Trolley Tuesday 10/19/21 - Chicago's Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster

There are some disasters born of trial and error, there are some of many factors that culminate in one fatal act, and then there are some that are just freak accidents where a streetcar found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Long considered to be one of the deadliest midwestern streetcar disasters, and certainly the most violent, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) "Green Hornet" streetcar collision of May 25, 1950 is best remembered for the absolute carnage that followed its fatal route and the trauma inflicted on Chicagoans, many of whom still pass through the intersection of 63rd and State Street today. On today's Trolley Tuesday, we look back on the "Green Hornet" disaster and the lessons it taught us.

The Players

CTA's Kedzie Carhouse on an undated photo, featuring
a prewar PCC car at the left and the "Big Pullmans" filling the
rest of the carbarn.
(Robert V. Mehlenbeck, Joe L. Diaz)

The old CTA logo, starting in 1947.
(CTA)

In 1947, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) was formed through the merger of the Windy City's two largest private streetcar companies, Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) and the Chicago Rapid Transit Company (CRT), under one city-owned transit network. The two companies were already friendly with each other, allowing for liberal transfers between CRT's elevated trains and CSL's streetcars. Among the new streetcars operated by the CSL at the time were Pullman-built Presidents' Conference Committee cars, or PCCs, which were derived from two prototypes trialed on the city's streets in 1934. These cars were lighter, faster, and sat more people than the older Peter Witt or "Big Pullman" streetcars, and by 1947, well over a thousand were operating on Chicago's city streets. Due to their single-ended design, CTA built wyes and loops through the city to be able to turn the cars around at each outer terminus.

63rd Street and State Street, looking north, photographed in 1958.
(Carli Digital Collections)

An internal cutaway of Chicago's PCCs, showing their
heater channels (because Chicago is cold in winter),
 motor truck suspension, and door mechanism.
Larger version here.

One of these subclasses of PCC cars was the "Green Hornets", a third-generation PCC type built in 1947 by the St. Louis Car Company of St. Louis, Missouri. No. 7078, which was involved in the forthcoming disaster, was part of the manufacturer's second order from CSL. These handsome, full-skirted streetcars were among the fastest of their day, with their 99-point, relay-controlled speed regulator allowing them to hit speeds up to 60 miles an hour and their electric brakes ensuring a quick and smooth stop. Their arrival was a tempestuous one, as CSL ordered them just moments before merging into CTA and the order could not be cancelled, resulting in an excess of PCC cars. Their arrival was welcomed by Chicagoans, however, who gave them their nickname due to a combination of their green-and-cream paint scheme and speed (as well as the popular radio series). At the time of the collision, No. 7078 was working on the State Street line, a popular and heavily-trafficked transit artery connecting Chicago's Navy Pier with West Pullman on the city's southern outskirts.

Disaster

Thursday, May 25, 1950. 6:30PM.

The Park Manor Yard underpass in 2019, taken at the corner of State and 63rd, looking South.
(Google Maps)

A CTA 6000-series elevated car (which uses PCC underpinnings)
passes by "Green Hornet" 1373 at Van Buren and Western, June 1954.
(Bill Hoffman)

The last of the spring rains had hammered Chicago and left many parts of the CTA unnavigable by streetcars due to floods; this included the Park Manor Yard underpass on State Street, going beneath the New York Central Railroad, located in what is now Parkway Gardens. On that day, a streetcar would be caught dead-to-rights going at high speed, as the slippery steel rails meant acceleration and deceleration was a challenge. Motorman Paul Manning (42 years old at the time) and Conductor William C. Liddell (29 at the time) were both unworried by these circumstances; after all, Manning had more than enough operating experience to know how to navigate in the rain. At the time, the car was loaded with the last of the rush-hour home commuters and all streetcars were being routed onto the 62nd Place loop to avoid the underpass flood. This switch was being held open with a hint bolt and was being monitored by a supervisor at 59th Street, who was eventually told that the flood waters had subsided to "passable levels" and advised to let the next car go through straight. 

PCC No. 7048, with its three rear exit doors,
is seen at Rush Street, year unknown.
(Automotive History.org)

7078 just so happened to be that car, rolling southbound without stopping at 61st street. Both Manning and Liddell were advised to navigate the floodwaters under and leave the eventual repairs to the Clark/Devon carbarn, and so they did. However, the supervisor on duty forgot to warn the flagman to line the switch at 62nd Place. Manning, unaware of the missed communication, soldiered on at normal service speed. Due to the water still glistening on the track and the dimming sunlight, he failed to see the open switch and, despite the flailing flagman urging him to stop, he barreled through at speed. Right into a truck hauling two trailers of gasoline. The front of the PCC was smashed inward as it jackknifed both trailers, causing a horrendous explosion that killed Manning instantly and blew out the windows of the 7078 and the block around them. The truck driver, Mel Wilson, also died immediately.

An artist's rendition of the Green Hornet disaster at 62nd place and State Street, looking south.
(Eric Edward Esper)

A Chicago Tribune image showing the position of the switch, the manual control needed to manipulate it,
and the direction of where the streetcar swerved.
(Chicago Tribune)

Mel Wilson's truck flipped over in the explosion, and scorched from fire damage.
(Chicago Tribune)

7078, now under control, resembles more a shambling corpse
as investigators begin combing the debris under the car.
(Chicago Tribune)

Inside 7078, it was chaos as Conductor Liddell tried to keep order in the car among the wailing and panicked screaming. Passengers were jammed against the doors (which opened inward) as flames swallowed up the streetcar, bringing back images of the infamous 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston. A little girl aboard the car, 14-year-old Beverly Clark, was able to open the center doors with the emergency handle and free most of the passengers while Liddell struggled to keep the three rear doors open to let people out. 50 people escaped with minor to serious injuries, leaving behind 34 that were killed in the explosion. The inferno had grown so much that now more buildings had caught fire, cracking bricks and melting concrete all around, while what bodies could still be recovered were piled up on the west side of State Street.

In a rather morbid image, the dead are given their privacy on the west side of State Street.
(Chicago Tribune)

  

Cleanup and Investigation

Destroyed cars and buildings are put out by firefighters.
(Chicago Tribune)

The crash site looking north from 63rd street, showing
the leveled buildings and the emergency crews.
(Chicago Tribune)

Once Chicago police and firefighters were alerted, "Emergency Plan No. 4" was quickly implemented and saw almost every engine and rescue company and police precinct flocking to the scene. Eyewitness testimonies were also swiftly taken, with the flagman positioned on 62nd Place saying that he waved for 7078 to stop, but to no avail. 7078 continued burning for a good few hours as the fire ate away at the cloth, wire, and copper fixtures inside the car (as any good eyewitness to a burning electric car can attest now). Not only were three buildings flattened and others on fire, but cars were demolished in the blast.  Considering this was just five years after World War II, it looked eerily like a wartime bombing site. Only after 7078 finished burning did the firefighters drag the mangled trolley from the street and found that the floor had burned off the body, leaving behind a mass of debris that included toys, shoes, and clothing. 

A pocket watch carried by a victim, showing when it stopped at 6:33.
(Chicago Tribune)

"Green Hornet" PCC No. 7129 (a sister to 7078) passes by the
remains of a blown up building. The trailers involved in
the "gasoline bomb" can be see on the left.
(Chicagology)

32 bodies were taken off the street to the Cook County Morgue, where police now had the task of identifying the dead. Some were identified based on their personal belongings, others by dental records. Motorman Manning was identified by an inlaw based on a wedding ring Manning still had on his finger.  The National Safety Council (NSC) began a report two days after the crash and found that not only had 34 people died, but 150 residents of State Street had been made homeless by the fire. The CTA also began their own investigation, leading to many conflicting stories about who was to blame for what. Conductor William C. Liddell fled the scene after escaping the trolley, only to be arrested hours later and charged with "leaving the scene of the accident". When questioned by CTA Chairman Ralph Budd about his involvement in the accident, he stated, 

There were flames in front of the car and people were rushing to the rear. I set the rear door to open so that people could get out but they piled up there.

I pleaded with them to stand back. Then I was sped along with the crowd. They were panicked. I just couldn’t open the door. I was carried out thru the rear window. I don’t know how it was opened.

Curtis G. Kleim (aged 44) was the flagman on duty guarding the 62nd Place loop, and according to him,

About two minutes after 6:30 I saw the southbound car about two blocks away. I started waving when the car was about a block away, but it kept on coming. Then I really began waving. I jumped back. I saw it coming. The car was going perhaps 30 miles an hour, I can’t judge for sure.

Mel Wilson's name was also cleared by his employers, Sprout & Davis, Inc, by saying he had been "one of the company's best drivers with a perfect safety record". More questions were then thrown onto the firemen who did not bring special gasoline fire chemicals, to which first deputy chief fire marshal John J. Haberkorn stated the intensity of the fire was "brief". When all was said and done, the death toll was determined as one of the deadliest train-truck collisions since 1940, when a train-truck collision in Texas killed 29 people. Five buildings were also totally lost, bringing the property damages to $150,000 (or $1.62 million today). That is, to say nothing of the human costs as well.

"Green Hornet" PCC No. 7080 and a small work truck passes by the demolished remains of
the wreck site in June 1950.
(David Sadowski)

Lessons Learned

The grand jury assembled to lay blame for the wreck.
(David Sadowski)

When the investigation was over, CTA had to admit the "Green Hornet" cars had a major flaw with their front and rear doors. Unlike the center doors which possessed emergency handles, the front and rear doors could only be operated by the motorman and conductor, respectively. That, and the doors opened inwards, creating intense blockages should people on the inside try to force themselves out. Stanley D. Forsythe, CTA's traffic engineer, explained that this was a "calculated risk" to prevent people from "falling out" or "being given too much access to operating the doors", with Budd similarly agreeing that any safety improvements "would have been of little use" due to the fire spreading quickly. Nevertheless, stricter fire safety codes were cited against CTA by the National Fire Protection Association of Boston, calling for "emergency exits [...] arranged so there will be an alternate path of escape if fire blocks one exit, a principle that applies to trolley cars as well as buildings." Even the Chicago superintendent of sewers had to step in and say that the flooded underpass had nothing to do with the wreck, and only CTA's operations were to blame.

Green Hornet No. 4391, with open doors,
at the Illinois Railway Museum.
(David Sadowski)

The rest of the Green Hornet fleet was presumably withdrawn on a temporary basis for readjusting their doors, as later models produced after 1947 had more-conventional doors that spread and opened outward. (One of these later-production models, No. 4391, is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois.) The CTA was forced to pay out not only $900,000 (or $10.2 million today) to the families of the injured and dead by 1955, but also the city superintendent of electricity (to which $5,000, or $56,000 today, was paid off for damaged electric light and fire alarm cables) and towards construction of a new "subway" under Park Manor Yard, with improved drainage systems to prevent flooding (to the tune of $2.7 million or $30.7 million today). CTA was also forced to implement two yearly physical examinations of motormen to ensure they were of sound mind and body. However, that last bit didn't seem to last long on the CTA.

What Happened Next

CTA's current-day 63rd Station at 63rd and I-94 Expressway on the Red Line.
(CTA)

The Addison Street Collision of January 9, 1976.
(Connecting the Windy City)

By 1958, the CTA elected to stop running streetcars altogether and focus its efforts on more useful (and less dangerous) elevated railway and subway construction. With this black mark so fresh in memory during the first years of the organization, they took great steps to prevent such accidents from happening again, but unfortunately it only got worse. On January 8, 1976, a malfunctioning automatic train control (ATC) system allowed for a two-train collision to occur at speed at the Addison Street Station after a southbound train neglected to call its cab signal at Irving Park station just before. 381 passengers were injured, with one further succumbing to their wounds, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ruled the CTA negligent in its motorman and its operations. Another wreck, dubbed "The Loop Crash", occurred the year after on February 4, 1977, and I talk all about it in my original CTA episode linked above (and here). Today, the State Street line is run by motor buses, with most terminating at the intersection of State and Washington, with nary a sign remaining of what was once Chicago's deadliest transit accident.

The aftermath of the 'L' crash of 1977.
(Chicago Tribune)

  

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today included a Chicago Tribune gallery of the aftermath, a Chicagology reprinting of the Tribune's May 26, 1950 issue all about the wreck, the Trolley Dodger's recommendation of "The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster" by Craig Allen Cleve, a CBS Local Chicago article commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the disaster, and the photo credits under each caption. I'd also like to thank the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, for preserving a "Green Hornet" streetcar. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by myself and can be found under “Motorman Reymond’s Railroad Gif Carhouse”. On Thursday, we travel up to Milwaukee to observe the little-known (but equally tragic) NMRA convention collision on the Speedrail system. For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!