One of the worst train wrecks in U.S. history happened with, of all things, a Circus Train. It was carrying over 400 performers when another train rear-ended it in the dead the night; and they burst into flames. The horrific tragedy happened to the famous Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus at Dutchman’s Curve near Hammond, Indiana on 22 June 1918. The circus train was stopped on the tracks for repairs. The circus train wreck killed 89 performers and roustabouts, and injured over 150 more. How could such a terrible disaster have occurred during the Golden Age of railroads?