Wreck of the Old 97

The Old 97 was a train of the Southern Railway which traveled on the route from Monroe, Virginia to Spencer, North Carolina, and on September 27, 1903 at Stillhouse Trestle, near Danville, had an accident.

The Southern Railway had a contract with the U.S. Mail, which provided, among other things, a contractual penalty for delay. The train was coming already an hour late that day from Washington. Therefore engineer Joseph ( "Steve" ) A. Brody received strict orders to bring the train on time according to Spencer, Monroe. A really intended stopover in Franklin Junction has been deleted. The route to Danville was characterized among other things by a number of difficult curves, which were reported as speed restrictions. In the transition from a curve on a bridge over the Cherrystone Creek jumped the train derailed and plunged into the depths. The driver knew the route from previous trips with freight trains and was also aware of the problematic bridge to traditional statements to colleagues. It was his first trip with a slight mail train.

In the area of the bridge, the speed was limited by signage at 15 miles per hour ( mph). The bridge was technically designed for 25 mph. The train was actually about 50 to 60 mph as accident cause brake failure due to insufficient air pressure and rupture of the tire of the middle drive wheel is assumed to be due to excessive speed in the curve. The insufficient air pressure resulting from either a defect in the air pump or too short a recovery time after previous braking maneuvers. Maybe the train driver had misjudged the eve of the disaster compared to freight trains significantly poorer braking performance of the composed of only four car train.

At the time of the accident the train had only caught two minutes late.

In the accident eleven people died: Joseph Andrew Broady (33, engineer ), John Thomas Blair (37, platoon leader ), AC Clapp (33, stoker ), John Marshall Hodge (21, 2 heaters ), JS Moody (30, " Flagman ") and some officials of the Railway Post Office who were riding in the four cars: JL Thompson ( 36), Scott Chamber (24 ), Daniel P. Flory (25 ), Paul N. Argengright (23 ), Lewis W. meal (34, died on October 6, 1903 injuries). In addition, Wentworth Armistead (17 ), who could no longer time to train in Lynchburg leave before departure.

Song

The train accident inspired some song and ballad writer. On August 13, 1924 Vernon Dalhart played the title Wreck of the Old 97 / The Prisoner 's Song, incurred by the other 9 versions for other record companies. The B-side The Prisoner 's Song reached after release of the single on October 3, 1924 the first rank of the U.S. charts. The single is often referred to as the first million-seller of the American music industry and becoming the first million-seller of country music. Later, the song also by various other artists such as Flatt & Scruggs, Johnny Cash, Hank Snow and the Seekers was taken. The Texas country band " Old 97's " named also after this song.

Short film

Pacific Data Images (now PDI / DreamWorks SKG) felt in 1989 also from this incident to the creation of " Locomotion " (Steve Goldberg ), one of the first inspired CGI Shorties ( 3D computer graphics short film ); Child Friendly overcomes the little " loco # 9" but eventually the damaged bridge and reached their destination on time.