Hammond Circus Train Wreck

The Hammond Circus Train Wreck occurred on June 22, 1918, during the last months of World War I and was one of the worst train wrecks in US history. Eighty-six people were reported to have died and another 127 were injured when a locomotive engineer fell asleep and ran his train into the rear of another near Hammond, Indiana. The circus train held 400 performers and roustabouts of the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus.

The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus used old wooden cars that were lit with oil lamps. The circus train had two train segments, and the segment that was loaded with animals had been dispatched earlier, leaving the train with all the performers and workers on the tracks. The cars were being moved to a spot near Gary, Indiana, so a mechanical problem could be addressed, and some of the cars had been left on the main line track.

Wikipedia