Ashtabula train disaster historical marker
Historical marker in Ashtabula, Ohio, denoting the site of the "Angola Horror" -- a major train derailment on December 29, 1876, that killed 92 people.
The incident is also known as the Ashtabula horror or the Ashtabula train disaster. Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Train No. 5, The Pacific Express, left Erie, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of December 29, 1876. Deep snow lay on the ground, and more was coming down. Two locomotives were hauling two express passenger cars, three coach passenger cars, three sleeping cars, a smoking car, and two baggage cars. There were 159 passengers aboard.
At about 7:30 PM, the train crossed the Ashtabula River about 1,000 feet from the railroad station at Ashtabula. The bridge gave way. The lead locomotive made it across the bridge, while the second locomotive and the rest of the train plunged 76 feet into the freezing water. Some cars landed in an upright position, but others lay on their sides and some disintegrated on impact.
The kerosene-fueled heating stoves and lamps toppled over in the crash, and spilled. Suddenly, the entire mass was aflame.
The crash and fire killed 92 people. Forty-eight bodies were so badly burned they were unrecognizable. Another 64 people were injured. Although people from Ashtabula raced to the scene, railroad officials demanded that freight and baggage be saved first. When the town fire department got there, no attempt was made to extinguish the fire.
It was worst railroad accident in the United States until the Great Train Wreck of 1918.
The bridge, designed and built by LS&MS president Amasa Stone years earlier, was not designed to span such a great length nor to carry such weight. However, some of the iron in the bridge (supplied by Andros Stone, Amasa's brother) was substandard. Construction techniques were also below-par, and the bridge had been inadequately inspected. As a result, formal blame for the accident could not be assigned.
The disaster led to the founding of a hospital in Ashtabula, which remains near the site to this day.
Ashtabula train disaster historical marker
Historical marker in Ashtabula, Ohio, denoting the site of the "Angola Horror" -- a major train derailment on December 29, 1876, that killed 92 people.
The incident is also known as the Ashtabula horror or the Ashtabula train disaster. Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Train No. 5, The Pacific Express, left Erie, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of December 29, 1876. Deep snow lay on the ground, and more was coming down. Two locomotives were hauling two express passenger cars, three coach passenger cars, three sleeping cars, a smoking car, and two baggage cars. There were 159 passengers aboard.
At about 7:30 PM, the train crossed the Ashtabula River about 1,000 feet from the railroad station at Ashtabula. The bridge gave way. The lead locomotive made it across the bridge, while the second locomotive and the rest of the train plunged 76 feet into the freezing water. Some cars landed in an upright position, but others lay on their sides and some disintegrated on impact.
The kerosene-fueled heating stoves and lamps toppled over in the crash, and spilled. Suddenly, the entire mass was aflame.
The crash and fire killed 92 people. Forty-eight bodies were so badly burned they were unrecognizable. Another 64 people were injured. Although people from Ashtabula raced to the scene, railroad officials demanded that freight and baggage be saved first. When the town fire department got there, no attempt was made to extinguish the fire.
It was worst railroad accident in the United States until the Great Train Wreck of 1918.
The bridge, designed and built by LS&MS president Amasa Stone years earlier, was not designed to span such a great length nor to carry such weight. However, some of the iron in the bridge (supplied by Andros Stone, Amasa's brother) was substandard. Construction techniques were also below-par, and the bridge had been inadequately inspected. As a result, formal blame for the accident could not be assigned.
The disaster led to the founding of a hospital in Ashtabula, which remains near the site to this day.