There are thousands of pictures of train wrecks but not all of them were accidents.
On Sept. 15th, 1896, William Crush of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (The Katy) staged this crash just to bring in an audience. Advertising for months beforehand, he gathered a crowd of 40,000 people, who munched on chicken dinners while anticipating the spectacle. Admission was free, but money was made by all the excursion trains people took to get to the event which included a Ringling Brothers circus tent and other entertainment.
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Using two obsolete 30 ton locomotives, he had one painted red while the other was green. Backing up a mile, the crews locked the throttles open and bailed out while the trains (half a dozen cars on each train, painted up for the event) charged towards each other.
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Even though the crash was delayed while police tried to get people back to the 'safe' area of 200 yards distance, it still wasn't quite enough, as there were injuries.
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On impact the boilers on both engines exploded, sending steel and iron everywhere. Besides two fatalities, half a dozen lesser injuries abounded. The photographer who shot these images lost an eye due to a flying bolt; the press were allowed to be only 100 yards away.
Afterwards, souvenir hunters swarmed over the bits of metal and wood to take home scraps. There was nothing recognizable remaining from the two engines.