Angola

“About half-past three o’clock yesterday afternoon, the telegraph flashed the news to this city that an accident had occurred near the Village of Angola, to the New York Express train, on the Lake Shore Road, due at Buffalo at 1:30 pm, and that there was a fearful loss of life.” 84 years later, on Sunday, July 22, 1951, John got in his car and drove down to the Village of Angola, NY to make some recordings of NKP and PRR trains. The NKP Angola station wasn't being used at that point, but freight and passenger trains of both railroads raced by the station on a continuous basis and John captured roughly 10 minutes of great material. When we listened to his Angola recordings in 1993, he made sure I was well aware of the events that made "Angola" a household name in the late 19th century. Angola wasn't just a great place to watch and record trains. It was also the location of one of the worst railroad disasters that had occurred up to that time. In many ways, "The Angola Horror" remains one of the worst railroad disasters EVER. PLEASE NOTE that listener discretion is advised for this episode. What happened at Angola isn't pretty and there's no way to sugarcoat it in the story. This episode may be a little rough on the ears of younger listeners.