Gallery: Ivanhoe, Indiana

Ivanhoe, Indiana - 1918
Gallery of Wrecks Crashes & Derailments

Photo: unknown

At 3.56am on 22 June 1918, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train had been moved onto a siding while it awaited clearance to proceed onto the line to Hammond where the circus was due to perform. The rear of the train however had not cleared the mainline. Following the circus train was an empty troop train en route from Kalamazoo to Chicago. The driver of this train, having fallen asleep did not see the danger and ploughed into the rear of the stationary train at around 60 mph. Eighty six people died and 127 were injured. Many of the bodies were recovered from the burnt-out wreckage of the wooden, kerosene-lit pasenger cars.

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Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918 - "A circus of horrors" Hammond Indiana Website

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