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God Bless America
By Jerry L. Ginther
The aroma of brewing coffee hung in the morning air as many of us viewed the incredible sight before us. It was a cold winter morning in January 1969, although slightly above freezing, as we surveyed the wreckage of a head on collision between two trains. The crash had occurred in the early morning hours that same day at Indian Oaks just a short distance north of Kankakee, IL. at a junction point where three tracks converged into two. The aroma was the result of a boxcar carrying coffee being demolished and its contents strewn over the melting snow and standing water puddles. This train wreck happened about 47 years ago and I still remember how the visual and olfactory inputs at the scene presented a striking contrast. The smell of morning coffee and the devastation before us just didn't go together. At that point in time all of the deceased had yet to be recovered.
The scene at the site of the collision was the worst that I had ever actually seen! A passenger train, The Southern Express, had departed Central Station at 12th St. in Chicago less than one hour prior to the accident. Apparently, the warming temperatures had caused a heavy fog to surround the area of the wreck reducing visibility substantially for both train crews involved. This condition prevented the engineer on the northbound freight train from seeing the red signal at Indian Oaks in time to stop his train before fouling the adjacent track on which the southbound passenger train was traveling. However, before the freight train had passed the red signal and fouled the passenger train's route, the passenger train had passed the town of Manteno where the signal was clear (green). Having passed such a signal the Southern Express was allowed to proceed at maximum authorized timetable speed until encountering a more restrictive signal. At that time the speed limit was 79 MPH for passenger trains. The approach signal to the switch at Indian Oaks would have been displaying a clear indication if the northbound freight had not yet passed its stop signal and fouled the route of the passenger train. The report indicated that the engineer of No. 25, upon seeing the red signal at the switch made an emergency application of the air brakes, but not in time to materially reduce the train's speed before impact. The heavy fog had obscured the view of the red signal from any distance. The collision occurred in the turn out near the switch points.
As I recall from later accounts, the head brakeman and the fireman left the engine of the freight and ran to safety where they remained until impact. The engineer remained on the engine trying to release the brakes and shove the train back to clear the fast approaching Southern Express. He was unsuccessful and was killed along with the engineer and fireman on the passenger train. Those three crewmembers were the only persons killed out right at the scene. No passengers lost their lives, but many were injured. That was amazing considering the fact that all three locomotive units and the first five cars of the passenger train were completely destroyed.
When I was a child of 7 years of age, I saw a movie titled, "A Night to Remember". The movie was about the sinking of the famous Titanic, an ocean liner of the White Star Line, which sank on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic from South Hampton, England en route to New York. She never made it the first time even though the liner was touted as being unsinkable. A headline in a newspaper of the era stated that God Himself could not sink that ship. That title came to mind as I viewed the destruction.
I was on duty that night in the depot at Gilman, IL and overheard the events as they transpired on the company's radio and dispatcher's line. That, in addition to actually seeing the twisted rails, the roadbed completely wiped out for several hundred feet, demolished rail cars, overturned passenger engines and coaches, it became my "Night to Remember."
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