By now I’m sure everyone is aware of the multitude of train derailments happening throughout the country. It’s likely this has been going on for some time, but the media is talking about it more. It seems an appropriate time to tell about train crashes that have taken place in Lemont’s history. There were TWO crashes of note.
Lemont currently has two sets of tracks that run through town. A third set was the Joliet-Chicago Electric Railway that ran down Main Street. I wrote about that line in my blog on February 19. If you missed it, you can read about it here: https://www.patcamallierebooks.com/2023/02/lemont-streetcars-the-joliet-and-chicago-electric-line/
The Alton Railroad opened in 1858 and ran between Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis. This is the line that currently serves Lemont at its historic train station, where daily commuter trains run. The third line is the Santa Fe that opened in the late 1880s and currently carries freight.
After the early success of railroads in the Midwest, by the 1870s the lines were overbuilt and undercapitalized. Does that sound like what may be happening today? Draw your own conclusions, but history says that was the case in the 1870s. Due to financial difficulties, rail management was forced to hire cheap labor and inexperienced trainmen. Also, the line had not been improved since it was built, maintaining a single track between Joliet and Chicago, with several side tracks, one of which was in Lemont, for trains traveling in opposite directions to pass.
In cool summer nights in Lemont, ground fog clings to the floor of the Des Plaines River Valley, and such was the case on August 16, 1873. Late that night, conductor Edward Beane drove a train of coal cars out of Joliet, heading east to Chicago. It was the first run for two new brakemen.
At approximately 9:00 p.m., Henry Russell pulled his passenger express train out of the station, heading west out of Chicago. The engineer was also on his maiden route for this train. The departure had been delayed, and further delay occurred at the Willow Springs station. To make up the time, Russell requested that all other trains on the line be sidetracked until he passed. At the Sag Bridge station, the engineer, new to the route, mistook the signal to stop and take on water for “Go.” The train roared through in an effort to make up lost time.
Meanwhile, on the same track from the opposite direction, the freight that had left Joliet approached Lemont. The Lemont station had been telegraphed to sidetrack the Joliet train until the express train passed. An agent ran out to the platform to stop the train, but was not seen by conductor Beane in the heavy fog that had rolled in. Racing down the platform, the agent yelled and caught the attention of one of the brakemen, who responded that he was new and did not how to stop the train. Both trains headed toward a head-on collision.
There was no way to reach either train. The dispatchers could only begin putting together a hospital train while they sat and waited for the tragedy.
In the fog, the headlights of both trains could not be seen by the conductors in time to blow a warning whistle to alert others on the trains. The trains met east of Lemont near Walker Road and Main Street as the express smashed into the freight, followed by its baggage, express, and smoking cars, in an explosion that rained debris hundreds of yards.
The result was 23 dead and 40 injured, many passengers, including John Smith, the Warden of the Joliet Prison, and 5 trainmen from both trains. Both conductors, who had leapt from the train before the collision, met and compared stories as they stared at the wreckage. Then Conductor Beane wandered off and was not seen again until September 2, when he was turned in for a $6000 reward. Beane was arrested but acquitted of any fault.
As a result of the disaster, the public demanded more safety and supervision of the railroads. They blamed the railroads for hiring cheap labor in an attempt to break labor unions and demanded a double set of rails through the valley. One month later construction of a second track was begun, and sidetracking in the Des Plaines River Valley no longer determined the train schedules.
Is history repeating itself? Despite over a century of progress, it seems that we could be once again at a point where infrastructure, economic concerns, and labor conditions are stressing the safety of rail travel.
Thanks to the Lemont Area Historical Society and Lemont and its People by Sonia Kallick for information that appears in this article.
