Chicago, IL Train Collision, Sep 1926

ENGINEER DERANGED BY FATAL CRASH.

FIVE KILLED IN COLLISION AND FIFTY INJURED.

SUBURBAN TRAIN CRASHED INTO REAR END OF TRAIN FULL OF TOURISTS.

Chicago, Illinois -- Sept. 7. (UP) -- Five persons were dead today and more than 50 were recovering from serious injuries in local hospitals as the result of a Labor Day railroad accident in the heart of Chicago.
The accident, occurred when a suburban train on the Chicago and Northwestern line crashed into the rear end of another train crowded with tourists returning from northern Wisconsin resorts.
Most of those killed and injured were on two obsolete wooden coaches at the rear of the first train. The headlight of the second train had dimmed and Engineer LOUIS J. SMITH, failing to see the train on the tracks ahead roared into the station at half speed. When his lights again flashed on it was too late to prevent the collision.
The dead:
MRS. MARIE ADAMS, 28.
RALPH BECKLIN, 2.
STANLEY CZUBECK, 49.
MRS. BESSIE SIMON.
MRS. EDNA SZYMANSKI, 35.
All of the dead were from Chicago.
The crash occurred at Clybourn Station just north of Chicago's loop, where trains from the north meet those from the west forming a "Y."
For more than an hour the dead and injured were pinned in jumbled tangle of steel and splintered wood, the groans of the anguished injured mingling with the sobs of the loved ones of those who were killed.
Engineer SMITH, sought after the wreck, was found early today in a local hospital, a quivering, sobbing human wreck, his mind temporarily deranged by the tragedy. He was ordered put under arrest, and detectives were assigned to guard his room.
Fireman and police, together with nurses and a score of ambulances, rushed to the scene to aid in the rescue work.
There were more than 1,000 passengers on the two trains, and they with the crowd which gathered at the station crowded about the wreckage and made the station a maelstrom of confusion subdued only by strenuous work on the part of police.
The vacation train which had halted at the Clybourn junction had come in from Elroy, Wis. It had consisted of three baggage cars, six steel coaches and a parlor car. So great was the holiday crowd that two old wooden cars were added at Lake Geneva and a third at Crystal Lake, Wis.
All were crowded to the doors with holiday resorters including many children. Hundreds were standing in the aisles.
The suburban train bound to Chicago with theater crowds drove straight into the resorters' train, crumbling the rear end and the passengers with it.
Among the Illinois people injured in the train crash were J. N. MAYHORN, 50, whose right leg was amputated, and MISS EMMA HILGART, 17, injured internally. Both are from Richmond, Ill. ELLA WEISE, Evanston, suffered internal injuries and a broken leg, while her cousin EDNA WEISE, also of Evanston was cut and bruised about the leg and side. ALICE WINDELBORN, Evanston, also suffered a badly bruised leg.

Sterling Daily Gazette Illinois 1926-09-07
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!