Plata, Argentina) popularly known as Chenoa, is an Argentine-Spanish music artist who rose to fame as a contestant on reality television singing competition ''Operación Triunfo''. H ...

, and did not stop at Chatsworth. Just before the accident site, the coach accelerated down a slope, reaching . The first engine successfully crossed the weakened bridge as it collapsed; the second engine crashed into the side of the hill, while each following passenger car telescoped into the next. Sleeper cars attached to the rear of the train halted just short of the bridge. The disaster immediately made national news, including almost half of the front page of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Four days later, the TP&W gathered together the remaining wreckage and set it on fire. The crash resulted in the increased use of steel in passenger cars.

Historical marker

In 1954, the state of Illinois placed a

historical marker A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

, along

U.S. Route 24 U.S. Route 24 (US 24) is one of the original United States highways of 1926. It originally ran from Pontiac, Michigan, in the east to Kansas City, Missouri, in the west. Today, the highway's eastern terminus is in Independence Township, Mic ...

, commemorating the event. The marker has the following text:

References

External links

Chatsworth Train Accident; August 10, 1887
at PeoriaCountyIllinois.info
"The Great Chatsworth Train Wreck" at Chatsworth Illinois Memories
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Chatsworth train wreck August 1887 events 1887 in Illinois Accidents and incidents involving Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad Bridge disasters caused by fire Bridge disasters caused by maintenance error Bridge disasters in the United States Livingston County, Illinois Railway accidents and incidents in Illinois Railway accidents in 1887