> By 4 p.m., more than 40,000 people had arrived For anybody else that was curio...

nkurz · on July 10, 2019

I think some people may be misintepreting this number. The actual event was free to attend.

The $2 charge was not the admission price, but the cost of a round trip train ticket to the event from anywhere in Texas. Other possibly more reliable sources say that this ticket varied in price and was as much as $5 depending on origin: http://www.lsjunction.com/facts/crush.htm.

So while there was a lot of economic activity associated with the crash, it wasn't the equivalent of a modern event with $2.4 million of gate receipts.

mywittyname · on July 10, 2019

For further context, I found a table of wages from that era (since the CPI calculator only goes back to 1913).

https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1890-1899#...

It looks like $2 was the daily wage for many skilled people during that era. Train conductors made about $3 a day, a carpenter would get $2.05, and an unclassified worker made $1.65.

black_puppydog · on July 10, 2019

that doesn't sound like an awful lot for two locomotives and logistics...?

jopsen · on July 10, 2019

Probably the locomotives had to be scrapped regardless.

But putting down the rail sounds expensive, could it be that this was cheaper back then?

bluGill · on July 10, 2019

Putting down rail would have been cheap. Since it was one time use they could take a lot of shortcuts - who cares if the next frost will twist the rails when you will be done before the next frost.

jl6 · on July 10, 2019

Probably the track they laid would have needed to meet only the most basic requirements, with minimal consideration of reliability, safety, longevity, etc.