Hit a flea market today and came across a fellow selling old documents and such. There were a few railroad related items including a plastic bag with pics of a train wreck and some other papers. It was a five dollars so I bought it. Turns out it was a collection of items from one of the passengers on the train that wrecked. "Lucille" had kept her ticket for a 1934 Shriner's excursion train on the CB&Q. She kept the menu too. There was a newspaper clipping of the crash with the loco partially buried into a reefer. It had run into the back of an idle freight train. From the clipping I learned that the wreck occurred in Maiden Rock, WI. Lucille had taken her own pictures one of which mirrored the news clipping. Thanks to Lucille's pics of the other side of the train, one can clearly see that the loco hit the caboose and it telescoped into the reefer. The caboose is literally inside the reefer. Another picture shows passengers, one in Shriner's regalia, in front of the wreck. Finally, the last piece to the collection was the original Western Union telegram that Lucille sent home to her mother stating, "In accident No one hurt."
Kinda neat. I did a little research and couldn't find much. I came across a 1907 Shriner's Southern Pacific wreck with a loss of 32 lives.
