Troop train tears through sleeping circus cars near Hammond; 86 are dead, scores burning

Just before 4 a.m. on June 22, 1918, the performers and workers of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus were asleep in their cars on the main line near Hammond, Indiana — stalled while crews addressed a mechanical problem ahead. Michigan Central engineer Alonzo Sargent, running an empty troop train at an estimated 35 miles per hour, had missed at least two automatic stop signals and a flagman's warnings before his locomotive tore through the rear of the circus train. Oil lamps in the old wooden cars ignited immediately, and the fire spread so fast that 86 people died — many burned beyond recognition — with 127 more injured…