Crush, Texas

Crush, Texas, was a temporary "city" established as a one-day publicity stunt in 1896. William George Crush, general passenger agent of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (popularly known as the Katy), conceived the idea to demonstrate a train wreck as a spectacle. No admission was charged, and train fares to the crash site were at the reduced rate of US$2 from any location in Texas. As a result about 40,000 people showed up on September 15, 1896, making the new town of Crush, Texas, temporarily the second-largest city in the state.

Preparations

Before the crash at Crush, Texas.

Two wells were drilled at the site three miles (5 km) south of the town of West in McLennan County. Circus tents from Ringling Brothers were erected as well as a grandstand.^[1] The train engines were painted bright green (engine #999) and bright red (engine #1001), both 4-4-0 American locomotives (two pilot axles, two drive axles, and nothing under the firebox). A special track was built alongside the Katy track so that there was no chance a runaway train could get onto the main line. The trains toured the state for months in advance, advertising the event. On the day of the event, 40,000 people showed up to the new town of Crush, Texas.^[2] The Katy Railroad offered spectators from anywhere in the state of Texas train rides to the site for $2.^[1]

Crash

The collision of the two trains at Crush, Texas.

About 4:00 pm on September 15, 1896, after police had pushed the crowd back to what was thought to be a safe distance, the two trains rolled to opposite ends of a 4-mile (6.4 km) track.^[1] The engineers and crew opened the steam to a prearranged setting, rode for exactly 4 turns of the drive wheels, and jumped from the trains. The trains each reached a speed of about 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) by the time they met near the anticipated spot.

The impact caused both engine boilers to explode. Debris, some pieces as large as half a drive-wheel, was blown hundreds of feet into the air.^[1] Some of the debris came down among the spectators, killing three and injuring several more. Event photographer Jarvis "Joe" Deane lost one eye to a flying bolt.

Aftermath

Crush was immediately fired from the Katy railroad. In light of a lack of negative publicity, however, he was rehired the next day.^[3] Ragtime composer Scott Joplin, who was performing in the region at the time and possibly witnessed the event, wrote a piano piece—"The Great Crush Collision March"—to commemorate the crash.^[4] The wreck was featured in an episode of the History Channel series Wild West Tech.

See also

• Boiler explosion

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Allen Lee Hamilton. "Crash at Crush." Handbook of Texas Online, University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
2. ^ Griffith, Vivé "Teaching Texas," University of Texas at Austin, Retrieved 26 May 2007.
3. ^ Masterson, Vincent V. The Katy Railroad and the Last Frontier, (Google Books), University of Missouri Press, 1988, p. 272, (ISBN 0826206689). Retrieved 26 May 2007.
4. ^ Scott Joplin, "The Great Crush Collision March" sheet music (Temple, TX: John R. Fuller, 1896). See Bill Edwards, Rags and Pieces by Scott Joplin.

External links

• Ramos, Mary G. (1993). "The Crash at Crush". Texas Almanac. Texas State Historical Association. http://www.texasalmanac.com/history/highlights/crash/. 
• "Retired Katy Engineer Tells of Wreck at Crush". KATY Employes' Magazine. September 1950. http://home.flash.net/~cymartin/crossxroads/68crush.htm. 
• Krystek, Lee (2005). "The Great Texas Train Crash at Crush". The Museum of Unnatural Mystery. http://www.unmuseum.org/crash.htm.