Description: Image of the train involved in the Ashtabula Train Disaster, showing the train at the Ashtabula Railroad Depot and passengers waiting to board. The caption reads: "The Doomed Train, as it left Ashtabula, a few minutes before the Wreck." This illustration comes from a pamphlet titled "The terrible Ashtabula rail road calamity, on the evening of Dec. 29th, 1876, together with a few incidents of P.P. Bliss, the immortal singer," published by A.S. Benner, 1877. While this illustration is identified as the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway cars that plunged into the Ashtabula River, it does not appear to depict the actual train involved in the disaster or the Ashtabula LS&MS station at the time of the incident On December 29, 1876, a Howe truss bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio, collapsed while a train with three passenger cars was crossing it. The train and its passengers plunged sixty feet into a ravine and creek, and the lamps and stoves used to light and heat the train cars quickly ignited the wreckage. Ninety-two people died either in the accident or as a result of their injuries, and more than sixty of the surviving passengers were injured. Railroad accidents were commonplace during the late nineteenth century, due in part to tracks built quickly and cheaply by companies hoping to make tremendous profits. Railroad companies built thousands of miles of track in Ohio during the late nineteenth century, providing more opportunity for accidents to occur. Even after the Ashtabula Bridge collapse, the Howe truss bridge remained popular, primarily due to its relatively cheap cost. Still, railroad companies began to feel pressure from their customers to provide a safer means of travel. By 1888, more than two thousand iron bridges existed in Ohio. The state had fewer than nine hundred wooden bridges still in use at this time. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07759
Subjects: Transportation--Ohio--History; Trains; Railroad accidents; Railroads--Ohio; Bridges--Ohio;
Places: Ashtabula (Ohio); Ashtabula County (Ohio);
 

Description: 1877 engineering drawing of the Ashtabula Bridge, built by the Cleveland and Erie Railroad Company in 1863. This drawing shows the bridge, designed by Amasa Stone, that was involved with the infamous Ashtabula Train Disaster of 1876. On December 29, 1876, a Howe truss bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio, collapsed while a train with three passenger cars was crossing it. The train and its passengers plunged sixty feet into a ravine and creek, and the lamps and stoves used to light and heat the train cars quickly ignited the wreckage. Ninety-two people died either in the accident or as a result of their injuries, and more than sixty of the surviving passengers were injured. Railroad accidents were commonplace during the late nineteenth century, due in part to tracks built quickly and cheaply by companies hoping to make tremendous profits. Railroad companies built thousands of miles of track in Ohio during the late nineteenth century, providing more opportunity for accidents to occur. Even after the Ashtabula Bridge collapse, the Howe truss bridge remained popular, primarily due to its relatively cheap cost. Still, railroad companies began to feel pressure from their customers to provide a safer means of travel. By 1888, more than two thousand iron bridges existed in Ohio. The state had fewer than nine hundred wooden bridges still in use at this time. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: OVS4265_ashtabulabridge
Subjects: Bridges--Ohio; Railroads--Buildings and structures; Ohio Economy--Architecture and Engineering; Railroad accidents;
Places: Ashtabula (Ohio); Ashtabula County (Ohio);
 

Description: Illustration of a train on the Ashtabula Bridge from "The Ashtabula Disaster" by Stephen D. Peet, 1877. On December 29, 1876, a Howe truss bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio, collapsed while a train with three passenger cars was crossing it. The train and its passengers plunged sixty feet into a ravine and creek, and the lamps and stoves used to light and heat the train cars quickly ignited the wreckage. Ninety-two people died either in the accident or as a result of their injuries, and more than sixty of the surviving passengers were injured. Railroad accidents were commonplace during the late nineteenth century, due in part to tracks built quickly and cheaply by companies hoping to make tremendous profits. Railroad companies built thousands of miles of track in Ohio during the late nineteenth century, providing more opportunity for accidents to occur. Even after the Ashtabula Bridge collapse, the Howe truss bridge remained popular, primarily due to its relatively cheap cost. Still, railroad companies began to feel pressure from their customers to provide a safer means of travel. By 1888, more than two thousand iron bridges existed in Ohio. The state had fewer than nine hundred wooden bridges still in use at this time. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: 977_1341_P347_c2_013
Subjects: Transportation--Ohio--History; Trains; Railroad accidents; Railroads--Ohio; Bridges--Ohio;
Places: Ashtabula (Ohio); Ashtabula County (Ohio)
 

Description: Railroad steam locomotives crash into each other. Glass plate negatives of various Trumbull County and northeastern Ohio scenes, places, people and events taken by John E. Pickering and Edward D. Pickering from the 1880s to the 1910s. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08476
Subjects: Ohio Economy--Transportation and Development; Railroad accidents; Railroad locomotives
 

Description: Before its closure, the Ohio Penitentiary housed the photographs of hundreds of prisoners who were condemned to death throughout the state’s history. These images were displayed within the east annex of the facility, where death row and the execution chamber were located. This portrait of 27-year-old James Thompson is one of them. Thompson actively planned and triggered the derailment of a “Norfolk and Western Railway” passenger train in Lawrence County, OH. The wreck resulted in the deaths of the train’s engineer and stoker. The caption at the bottom of the photograph reads: “No. 198, James Thompson of Lawrence County, Electrocuted April 25th, 1936, for the Murders of Engineer John Meyers and Fireman John Kemp during a Train Wreck.” In 1885, the Ohio Penitentiary became the site of all executions for prisoners on death row; formerly, executions had taken place in the county where the crime was committed. But in 1896, the Ohio General Assembly mandated that electrocution replace hanging as the state’s only form of capital punishment. Altogether there were 315 people who were electrocuted at the Ohio Penitentiary, their deaths occurring between 1897 and 1963. Thompson was the 198th prisoner in Ohio to be executed in this manner. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08252
Subjects: Ohio History--State and Local Government--Law; Ohio History--State and Local Government--Corrections; Capital punishment--Ohio--History; Electrocution; Death row; Ohio Penitentiary (Columbus, Ohio); Railroad accidents
 

Description: This photograph depicts a railroad decoupling accident at a coke plant boiler house. The front car is a Pennsylvania Railroad hopper car. This boiler house created steam to power the steam-powered equipment at a coke plant (itself used to provide coke to a blast furnace). This photograph belongs to the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company Audiovisual Archives, so its subject is likely at a Youngstown company plant. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B04F65_008
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry and trade--Accidents; Coke plants; Pennsylvania Railroad Company
 

Description: This scene depicts an accident at Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company's Brier Hill railroad yard. Railroad cars and steel mills are pictured. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B01F03_005
Subjects: Railroad cars; Railroad cars--United States; Railroad cars--History; Railroad switches; Railroad yards; Steel industry and trade-- Accidents; Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company-- Brier Hill works
Places: Youngstown (Ohio); Mahoning County (Ohio)
 

Description: This scene depicts a railroad junction with tanker cars in the distance at Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company's Brier Hill works. This is the scene of the Brier Hill tanker accident. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B01F01_007
Subjects: Steel industry--1930-1940; Steel industry and trade--Accidents; Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Brier Hill works; Steel Industry-- Youngstown (Ohio); Railroad switches
Places: Youngstown (Ohio); Mahoning County (Ohio)