Mankato Railroad Crash of April 18, 1875

[@70thunderbolt83]

Thanks for a fascinating bit of railroad history, even more relevant to me as a native Mankatoan who worked as a car inspector on the C&NW RR back in the 1970s, and have been to the old limestone bridge abutments on the river with my airboat about 4 mi. south of St. Peter. I'll have to revisit the site this summer in light of this new info.

[@AkX1353]

A new subscriber here. I stumbled on your channel I guess because KZbin algorithms apparently know that I like clay tile building. I'm not sure how KZbin figured it out. But the one video about the clay tile silo's got me to immediately subscribe. After watching a few of your vids. I like the content. I really find I like the calm voice as much as anything. So many content providers think they have to shout I do believe you could read the proverbial phone book and not bore me 😊 I personally can't think of a better way to express the enjoyment I've gotten out of about 4 vids so far. Keep up the good work, please. From the wilds of the Big Bend of FL.

[@michaeledwards4715]

I remember this story from 1956 in school. We had pictures and our teacher read the story. Pieces of the old train are in the city square to see.

[@charliechristie2949]

THANK YOU for this very informative video. You gave a terrific "lecture" on the 1875 wreck and taught this old guy all about the unfortunate and nasty event. All the best !

[@alcopower5710]

Thanks for sharing that bit of history 👍

[@MustangsTrainsMowers]

Years ago my brother was having a drink at a bar and got into a conversation with an elderly man. The elderly man told of he and one of his friends one day when they were juveniles greased the rails of the tracks of the C&NW coming up from the Mississippi River valley from Winona. That young man and his friend hid behind trees and watched a train coming up the grade, reach the point where they greased the rails and the drive wheels started spinning bringing the train to a stop. And they never got caught. A very dangerous thing for anyone juvenile or adult to do. How scary that would be for a train going down the grade and losing control going too fast, derailing the train, killing people and possibly spilling some hazardous chemicals.

[@countrydelite5956]

The same thing happened between Gleason and Dresden, TN on the NC&StL in the 1920's-1930's. The railroad hit a farmers cow and refused to pay. After several stallouts, the railroad cut the farmer a check, and the greasing of the rails stopped.

[@bigredc222]

Young boys can be pretty destructive, I wasn't too bad, I did my share of soaping windows on mischief night and I threw a few eggs at cars, I grew out of it pretty quick, but I went to school with some kids that just liked to break things and destroy peoples property.

[@industrialathlete6096]

Educational and entertaining information about Minnesota.

[@jamesturner7102]

Very interesting! Thank you for the video.

[@bradleysmall2230]

mr edwards and charles ingalls arrived later to give aid as they had a chicken deal gone bad over spoiled wheat crop .. they were in mancato helping half pint and reverend alden

[@kh3612]

Nice video! Interesting that this happened on the 100th anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. History nerds unite!

[@robertb5948]

Seriously dude

[@footpuppy100]

Very interesting. Perhaps, renegade Indians ?

[@mitchreive9173]

Any thoughts on why they would put the passenger car at the end and smell cows all the way?

[@MrGaryGG48]

The idea of the smell they had to contend with was my first thought also. The only logical conclusion I could think of would be that the cattle cars were to be unloaded after the passenger cars. The passenger cars were put at the rear to be easier to separate from the train.

[@jamesthompson8008]

Another thought to the reasoning of car placement would be weight. 104 cattle ÷ by 6 cars is 17.33+ catle per car. At say just 600lbs(lite in terms of beeves) each, that's about 9,500lbs of weight, which I'm guessing is alot more than people & baggae for that size group. It has to do with physics in regards to how the train 'pulls' so to say. You'd want the heaviest cars just behind the engine, lighter cars on the end. If its the opposite, the heavy car would act funny(rocking back n forth) being behind the lighter one. A similar concept applies to semis with double trailers, heavy to the front, light to the rear.

[@mitchreive9173]

@@jamesthompson8008 good thought it makes sense, thanks for the reply

[@coloradostrong]

@@jamesthompson8008 _Alot_ is a town in India. _Allot_ is to apportion something. _A lot_ is more than one of something.

[@kevinthurston2216]

@@coloradostrong He also missed the third "g" in baggage. You should slap him for that too.

[@michellebreitbarth4279]

MN history at it's finest! 🤛

[@coloradostrong]

I survived the Mankato crash. I am a survivor.

[@robertyoung3992]

bs

[@coloradostrong]

@@Goldarr1900 Old enough to know the difference between _you're_ and _your_ and when to use them.

[@JM-yx1lm]

Mankato is where Charles and Edwards used to make delivery.

[@robnorland4587]

Great video!

[@Hogger280]

How in the Hell could the Engineer and Fireman not know that the pilot truck was off of the rails?!!

[@davidjones332]

No doubt they did, but with the feeble brakes of those days it would take them some time to pull up. They would have had to whistle for the brakemen to screw down the brakes, close the regulator, wind on the tender brake, by which time they were on the trestle.

[@toolsteel8482]

Very interesting content. I would expect grave injuries to the crew especially those in the engine but glad no one died. I wonder if the killed stock was distributed for food before they spoiled. I look forward to watching more.

[@djmpvae27091978]

Was the wooden railroad trestle or trestles rebuilt?

[@MNBricks]

Yes it was. However, it was eventually filled with earth, so it was no longer a trestle.

[@diegomontoya796]

Great content. Love localized history.

[@bindig1]

So the passenger car was placed downwind of 104 head of cattle?

[@RinoaL]

I never really heard of intentional derailments such as this. I'm glad they aren't more common.

[@DagaanGalakticos]

I think intentional derailments are more common than we realize. There were 3 derails in 1998 in New Mexico where there are long stretches of unobservable tracks. NPR reported the three but then stopped. I think they were asked to stop reporting them as it was giving people ideas!

[@lilblackduc7312]

Considering all the Criminals paid to trespass up from America's Mexican border by OBiden, there will be plenty of intentional violence in our future! 😭 😭

[@lilblackduc7312]

@The mysterious Miss X ..My Mother (born 1939) & her younger sister went to 'Nun School' in Mankato in the 1950s. Dad was born in 1936 in Iowa. I know 1st-hand, life was just like "Little House on the Prairie". My folks would watch an episode, then tell stories to me about it.

[@buckodonnghaile4309]

@The mysterious Miss X I'm not American so forgive my ignorance on the subject......Laura Ingalls really lived in a little house on a real prairie? That's wonderful, that show was a big part of many skids childhood.

[@radiantndn]

kopp

[@joshm4151]

Really like your videos. Don't see much about this point in time in mn

[@MNBricks]

Thanks!

[@paulgrimm]

Why did the engineer kept going with the front wheels off the track?

[@tomgunn8004]

How would they ever get that engine out of that ditch? It would take a heck of a crane.

[@johndavies1090]

Very interesting. A lot of wrecks were caused by special trains being either forgotten or overlooked by other staff, working 'on automatic'. In this case, thankfully, it being a special which suffered prevented a far worse incident.

[@warrenhoffman2006]

Could've made an episode about this on Little House.

[@ericemmons3040]

I am a railroad enthusiast, but I had never heard of this incident. Good information, and good research. The only thing I would say is that your illustration of the full train had eight cattle cars, not six cattle cars and a baggage car and passenger car. . .

[@MNBricks]

Finding useable graphics for old stories is difficult! Sometimes you have to go with what you have.

[@ericemmons3040]

@@MNBricks Fair enough. . .

[@coreybell6297]

Indeed

[@HerrWayne45]

shit not only did I learn about a train crash but I also learned the the Mississippi river runs through Minnesota and that Minnesota is more eastward than I thought. 10/10 would be educated by you again.

[@nailbender7223]

It start in MN, and you can walk across it as it is just A small stream

[@HerrWayne45]

@@nailbender7223 Holy shit thats fucking sweet. I'm from CT so my knowledge of midwestern topography and geography is rather lackluster to say the least.

[@nailbender7223]

I'm only hours away from the headwaters but have only driven by , never walked it

[@iffykidmn8170]

@@nailbender7223 Itasca State Park pretty sure there is still a web cam set up at the start of the river where it leaves the lake.

[@nailbender7223]

@@iffykidmn8170 that could be as it leaves Itasca

[@kennethboehnlein51]

Very interesting video. Thanks.

[@achgreentree]

100 years to the day after what is arguably our country's first digital message

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

2:03 "Six cattle cars smashed to atoms" Did people know about atoms in 1875?

[@robertjstrupp288]

No, they didn’t. British physicist, Ernest Rutherford, discovered the atom in 1911.

[@belamoure]

Continuous rail inspection runs must have been then contemplated.

[@beeble2003]

Rail inspection runs are designed to spot "naturally occurring" damage to the tracks. If you suspect malicious damage, you'd need an inspection train before every service train, close enough ahead that the damage couldn't be done between the passage of the inspection and service train.

[@villiamo3861]

Excellent, interesting video. Thanks. Are there fairly well recognised reasons beyond malicious pranking that such things were carried out (ie this being the third attempt to derail)?

[@MNBricks]

I think some farmers were upset their land next to the tracks was taken away for the railroad.

[@villiamo3861]

@@MNBricks Thanks for coming back.

[@farmalmta]

@@MNBricks Sparks from early trains occasionally caught parched or harvest ready fields on fire, haystacks, even outbuildings. Many farmers probably blamed trains for fires when lighting strikes or human mischief could have been to blame. Early RR responses were often to ignore such problems, but having locomotives disabled with bullets through boilers caused management to take complaints more seriously and minimize chances of firebox embers from setting fires as the locomotives moved along.

[@spaceflight1019]

Ever see "Harley and the Davidsons"? Walter Davidson was run off his land by the railroad, and if the story is true, the money they paid him became the seed money that got the company on its way.

[@SadisticSenpai61]

@@farmalmta I don't know about those particular instances, but my partner's brother works for MN's DNR. Before he got married, he worked all around the state in different capacities - one of which was firefighting. Railroads today don't bother trimming back the nearby foliage on the land they technically own and when maintenance crews come by working on the tracks, they often produce sparks which later grow into a wildfire when it's dry enough. It got to the point where they would just send the bill for fighting the fire to the railroad that owned the track and the railroad always paid it without disputing any of the charges - it was just cheaper to pay the firefighting costs than pay ppl to clear the nearby foliage. Frankly, given how railroads were run back in the Robber Baron days? I'd be very surprised if that wasn't the case back then either - only the bill likely got sent to the local farmers who's fields were burnt instead of the railroad companies (cuz that's just how it worked at the time). So yeah, I can definitely see why there would be resentment there.

[@andrewrodgers5537]

4 miles from mankota that's right in the same spot my parents had there motorcycle accident!!

[@coloradostrong]

"there" where? _Their_ motorcycle accident.

[@beeble2003]

@@coloradostrong Posting snarky corrections to people's spelling and grammar really isn't helpful.

[@MC2RD]

Nothing like being back wind from a ton of cattle.

[@shospulecolupis9718]

They put the cattle cars ahead of the passenger car???

[@MNBricks]

Seems strange, but yes they did in this instance.

[@harrybriscoe7948]

the and was safer like the back seat in a car or air liner

[@beeble2003]

@@harrybriscoe7948 The back seats on a plane aren't significantly safer: it's the difference between almost nobody dies and hardly anyone dies, even in a crash. The risk of being at the back of the train is being rear-ended by another train.

[@GermanShepherd1983]

You want the heavier cars, which pull harder up close to the engine and the light passenger cars last.

[@beeble2003]

@@GermanShepherd1983 But there's very little difference in weight between the passenger car and the cattle cars. I forget the exact numbers but, from memory, there were something like 100 cattle on six cars, vs 40 people in one passenger car. That's an average of about 17 cattle per car. While 17 cattle weigh quite a bit more than 40 people, the difference isn't all that significant when you factor in the weight of the cars themselves, which is probably at least 20 tons each. 40 people weigh 3-4 tons; 17 cattle weigh maybe 10 tons, so you're looking at the difference between about 23 tons and about 30 tons -- that's not enough that you'd care about the order of the cars in the train from a weight distribution point of view.

[@ToyotaGuy1971]

Increase speed to 1.5 or 🥱😪

[@DPImageCapturing]

Derail, not dislodge the pilot wheels! A piece of rail, not railroad iron!

[@gearandalthefirst7027]

I'm glad we have video games now so kids have better things to do with their time.

[@andrewandres148]

I hope, and im pretty sure, there was a lot of steak for a week or however long till it spoiled....... Did anyone fess up to it later in life? Those boys spilling the beans? or did they figure out who did it?

[@kylehill3643]

Sure sounds like the engineer had a lot of 'clues' he should've taken and slowed her down till he saw for a good distance no more 'wood' attempts.

[@jessep3079]

keep in mind train robberies still happened often at this time, so running the blockade may have been worth the risk

[@robertkrump2015]

Unfortunate

[@trex7168]

Somebody needed some beef to feed two kids

[@nickythebull82]

They need to find those kids and try them

[@doodar21]

Poor cows.

[@joeduece1]

Ohh shnikers, isn't that something

[@larrybollmann1223]

,