It seems like almost yesterday that the worst train wreck in Missouri history occurred. The date was August 5, 1922, and the location was on a bridge over Glaize Creek, beside the Mississippi river, between Herculaneum and Kimmswick.
At this location a fast moving steel passenger train from Texas, train number 4, crashed into the rear of a local passenger train of wooden cars, coming into St. Louis from Hoxie, Arkansas, train number 32, with 190 passengers, including a large contingent of boy scouts returning from a week at camp. The local train had stopped at Sulphur Springs to take on water.
Train number 4 had recently pulled on to a siding to let a southbound train pass, and then pulled back on to the main line and as it did so, the engineer missed the signals regarding the presence of train number 32 stopped in front of him at Sulphur Springs. The result was a terrific collision reportedly heard three miles from the point of impact.
A number of the passenger cars rolled down a fifty foot embankment and into Glaize Creek. Tragically, 34 individuals died in the accident and 150 were seriously injured, making this the worst train wreck in Missouri history.
As in all disasters there are many personal tragedies. This incident included the deaths of five members of one St. Louis family, the loss of an Indiana mother and her two young children, and the death of 19 year old John Crafton of Oran, Missouri. Private Crafton had recently completed basic training, returned home on a furlough and was heading to his first military assignment when he was killed.
Seems as if they were almost yesterday…
