20th Century Limited Derailment Site

In 1905 the New York Central Railroad's pride and joy, the 20th Century Limited, was the fastest long-distance train in North America, making the New York-to-Chicago run in twenty hours flat. On the night of 21 June, it came off the rails near Mentor station at speed, killing 21 people and injuring dozens more. The wreck drew national attention and raised uncomfortable questions about how hard the railroads were pushing their equipment.

There is nothing to see at the site today beyond the still-active rail line and the old station building on Station Street, which survives as a private structure. It makes for a small footnote stop on a visit to the area — a reminder that the romance of the golden age of rail travel came with real dangers. The nearby Mentor station building dates from the same era and is one of the more photogenic pieces of nineteenth-century railroad architecture surviving in Lake County.

things to do sight
A story
On the night of 21 June 1905, the New York Central's flagship train—the 20th Century Limited, pride of American rail travel—jumped the tracks at the Mentor station bend, killing 21 passengers and injuring more than 25 others. The accident exposed safety problems on a line pushed to operate at record speeds. It remains one of the worst peacetime rail disasters in Ohio history, largely forgotten today except by local historians.