More on train wreck data ...

From: "Tom De Fazio" de_fazio@alum.mit.edu

I received a request to cite railroad professional journals that may offer wreck data. ... At the turn of the century, 1899-1900, The Railroad Gazette had a monthly listing of United States [train] wrecks. By ca. 1910, and if I scan and infer correctly from the Railway and Engineering Review, the ICC offered a quartlerly report on United States wrecks but the Railway and Engineering Review did not.

The following is a complete citation of a wreck that is well known in the railfan community, taken from The Railroad Gazette, Vol. XXXII, No. 23, June 8, 1900. It suggests the level of detail one may expect:

Train Accidents in the United States in April
COLLISIONS
Rear 30th, 4 a. m., on Illinois Central at Vaughans (sic.) Miss., passenger train No. 1 ran into the rear of a preceding freight train, wrecking the engine and several cars. The engineman was killed and three other trainmen were injured. There was a dense fog at the time.

—Tom

... I found it interesting, for example, to read a railroad professional journal's modest description of "Casey" Jones' final incident on the ICRR in Mississippi on April 30th, 1900.

[from the R&LHS Newsgroup.]