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1972 Chicago commuter rail crash

1972 in IllinoisAccidents and incidents involving Illinois Central RailroadChicago stubsDisaster stubsHistory of Chicago
Illinois transportation stubsOctober 1972 events in the United StatesRailway accidents and incidents in IllinoisRailway accidents in 1972
1972 Chicago commuter rail crash wreckage
1972 Chicago commuter rail crash wreckage

A collision between two commuter trains in Chicago occurred during the cloudy morning rush hour on October 30, 1972, and was the worst such crash in Chicago's history. Illinois Central Gulf Train 416, made up of newly purchased Highliners, overshot the 27th Street station on what is now the Metra Electric Line, and the engineer asked and received permission from the train's conductor to back the train to the platform. This move was then made without the flag protection required by the railroad's rules. The train's crew had not used a flagman before, and while it was a prescribed practice, it had fallen out of use. Instead, the conductor and the engineer worked in concert to back up the train, with the curve in the track partially blocking the view.Train 416 passed the automatic block signals, which cleared express Train 720, made up of more heavily constructed single level cars, to continue at full speed on the same track. The engineer of the express train did not see the bilevel train backing up until it was too late. When the trains collided, the front car of the express train telescoped the rear car of the bilevel train, killing 45 people and injuring 332. The death toll could have been higher, but the accident occurred near Michael Reese Hospital (which later moved) and Mercy Hospital.Later investigations showed that Train 720 likely could have seen the red light for Train 416 and avoided a collision if it was traveling slower (30 mph). It is estimated that Train 720 hit Train 416 at about 44-50 mph.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article 1972 Chicago commuter rail crash (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

1972 Chicago commuter rail crash
Bahnhofstraße,

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N 41.8449 ° E -87.6137 °
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Bahnhofstraße 7
06217 , Neumarkt (Vorstadt) (Merseburg)
Sachsen-Anhalt, Deutschland
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1972 Chicago commuter rail crash wreckage
1972 Chicago commuter rail crash wreckage
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Camp Douglas (Chicago)
Camp Douglas (Chicago)

Camp Douglas, in Chicago, Illinois, sometimes described as "The North's Andersonville," was one of the largest Union Army prisoner-of-war camps for Confederate soldiers taken prisoner during the American Civil War. Based south of the city on the prairie, it was also used as a training and detention camp for Union soldiers. The Union Army first used the camp in 1861 as an organizational and training camp for volunteer regiments. It became a prisoner-of-war camp in early 1862. Later in 1862 the Union Army again used Camp Douglas as a training camp. In the fall of 1862, the Union Army used the facility as a detention camp for paroled Confederate prisoners (these were Union soldiers who had been captured by the Confederacy and sent North under an agreement that they would be held temporarily while formal prisoner exchanges were worked out). Camp Douglas became a permanent prisoner-of-war camp from January 1863 to the end of the war in May 1865. In the summer and fall of 1865, the camp served as a mustering out point for Union Army volunteer regiments. The camp was dismantled and the movable property was sold off late in the year. The land was eventually sold-off and developed. In the aftermath of the war, Camp Douglas eventually came to be noted for its poor conditions and death rate of about seventeen percent. Some 4,275 Confederate prisoners were known to be re-interred from the camp cemetery to a mass grave at Oak Woods Cemetery after the war.