CRUNCH AT CRUSH
Who would deliberately plan and execute a train wreak?
At least one man has been known to have done so. His name - fittingly enough - was Crush - William George Crush, who was a passenger agent for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company in 1896.
The line was lovingly Katy” know by many people and :The Katy”, but Crush though the RR needed some publicity to get people to use it more. He organized a super-duper train wreak - a deliberate head-on collision of two trains each moving at about sixty miles per hour. He purposely planned for them to be on the same track and that meant they would meet at a velocity of about 120 miles per hour. Crush set the miles long outdoor stage for a classic crunch of complete trains - box cars, included, not just two wide-stacked engines.
Two thirty-five ton steam locomotives, each pulling a string of cars were to be collided head-on at great speed. Experts seemed to think it would be safe for spectators to watch the crash, from a distance, of course. The promoter then advertised that admission were available for the event, that it would be a family affair, too, with no drunks in sight, and with food and beverage stands conveniently located along the length of the two spectator lines -one on each side of the straight stretch of track. His printed advertising g tracts also promised : “Fresh Waco water - Free!.”
Photographs of the great train wreck are extant, and Scott Joplin whom many think was present as a on-looker, wrote a song about it called “The Great Crush Collision”
The publicity intent of the scheme seemed to be working. Excursion trains came from every corner of Texas and rates were never more than five dollars regardless of what part of the expansive Lone Star state thrill-seeking travelers might have called home. Thousands of people gathered in Waco and in adjacent areas. It is said some trains were full and many people had to ride in on top of the cars. Some accounts of the event claim fifty-thousand people were present at the moment the two trains collided, but the pictures of rather thin lines of spectator at the crash site suggest that many be an exalted figure.
The wreak came about but not exactly as planned. Contrary to what the experts had assured promoter Crush could not happen ...one of engine boilers exploded at the moment of contact. It covered the entire area in clouds of steam. It blew metal parts of the engines into the spectator area and two viewers were killed.
Within hours the railway company's cranes had cleaned up the larger debris and souvenir hunters took care of the rest. The temporary city of Crush, Texas, called the '”second largest city in Texas” for a time, dissolved before midnight and was no more. A marker was set up in 1977 to show where it might have been. Agent George Crush was promptly fired by the Railroad management. He was rehired the next day, however, and retired as an average citizen after fifty-eight years of service with “the Katy”.
If you plan any such attraction, be wary of “expert” advice.
A.L.M. July 26, 2003 [c574wds]
