The Tragedy at the Loomis Street Crossing

On April 25th, 1946, my mom was pregnant with me.   In fact, she was at the end of her first trimester.  I would be born on October 22, 1946.   Our family lived in Naperville, Illinois, directly  across from the Main entrance of Kroehler Furniture Manufacturing Company, which at the time proudly displayed along the top of its building “World's Largest Furniture Manufacturing Company”. Our house was on the north side of Kroehlers; the railroad tracks ran along the south side.   Our house was also just a block from a train intersection at Loomis Street.
    Back to April 25th, 1946.  On that date the most devastating railroad collision in the history of the Burlington railroad would take place.  At that Loomis Street intersection.  Just a block from our house.  On that day, the Exposition Flyer would ram into the back of the Advance Flyer.  The collision would result in 45 deaths and many more injured.  
     The Kroehler building would shield our house from the site, but my brothers and sister could hear the wailing of the sirens for several hours as ambulances and support vehicles rushed to the scene.  My brothers, John and Bob and my sister, Jean, were given strict instructions to stay by our house and not go to the tracks.  Our Mom, because of her pregnancy, was also kept from the scene.  Our Dad worked at Kroehlers and like many of the 800 employees of the factory was at the site giving assistance.
    The crash site was compared to a war zone.  In fact, many soldiers who were returning from the war were passengers on those trains.  A number of them stated that they had been in combat situations, but none as horrific as this.
    Perhaps this is why, after the bodies had been retrieved and sent to their various towns for burial; after the injured had been treated; and after the wreckage had been cleared away, not much was said about the Naperville Train Wreck of 1946.  After my father died in 1961 I entered a boarding school seminary as a sophomore in high school.  During my first day of class, each and every one of my instructors asked me to introduce myself to my new classmates.  When I mentioned that I was from Naperville, inevitably the instructor would mention the association of my town with the 1946 train wreck.  It was the first time I had heard of it.
         And, I've found out, this was not too uncommon an occurrence.  
    Although some days are long, the years go by fast.  I made the decision to leave the seminary after college.  I then began a 33 year career teaching high school social studies in the Cleveland, Ohio area.  That's where I met my wife, Patrice Supik and that's where we raised our son, Scott.  
    After I retired I spent five years writing A Book of Prayers: To the Heavens from the Stars (abookofprayers.com), a collection of the beautiful favorite prayers from 118 wonderful celebrities.  Then, one day as I was going through my files, I came across an article that my mother had sent me some time ago mentioning that it had been 40 years since the tragic Naperville Train wreck.  The article gave me pause for several reasons.  My mother who had kindly sent me the article had died in 1998.  The article reminded me of the many, many letters and articles she had sent her children during her lifetime.  She was a wonderful, thoughtful mother and I always miss her but the article especially focused my attention on her absence.  The article also made me reflect on my father who had died at the age of  50.  I was 14 years old at the time and thought of my father as an older man.  Now that I was in my 60s, I realized both just  just how young he was and also how each day of my life is a precious gift to be used wisely.  I've always been inspired by my dad who was a hard worker.  After 25 years at Kroehler Furniture Company, he and his brother Bill bought the Naperville Liquor Store.  Our dad could relate to all classes of people, and he loved his family dearly.  His funeral was one of Naperville's largest.  
    The article also made me wonder why, after 61 years, that nothing of any great substance had ever, to my knowledge, been written about the wreck and about the lives lost in that tragedy.  There was no monument or marker at the scene.  I thought to myself, had those forty-five victims of the wreck all been from Naperville, there would have been any number of commemorative reminders of the lives that had been lost.   The only reminder of the train wreck exists, not at the site, but in the Naperville downtown Library.  In front of the library there is a beautifully engraved map of the town.  On that map there is depicted a train wreckage at the location where the accident took place.
     I made a decision after looking at the article that I would begin research on the lives of those passengers and employees on the train, most especially those who died.  The book would be a long overdue commemoration of the lives filled with promise that were extinguished that day.  More than that, I would  try to present a picture of how train travel came to Naperville and how the railroad would be a stimulus to the city's tremendous growth.   And I would investigate the causes of the crash, and try to explain these issues in laymen's terms that could be easily understood.   I would try to present a tribute to those who came quickly and stayed late to help those people who incurred injuries or death or who were just disoriented and wondering how they would complete their journey and how they would alert loved ones of their condition.   
    I don't know if my research will prompt a marker to be placed at the site of the tragic collision.  I do hope that, at the very least, I can create in people a mental marker or monument that will now occupy a place in their conscious history of Naperville that was perhaps never there before.  
    Naperville was a great place to grow up – and it still is.  The paper stand, Andy's Popcorn hut, and my Dad and Uncle's Naperville Liquor Store might no longer be there.  But, SS Peter and Paul Church, the weekly band concerts, the beach, the roaring DuPage, wonderful Memorial Day services and parade, and, of course the Train Depot will, I'm sure, long endure and are symbols of a large town that still has somehow managed to preserve its small town flavor.  I am excited to be able to give something back to the town and the people who have given me and our relatives so much.