Since Waco yeah, however, West is no stranger to
calamity.
[blockquote] Just three miles south of West, on Sept. 15, 1896, another massive explosion made headlines, according to the Handbook of Texas and Railroad History of Texas. As a publicity stunt, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad staged a head-on collision between two trains — at a temporary city where more than 30,000 people arrived by special trains to see the spectacle.
When the two locomotives, one painted bright green, the other bright red, collided at about 45 mph, their boilers exploded, killing three people and injuring a half-dozen more as debris was blown into spectator-filled areas.
The explosion carried the force of about 50 tons of TNT, historians have speculated, and it was memorialized in a song composed by ragtime great Scott Joplin, who was touring in the area at the time and might have witnessed the event.[/blockquote]
CRASH AT CRUSH[blockquote]
As the arena for his spectacle, Crush selected a shallow valley just north of Waco, conveniently located close to Katy's Waco-Dallas track. In early September 500 workmen laid four miles of track for the collision run and constructed a grandstand for "honored guests," three speaker's stands, two telegraph offices, a stand for reporters, and a bandstand. A restaurant was set up in a borrowed Ringling Brothers circus tent, and a huge carnival midway with dozens of medicine shows, game booths, and lemonade and soft-drink stands was built. Finally, workmen erected a special depot with a platform 2,100 feet long, and a sign was painted to inform passengers that they had arrived at Crush, Texas.
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