AURORA, Ill. - A former Jackson railroad employee was killed early Wednesday morning when the freight train in which he was riding collided head on with another train on the east side of this community.

The Kane County coroner's office identified the victim as Camille Chappius, 29, of Quincy, Ill. The accident occurred at 12:58 a.m., Wednesday.

Authorities said the collision occurred in an industrial area just east of a railroad switching yard. The location is about 35 miles west of Chicago. Officials said the cause of the accident is under investigation.

Chappius was riding in the lead locomotive of an eastbound Southern Pacific Railroad freight train, along with the train's engineer, Larry Allen, 43. Allen is in serious but stable condition at an Aurora hospital.

The two-man crew boarded the Roseville, Calif., to Chicago, Ill., train Tuesday evening in West Quincy. There were no other people on board. The engineer of the westbound Burlington Northern Railroad switch engine was not injured.

The cab portion of the Southern Pacific locomotive was demolished. It took hours to remove Chappius' body from the wreckage because of the extensive damage to the locomotive.

Chappius grew up in Chester, Ill., where his father was a dispatcher for the Missouri Pacific Railroad's Chester Subdivision. In the mid-1980s Chappius moved to Jackson, where he first worked as a volunteer brakeman-conductor for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company's steam-powered tourist railroad. He later became operations manager for the steam railroad.

Later, Chappius was employed as a brakeman for the Jackson & Southern Railroad and the Golden Cat Railroad. Both are shortline railroads operating between Jackson and Delta, and Oran and Delta.

He moved to Oklahoma after being hired as a brakeman-conductor with a shortline railroad in eastern Oklahoma. After he was hired by the former St. Louis-Southwestern "Cotton Belt" Railroad, Chappius moved to Quincy.

Funeral arrangements are pending.