My name is Chuck Spinner. After five years of research and writing, my book, The Tragedy at the Loomis Street Crossing is at press at this moment. It is the story of the Naperville, Illinois train wreck of 1946 (see both a brief and a more lengthy synopsis below). I am planning a book signing tour of the Midwest towns where families of the 45 victims lived. Some very key people involved in the accident were from Galesburg. And some of the people who are receiving this email were very instrumental in helping with my research.
I would like to come to Galesburg to have a book signing, hopefully at your Historical Society or at the local library (or at another location of your choosing). I would not charge a fee for my talk..my only prerequisite would be to be housed at the local Fairfield Inn (I am staying at Fairfield Inns all along my tour) at 901 W. Carl Sandburg Drive in Galesburg. I would be in the Galesburg area at the beginning of June and could stop in Galesburg for a presentation and book signing either on the afternoon of June 4th or the late morning or early afternoon on June 5th.
My book tour is only a month away and I would like to tie up some of these commitments as soon as possible. Hopefully something could be set up rather quickly. My wife and I are very excited to meet the people in this railroad town. I know my book would be of interest to many people in your area and I would love to afford them the opportunity to share the results of my research. I would love to include Galesburg in our book tour itinerary!
I will be having a book signing in Naperville at 2pm on June 2nd and I will be speaking at the Great Midwest Train Show in Wheaton on June 3rd(time yet to be determined).
My wife and I will be anxiously awaiting your reply. I have sent this request to a number of organizations with interest in the history of Galesburg. I'm hoping that someone will please pick up the ball and run with it on this matter!
Chuck Spinner (see contact info in press release below)
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Press Release for:
The Tragedy at the Loomis Street Crossing
( published by AuthorHouse in Spring of 2012)
On April 25th, 1946 there was a train collision in Naperville, Illinois in which forty-five passengers were killed. Never heard about it? Neither have most of the current residents of Naperville! Why? World War II had just ended and, just as many of the returning soldiers didn't like to focus on the horrors of war, few eye witnesses to the train crash were ever at ease reminiscing about the gruesome sights they saw that day. Also, none of the victims of the wreck were from Naperville. Had forty-five Naperville residents lost their lives in the crash, there would have been a number of commemorative books written and certainly a marker at the site. Neither of these two types of memorials exist today.
On that tragic day, two Burlington trains, the Advance Flyer and the Exposition Flyer, left Chicago's Union Station at 12:35pm on adjoining tracks. Four miles from the station, the Exposition Flyer merged onto the same track behind the Advance Flyer. The Advance Flyer, train #11, was traveling to Burlington, Iowa and then to Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. The Exposition Flyer, train #39, was following two to three minutes behind the Advance Flyer, and both trains were traveling at speeds of 80-85 miles an hour. Train #39 was so named because its destination was Oakland, California, where passengers were traveling to participate in the 1939 Exposition commemorating the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge. The two trains, traveling at speeds of eighty to eighty-five miles an hour, separated by just two to three minutes created a picture of an accident waiting to happen. When the first train stopped unexpectedly around the Naperville bend, for a supposed mechanical problem, the second train could not stop in time and telescoped into the Advance Flyer.
For sixty six years, the worst tragedy in Burlington Railroad history remained relatively untouched by researchers. Nothing about the lives of the forty-five people who lost their lives was collectively, publicly known – until now! Spinner's book, The Tragedy at the Loomis Street Crossing is being published by AuthorHouse 66 years after the original tragedy. Chuck has spent over five years learning about the life histories of these forty-five victims and why they were on the train that day. In fascinating style, Spinner details which passengers' lives were doomed due to a variety of unfortunate, often freakish circumstances.
Early reviewers are unanimously amazed at the painstaking research exhibited in the book. Spinner has sought research help from rail buffs, librarians, and museum and newspaper archivists. He has interviewed friends and family members of some of the victims as well as several of the passengers who were injured yet survived. He has also talked with rescue workers and spectators who were at the site and two surviving eye witnesses of the actual collision.
Chuck Spinner has a unique interest in this tragedy. His family lived just a block from the crossing where the wreck occurred. He was in his mother's womb at the time (he was born on October 22, 1946). The last injured person from the wreck to be released from treatment at St. Charles Hospital was Tom Chaney. His therapy wasn't complete until December 18th. Very likely Chaney, during his rehabilitation at that same hospital, visited the hospital's nursery, where he quite possibly viewed the little Spinner baby. Never would any of the hospital personnel have thought that they were looking at the author who, over six decades later, would write the story that Chaney had just lived.
The author can be contacted through his email (spinlake@yahoo.com), by phone (716-763-5408), or by mail (3152 Chautauqua Ave., Ashville, New York 14710) and is available for talks and book signings.
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After five years of intense research, author Chuck Spinner has written the definitive story of the Naperville, Illinois, train wreck of April 25, 1946. Chuck has uncovered the histories of the 45 victims of the tragedy, interviewed two surviving eye witnesses of the event, and talked with survivors and helpers at the scene. His family lived just a block from the crossing where the accident occurred. Spinner was born at St. Charles Hospital in Aurora, Illinois on October 22, 1946. Thomas Chaney, was the last injured passenger to be released from this same hospital on December 18, 1946. Perhaps, during his recovery, Chaney may have viewed John and Louise's infant son in the nursery. If so, Thomas would have never imagined that he was viewing the person, who 66 years later would write the story that he had just lived!
Chuck will be giving a talk and book signing at Anderson's Bookstore at 2pm on Saturday, June 2nd, 2012. He also will be a speaker at the Great
Midwest Train Show on Sunday, June 3rd, at a time yet to be determined.