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TRAINS COLLIDE IN NAPERVILLE APRIL 25, 1946

Workers from the Kroehler Furniture company attempt to pull survivors from a passenger car after a two-train wreck on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad tracks adjacent to the Naperville factory on April 25, 1946. CHARLES W. CUSHMAN PHOTOS/INDIANA UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES NAPERVILLE’S DEADLIEST DAY 45 died when one train slammed into another 75 years ago Locomotive of Deadly crash in Naperville resulted second train ran in limits being placed on train speeds almost through and other changes in effect today the back car of By Rafael Guerrero the lead train Naperville Sun By Suzanne Baker When one passenger Naperville Sun train slammed into the back of another in Naperville 75 The school day ended years ago, the impact was earlier than usual for Ron felt throughout the U.S. rail Keller when his father system. drove over to pick him up “At the time, the railroads from Miss McDermond’s set their own speeds. Here class on April 25, 1946. in Naperville, I think it was Dad didn’t want the about 90 mph,” said Jim young boy anywhere Christen, a Naperville resi- near the railroad tracks dent who contributed much at Loomis Street, which of the technical research in A jagged fragment from the he’d typically cross on his Chuck Spinner’s 2012 book roof of a wrecked Advance walk home from Ellsworth Train cars piled up on top of each other after one passenger train slammed into the back “The Tragedy at the Loomis Flyer coach plunged through School. In the car, the elder end of another, which was stopped on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad tracks in Street Crossing.” the window of the Exposition Keller told his son about a Naperville on April 25, 1946. The Advance Flyer was Flyer when two trains hit. horrific wreck in Naper- westbound when it left NAPERVILLE HERITAGE ville, explaining how one More inside “You could see the mess of about 5,000 in 1946 — Union Station in Chicago SOCIETY train ran into the back end that was there,” Keller said. rushed to the aid of survi- at 12:35 p.m. April 25, 1946, of another. Sculpture honors those “The locomotive of the vors and collect the dead in followed by the Exposi- “He came around that “As a first grader, I didn’t who died, survived and second train ran almost a disaster that shattered the tion Flyer, which would curve at around 85 mph,” quite understand what the helped during the accident. completely through the early afternoon peace. lag behind two or three Christen said. “He closed problem was because all Page 6 back car of the lead train. minutes on the same track. the gap between the yellow I could relate to was my Peeled it open like a tin The wreck Reports indicate both trains signal by the golf course ... Lionel train,” said Keller, Timeline takes you can.” The day was clear and were running at speeds but he didn’t slow down who for more than 50 years through how the crash Sunday marks the 75th temperature in the 60s on between 80 and 85 mph. enough. The impact here has been the Naperville occurred. Page 8 anniversary of the crash, Thursday, April 25, 1946, When the Advance Flyer was at about 45 mph.” Municipal Band conductor. one of the worst train when the Advance Flyer was forced to stop in Naper- Because of the Naperville “When one train ran into wrecks in Illinois history and the Exposition Flyer ville because of a mechan- disaster and another crash, the other one, you’d put it in which 45 people were trains left Union Station ical issue, caution signals a cap of 79 mph would be back on the track.” railroad tracks, Keller’s killed and many more westbound at 12:35 p.m., were the only things alert- placed on passenger trains, When their car reached dad stopped so they could injured. filled with families headed ing the second locomotive’s Christen said. the wooden bridge on survey the jumbled crash Naperville residents — engineer that there was a Columbia Street over the site. the town had a population Turn to Crash, Page 8 problem ahead. Turn to Changes, Page 6

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK Quarantine numbers soar: New obstacle for schools Surge hampering at school. to remain in class is sometimes a “I couldn’t figure out what was game of inches. students, teams trying happening. … Did she get out of her When the U.S. Centers for to get back to normal seat? And were any other parents Disease Control and Prevention in her classroom getting a call?” loosened its classroom social By Karen Ann Cullotta said Burns, a former member of the distancing guidelines earlier this and John Keilman Community Consolidated School year, slashing the recommended Chicago Tribune District 59 Board of Education. 6 feet in half, the Illinois Depart- Although the vast majority of ment of Health “alerted schools When Tim Burns received a Illinois students are now learn- that more students may need to call from the nurse at his daughter ing in person at least part time be quarantined when moving Emma’s school on a recent after- after more than a year of pandem- to 3 feet,” IDPH spokeswoman noon, the message was both alarm- ic-prompted remote instruction, Melaney Arnold said. ing and confusing. the surging number of kids forced But the main factor driving the He was told Emma, a third into quarantine has been the latest rising number of students in quar- grader at Admiral Byrd Elemen- source of disruption and frustra- antine, Arnold said, can be found tary School in Elk Grove Village, tion in the prolonged and difficult outside the classroom, specifically, was required to quarantine for two effort to reopen schools. “more kids coming to school while weeks after contact tracers found With the shifting metric for infectious after being exposed to she’d been only 5 feet, 10 inches social distancing in schools — someone who is positive.” away from a classmate who’d where 3 feet is now the allowable “In some cases, students and tested positive for COVID-19 — standard but exposure within 6 staff are placing themselves at just 2 inches short of the 6 feet that feet of an infected student can still Ryan Mohler, 15, a freshman at Neuqua Valley High School, sits in his room would have allowed her to remain result in a quarantine — the ability Turn to Surge, Page 4 Friday. STACEY WESCOTT/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Tom Skilling’s forecast High 52 Low 40 Chicago Weather Center: Forecast on Page 16 Vol. 87 No. 36 6 Naperville Sun | Section 1 | Sunday, April 25, 2021

TRAINS COLLIDE IN NAPERVILLE APRIL 25, 1946 Sculpture honors those who died, survived, helped

By Rafael Guerrero Naperville Sun

On the east side of the Metra station platform in Naperville, three welded figures are flanked by large train wheels in a memorial dedicated to the victims, survivors and responders in the April 25, 1946, train crash that killed 45 people. The piece titled “Trag- edy to Triumph” was inspired by conversations former Naperville resident Chuck Spinner had with eyewitnesses while he was researching his book, “The Tragedy at the Loomis Street Crossing.” Naperville City Council member Paul Hinterlong, who chaired the railroad memorial committee that selected artist Paul Kuhn to craft the sculpture, said much of Naperville was built after the 1960s so many residents are unaware of the tragedy. With only a handful of people alive who remember the crash, it remains import- ant for Naperville to remem- ber what happened and how the city came together in Naperville officials dedicated a memorial in 2014 to the 1946 train accident in which 45 people lost their lives. The figures in the display were sculpted from response, Hinterlong said. railroad spikes welded together. GARY GIBULA/FOR CHICAGO TRIBUNE The sculpture depicts two people carrying a third The injured woman in worker. The memento city and state, including Walk, according to Century and comforted a lot of person to safety. the center symbolizes the had been passed down relatives of the 45 people Walk records. people. It was an experi- One of the figures is of a victims who survived. to a family member, who killed. “I remember that day (of ence we don’t want to face sailor, representing the 10 Kuhn fashioned the wanted Kuhn to incorpo- Hinterlong said the event the crash),” then-Naperville again, but it shows the love military personnel who died figures from nearly 5,000 rate it into the piece. provided closure for some Mayor George Pradel said at and care of the people of that day, according to the railroad spikes and 10 miles Officials dedicated the families. the dedication ceremony. “I Naperville.” Naperville Century Walk. of welding wire, which he sculpture on the wreck’s The $60,000 project was out in the yard, heard all The second reflects the welded together. 68th anniversary in April was funded by the Public the sirens and I ran from our Naperville Sun reporter Kroehler Manufactur- Tucked into the sculp- 2014. Museum Capital Grant house to Plank Road. Suzanne Baker contrib- ing Co. workers and other ture is a windshield wiper The ceremony drew Program, Naperville’s “All the workers from uted. people who rushed to the picked up at the train crash about 300 people, many Special Events and Cultural Kroehler’s just took charge scene to help victims. scene by a Kroehler factory coming from outside the Amenities fund and Century and they helped the injured [email protected]

matic train stop equipment speed passenger trains train control systems in limits, movements of trains happen,” Hicks said. Changes is in place, such as auto- do exist, such as Amtrak’s place by the end of 2020. through switches in the “Technology is not from Page 1 matic cab signals, automatic Acela Express, which runs Hicks said the high-tech wrong position. perfect and neither are train stops or automatic 150 mph at some points system is similar to drive Such technology would people. Sometimes, people Timothy Hicks, lead train control systems. between Washington, D.C., assist features in newer have prevented the 1946 become complacent and mechanical engineer for Metra and Amtrak trains, and Boston. automobiles. crash, he said. don’t pay attention to warn- Lisle-based accident inves- for example, are limited to The Federal Railroad Positive train control is “However, even with all ings of an impending prob- tigation firm Professional 60 mph and speed limits Administration required designed to prevent train- of these measures in place, lem.” Analysis, said the 1951 are slower for freight trains, that all major railroad to-train collisions, derail- it is not possible to guar- mandate permits trains to Hicks said. companies, commuter lines ments, incursions into antee with 100% certainty [email protected] exceed 79 mph only if auto- However, some high- and Amtrak have positive established work zone that accidents will never

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TRAINS COLLIDE IN NAPERVILLE APRIL 25, 1946

train. Crash Although the story didn’t from Page 1 make it into his book, Spin- ner said he was able to track home from Easter celebra- down the woman who had tions the weekend before been the rescued child. She and soldiers returning from wrote a letter to Spinner World War II, according to telling him how she was former Naperville resident 6 months old and travel- Chuck Spinner. ing with her parents on the His 2012 book, “The Trag- train. edy at the Loomis Street Another couple appar- Crossing,” has made him the ently agreed to watch her authority on what happened when her parents went to that spring afternoon and the dining car for lunch, she the lives that were changed said. both on and off the trains. Fortunately, her mother Because the two passen- had returned to her seat and ger trains shared the same her father was in the smok- Chicago, Burlington and ing car when the collision Quincy Railroad tracks occurred or they could have outside of Chicago, it was been among the fatalities, the custom that the Advance she said. Flyer would take the lead, The impact catapulted with the Exposition Flyer her from her mother’s arms, trailing two to three minutes the woman said, and she was behind at speeds of 80 to 85 caught by a man in the mili- mph, Spinner said. People survey the wreckage from the collision of two passenger trains on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad tracks in tary. “It was an accident wait- Naperville on April 25, 1946. CHARLES W. CUSHMAN/INDIANA UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES “My parents and I ing to happen,” he said. survived, but the couple in On this day, brakeman he said. His father then ran to call sides of train cars because and matching up pieces of the dining car did not,” the Sherman Grant, of Chicago, “I think it’s a difficult the company switchboard of all the spilled oil. Instead, cloth to arms and legs?” woman wrote. was in the lead train and task to put a number on the operator to alert the police crews climbed on top of the What Keller found sad saw something fly out from injured based on the extent and fire departments, Bob cars with the torches. was that among the dead NCC student’s connection beneath one of the coaches, of the injury, those taken Schrader said. The west end of the Kroe- were sailors returning home. Lawrence Cena met his Spinner said, prompting to the hospital, those that Within minutes of the hler factory became a make- “They survived the war wife, Patricia Hayes, of engineer A.W. Anderson, required a stay in the hospi- crash, 800 Kroehler work- shift triage area to assess and then died in a train Naperville, while he was of Galesburg, to stop the tal,” Spinner said. “Although ers sprang into action. survivors’ injuries. wreck,” he said. serving in World War II. Advance Flyer at Loomis there was only one death on “Everybody in the factory Keller said because the Spinner’s research found After his discharge from Street in Naperville at 1:03 the Exposition Flyer, there basically stopped what they company manufactured 13 of 45 people who died the Navy, the couple moved p.m. so the crew could were a number who were were doing and started sleeper sofas, the beds were military personnel. to Naperville, where he inspect for possible damage. injured on that train as well. helping out one way or were pulled out and used “Some of them were on attended North Central Spinner said two signal “It’s kind of interesting the other,” said Schrader, a as temporary hospital beds leave and some had just College on the GI Bill. lights were triggered to because if you sat on the longtime history teacher in until an ambulance could been discharged,” he said. “At the time he had no warn the approaching aisle, your chances of surviv- Naperville. transport the survivors to “Several were engaged and interest in railroading or second train. ing were greater than if you “Ladies in the cafeteria the hospital. were returning home to be anything like that,” Spinner It would not have been were in a window seat,” made sandwiches. It was North Central College married.” said. unusual for Exposition Flyer What Spinner does know just a complete stoppage of students also brought Cena was headed to engineer Wallace “William” is the Advance Flyer had a work, and everybody basi- mattresses that were placed One Exposition death the college for a psychol- Blaine to see the first yellow capacity to hold 150 passen- cally pitched in and helped on pieces of plywood and The only person to die ogy class when he saw the signal, and Blaine likely gers and the Exposition out.” used as gurneys as the from the Exposition Flyer stopped train at the station slowed the speed instead of Flyer could seat 175. Besides the factory, assis- injured were pulled from was the fireman, Curtis and people eating in its applying the brakes, he said. “We don’t know whether tance came from throughout the train. Crayton, of Galesburg, dining cars. But it wasn’t until after that day all seats were Naperville, including police- The only ambulances in who jumped from the train Within minutes, he rounding the curve enter- taken,” he said. “However, man, volunteer firefight- Naperville at the time were before impact, Spinner said. was watching the calam- ing Naperville that the crew as I’ve mentioned with ers, neighbors, students at hearses from the funeral Perhaps memories of a ity unfurl and bodies being would have seen the second soldiers returning from the North Central College and homes, Keller said. relative’s tragic railroad thrown from the train. red signal and stopped the war and passengers return- the Evangelical Theological “The town didn’t have death nearly three years In his book, Spinner wrote train. ing to points south from Seminary, priests and medi- paramedics like they have earlier played into his deci- of how Cena and another Despite attempts by Easter — the Sunday before cal professionals, Spinner today,” he said. sion, Spinner said. man commandeered a sedan Blaine to stop the train, the the train wreck — visitations said. “A lot of people went to Crayton’s brother-in-law, from the Kroeher fleet to engine slammed into the in Chicago, the trains most Two members of the the hospital in the back end Fred Bishop, was the engi- transport a woman with a back end of the stationary probably carried near capac- Chicago chapter of the of a truck (because) they neer of a gas-electric train severe leg injury. Advance Flyer. ity.” American Red Cross were didn’t have enough ambu- that collided with a freight Because Naperville had giving first aid instruction lances,” Bob Schrader said. locomotive in Aurora on no hospital at the time, the Injuries and fatalities Crash responders at North Central College, April 23, 1943. The man died two convinced the staff A report from the Inter- Harold Schrader saw it and were able to redirect Military deaths when flames trapped him at Edward Sanitorium, a state Commerce Commis- coming. their efforts and those of the Those who didn’t survive inside the train’s cab. Naperville tuberculosis sion lists 45 deaths — 39 A lumberyard foreman for students. the crash were placed in a Ironically, when Expo- treatment center, to take in passengers, four dining car the Kroehler Manufactur- Bob Schrader said his temporary morgue set up in sition Flyer went into the the woman. employees, an off-duty ing Co., Schrader, who died cousin, Delbert Schrader, Harold Schrader’s office. Advance Flyer, a sharp piece Cena would go on to a rail- worker and a train service in 2011, had just returned to who’d just returned from Keller said because many of the roof tore through the road career railroad after employee — and 69 injured, work after lunch when he World War II, was work- of the people killed were window the cab where college. including 48 passengers, saw the stalled train, said his ing as as a contractor on a dismembered, volunteers Crayton would have been In April 1948, Cena, who 19 dining car employees, a son, Bob Schrader, a second house at Fourth and Loomis like his father helped gather sitting. died in 2016, took a job as porter and a train service grader at Naper School at street. The lumber from the body parts for two or three “His fate was determined a steno clerk at the Santa employee. the time. construction site was used days. either way,” Spinner said. Fe Railway in Chicago But the number of injuries While walking over to to build scaffolding to help “He kind of lost his appe- and worked his way up remains under dispute. chat with the crew, Harold the passengers get through tite for about a week,” Keller Parents nearly died the ladder to eventually Despite ICC’s exhaustive Schrader caught sight of the train roof and out of the said. “It seemed he was so The first person report- become president and chief investigation, it was diffi- the approaching train and car, he said. shook by what he saw. edly pulled from the wreck- executive officer of the cult to determine how many a man, later identified as Delbert Schrader also “They had to identify age was a baby girl who Atchison, Topeka & Santa people were injured, Spin- the fireman, jump from the warned Kroehler work- people by their clothing,” ended up in the arms Harold Fe Railway. ner said. Some accounts put engine near Wright Street, ers against using acetylene Bob Schrader said. “Can you Schrader until her mother the number of injured at 125, his son said. torches to cut open the imagine that, going in there could be rescued from the [email protected]

Timeline of deadly 1946 train collision By Rafael Guerrero Naperville Sun

12:35 p.m. — The Advance Flyer and Exposition Flyer trains depart Chicago’s Union Station. The Expo- sition Flyer is en route to San Francisco while the Advance Flyer is bound for Iowa and Nebraska. The Exposition merges onto the same track as Train wreck survivors, including passengers and crew, stand the Advance Flyer at outside the smashed remnants of a stainless steel dining car Kedzie Avenue in Chicago, after a wreck on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad about five miles from the tracks in Naperville on April 25, 1946. CHARLES W. CUSHMAN/ station. There is a two- to INDIANA UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES three-minute gap separat- ing the two trains. 12:56 and 12:58 p.m. — The times the Advance Flyer and Exposition Flyer were to pass through Downers Grove, seven miles from Naperville. Burlington officials said the Exposition Flyer was about three minutes behind the Advance. 1:03 p.m. — The Advance Flyer stops at the Loomis Street crossing so train employees can inspect for possible damage from something seen flying out from beneath one of the coach cars. 1:03 to 1:05 p.m. — The Exposition Flyer closes in on the stopped train, the engineer seeing a yellow caution light while travel- ing 80 mph. He slows his speed but This photo graphic from Chicago Tribune archives illustrates how a curve blocked the view of does not try to try to stop the Exposition Flyer’s engineer until it was too late to avoid a collision with the Advance Flyer, until he sees a second which was stopped in Naperville. NAPERVILLE HERITAGE SOCIETY caution light, which was red. It is too late to avoid a collision. ing him to call Naperville about 45 mph. The impact pushes the Harold Schrader sees a police and fire depart- The Advance’s back car cars about 205 feet west of train employee jump from ments is split open by the Expo- the point of impact. the Exposition’s lead car 1:05 p.m. — The Expo- sition Flyer locomotive, while he’s working in the sition Flyer slams into the coming to rest three-quar- Source: “The Tragedy at This Associated Press photo shows the smashed and derailed Kroehler Manufacting stopped Advance Flyer at ters of the way through the the Loomis Street Cross- cars from the passenger train collision in Naperville on April 25, Co. lumberyard, prompt- a speed estimated to be Advance Flyer’s rear car. ing” by Chuck Spinner 1946. NAPERVILLE HERITAGE SOCIETY