Ohio Train Disasters

Book Description:  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 Ashtabula River.  The stoves burst into flames, burning to death all who were not killed by the fall.  Fires also cut short the lives of forty-three people in the head-on Doodlebug collision near 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.

Author Bio:  Jane Ann Turzillo writes about Ohio history and true crime.  She was one of the original owners of the West Side Leader, a large northeast Ohio weekly newspaper, where she covered police news and wrote a historical crime column.  She has won several Ohio Press Women awards for fiction and nonfiction.

Be aware that the accuracy of some of Arcadia’s home-spun histories is sometimes questionable. Hence, your NYCSHS directors would be interested in reviews by knowledgeable members. Published by Arcadia / History Press, this 160 page softcover, with 61 b&w images, retails for $20, with NYCSHS members paying only $16.00. Shipping is extra and Ohio residents must add 8% Ohio sales tax.