Trainwrecks of 1918

Alaina continues marking anniversaries, and also talking about travel disasters. 1918 was in the middle of the Golden Age of Rail Travel, but behind the march of technology and luxury there were millions of travelers trying to get to work on time. Unfortunately, not all of them did. The day this episode goes live marks the 101st anniversary of the worst rail accident in American history, and the end of the year the worst accident in American urban transit history. What counts as "acceptable odds" for mass death and mayhem? Who bears responsibility for a systemic failure? How does the atomization of car travel affect our perception of train death tolls?

Links!

• Google Earth View of the Nashville wreck site
• Contemporary news report of the crash at Dutchman's Curve
• David Allan Coe - The Great Nashville Railroad Disaster
• Diagram of the Malbone Street wreck
• Death in the Subway by David Rapp

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Logo by Marah

Music by Thylacinus

Censor beep by Frank West of The FPlus