Ohio Train Disasters

Transportation

by Jane Ann Turzillo

In nearly a century of heavy rail travel in Ohio, a dozen train accidents stand out as the most horrific. In the bitter cold, just after Christmas 1876, eleven cars plunged seventy-five feet into the frigid water below. The stoves burst into flames, burning to death all who were not killed by the fall. Fires cut short the lives of forty-three people in the head-on Doodlebug collision in Cuyahoga Falls in 1940 and eleven people in a train wreck near Dresden in 1912. Author Jane Ann Turzillo unearths these red-hot stories of ill-fated passengers, heroic trainmen and the wrecking crews who faced death and destruction on Ohio's rails.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 10, 2014

Reviews

[Paul Lunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

With "Ohio Train Disasters", Jane Ann Turzillo takes a look 12 different train accidents some of which are more infamous than others. Each chapter she does a decent job describing some of the evens as well as providing pictures of some of the disasters as well. If I have one fault with this book is that not all the disasters are described as equally as they should be which actually is slightly disappointing. I did though learn a few things I didn't know about the state's railroad history which is always a plus.

[April Helms · Rating 2 out of 5]

The one word I could use to best describe this book is "frustrating." I really wanted to like this, for it covers two of my interests: local history, and local disasters. Turzillo covers 12 train disasters that occurred within Ohio, each horrible accident with its own compelling stories. I have read about the Ashtabula train disaster of 1876 and the Doodlebug crash in 1940, but the other incidents were new to me. This book is not terrible, but it has some issues that could have been resolved with more time in the editing process. There are three main problems that should have been addressed before the book was sent to the printers.
1. The book is too short. It's 128 pages, which is slim for a nonfiction work, especially one with 12 separate stories. That page count includes the source list. This might be an issue with the publishing house; perhaps it dictated the book size. If this were the case, there were some other actions that could have been taken to flesh out the stories. I'm a fan of photos in nonfiction works, for example, but some could have been removed to make room for information (for example, there are two large headshots of the victim of one of the train disasters, someone who's barely mentioned).
2. It needed more polish. The writing is not horrible; I've certainly seen worse. But some of the sentences come across as awkward, the organization off and some of the word choices questionable. An example: in one chapter, the story of a man who was burned alive was told from two different views, and in two different parts of the chapter (once at the beginning, once towards the end). Those paragraphs should have been kept together (this was, by the way, one of the most gripping and horrifying stories told here. Rescuers were unable to free one man as fires got closer, so the poor soul passed along some of his possessions along with the entreaty that his family be contacted. He slowly burned to death before his would-be rescuers eyes. The description, well done here, gave me chills.)
On a side note, there were a couple instances where the author used the [sic] designation for "clew" in cited material. Actually, this is an acceptable spelling for "clue" and was frequently used in the Victorian era (the time when the majority of these wrecks took place). A bit of reorganization here, a bit of massaging there, some tweaking and this could have been a better read.
3. Too many holes. This was the most egregious problem. I could have ignored the first two, but there are a lot of unanswered questions and several places where the information provided should have been expanded. A few examples:
- There is a sad story about a young boy who was critically injured. He was worried about his parents who, unfortunately, died in the wreck. The last sentence about him stated that the doctors feared he wouldn't live... and that's it. So, did he die of his injuries?
- One train wreck was described as taking place one mile north of the Hudson border. This needed clarified. My initial thought was "so why not say the incident happened in Twinsburg?" It hit me later that during that time there was a Hudson Village and a Hudson Township (the two merged in 1994). I'm guessing that the accident occurred in Hudson Township, just north of the village proper, given where (I think) the old depot in Hudson used to be (that depot was demolished in 2013). But this should have been clarified.
- In the same chapter, there is mention of a Grace Perkins who received minor injuries, but became ill due to exposure in the cold weather. I'm not 100 percent sure, but I'm guessing this is Grace Tod Perkins. Grace Tod Perkins was one of the most prominent women of the time in the Akron area. Also, her husband, Col. Simon Perkins, was a prominent business man, and her father-in-law, Gen. Simon Perkins, was the founder of Akron. I think another sentence or two explaining who she was would have been appropriate (especially when a couple of paragraphs are used for an obscure song and dance man and his group who I guess was well-known at the time). Also, Grace Tod died a couple of years after this train disaster, and I'm wondering if this was, indeed, the same person, if her death and the exposure were related? I can see someone not from Akron missing this detail, but the author is from Akron.
- In another chapter, there's a sad story about a family traveling to another part of the country to start a new life in a newly purchased home. The mother and the three youngest children managed to escape the train, but the father died. However, nothing is said about the two older boys who were with their father at the time of the accident. I'm guessing they, too, perished but it's not stated.
There are also a few times when the information just seemed incomplete. I'm guessing in at least some cases, the information simply may not be available. Most of these accidents happened more than 100 years ago, and records get lost, misplaced and destroyed. That should have been added -- that records could not be found or were unavailable - when that was the case (there is one instance where the author does do that, but I suspect there were some other occasions where this would have been a fitting addition.)
I do hope the author considers revisiting and revising this book. It has a lot of potential. The "skeleton" is there. There are a lot of good stories -it just needs work.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy reading about local history and trains and this book covered some horrific crashes. We don’t think about how dangerous early rail travel was in wooden cars with oil and gas lamps that could spill in a crash and incinerate people and trains. Brakemen rode on top of the train in the early days and could easily be thrown off and die. Many stories, short enough and detailed enough to maintain my interest.

[Brian Skinner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every crash is pretty much the same. Someone didnt follow a signal and ended up crashing into another train 12 different times. Actually there were a few other reasons such as a bridge falling apart.

Many times the dead people could not be identified because they were traveling. Imagine that. Your dad heads to chicago but you never see him again but don't know why.

The train cars themselves were very dangerous because they each had a wood burning stove and when they crashed the coals from the fire would get thrown all over the place. Burning people, starting trains cars on fire and even forest fires.

One particularly bad crash was one where they carried a decent amount of gasoline as freight in the passenger car. A whole bunch of people burned up.

I am just glad we have now learned more about train safety but it is sad that these people had to die first before anything was done.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains short stories of some of the worst train wrecks in Ohio history. I already knew about the Doodlebug disaster in Cuyahoga Falls, but the other story that I found most fascinating was relating to a train wreck that happened just west of Republic, Ohio. I have a lot of family from that area, so that story had some meaning for me.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an interesting read. It features 12 train disasters across the state of Ohio, and I enjoyed learning more about the one I did know of. I also enjoyed learning about 11 other ones, including the Doodlebug incident.

Just an interesting read for those who love railroading, Ohio history, etc.

[Amy Roebuck · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories are all right. There is a full chapter on the Ashtabula Bridge Disaster, but it is taken from one internet source, so I'd look elsewhere for information on that one. Also, (surprisingly), the word Ashtabula does not appear in the index. So not sure why the index exists, or what else is missing.

[Author Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this brief history on Ohio Train Disasters. I would be a great reference book for an essay. It was a sad but easy read. For me, I would have like more history and details. Great historical photos, I really enjoyed them. There is what I would call train lingo in the book that I would have to look up to understand what was being written about.

[Susan]

Thousands of gallons of carcinogenic vinyl chloride has spilled and burned in Ohio from a 50-train car derailment. Nobody in the media is talking much about it. I wouldn’t move back to the town or that area for a while if I were living near there.

[Kurt Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by someone with a reasonable understanding of how the railroad works, which is refreshing.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it. A bit gruesome.

[Lori Shafer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at the local CVS store. I love reading any history books. This was really interesting. I loved the amount of photographs and other information included with each chapter.

[Samuel Burchfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

This has good information. It gives good detail for most readers. The photos added good Information. To take time for this book is good.

[Emily Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an interesting read! I had never heard of any of these before, so it was all new to me. There was a lot of information about each disaster and you get the full story.