Western Springs, IL Another Train Wreck, Dec 1909

31 HURT IN WRECK.

BROKEN RAIL THROWS BURLINGTON LIMITED OFF TRACK.

TEARS UP 200 FEET OF TRACK.

Chicago, Dec. 20. -- The Oriental Limited train on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy was overturned by a broken rail at Western Springs, Ill., and 31 persons were injured. Two women were seriously hurt, while the others received painful bruises and lacerations.
The Burlington in its official statement regarding the wreck claimed only 19 passengers had been injured.
The wreck was caused by a rail which broke as the fourth car of the train was passing. The three rear cars, all sleepers, were derailed and overturned in a ditch after dragging along the roadbed on their sides for yards. The first three cars and the locomotive left the track, but did not overturn, and plowed along, tearing up the track for 200 feet.
The train consisted of an engine, a baggage car, two chair cars, and three sleepers. It was over seven hours late and was running at great speed when the wreck occurred.
The three Pullman sleepers, most of them filled with passengers coming east to spend Christmas with friends, slid down an embankment for 15 feet, and that none was killed is declared by railroad men to be one of the miracles in the history of railroad accidents.
The passengers were buried in the wreckage of the partly demolished coaches, many of them being pinned down, where they were obliged to wait until released by fellow passengers and citizens of Western Springs, who were summoned by the whistles of the engine.
Contrary to the usual record of railroad accidents, the passengers in the chair cars were not injured, beyond a shaking up. The broken rail, to which the accident was due, was curled into a shapeless mass when the cars came to a stop.

The Marshfield Times Wisconsin 1909-12-22
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!