Wreck of the Old 97

the Fast Mail ("Old 97") on the Southern Railway wrecked at Stillhouse Trestle in Danville in 1903
Source: Encyclopedia Virginia, Wreck of the Old 97

The Wreck of the Old 97 occurred on the way into Danville. The train's engineer drove the Southern Railway locomotive too fast to make the curve and crashed at Stillhouse Trestle on September 27, 1903. The trestle was removed in 1938, but the country music lyrics have immortalized the site:¹

It's a mighty rough road from Lynchburg to Danville

In a line on a three-mile grade

It was on that grade that he lost his airbrakes

Oh, you see what a jump he made

He was goin' down grade making 90 miles an hour

When his whistle broke into a scream

He was found in the wreck with his hand on the throttle

And was scalded to death by the steam

The train was an hour late when it left Monroe, Virginia, about five miles north of Lynchburg, headed to Spencer in North Carolina. The train was carrying just the US Mail, and there were financial incentives in the contract for on-time delivery.²

Monroe has been immortalized in a song about a train wreck that occurred in Danville
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online

According to the lyrics, engineer "Steve" Broadey told his fireman that they would maximize speed after crossing White Oak Mountain roughly 60 miles south of Monroe:³

Just shovel on a little more coal

And when we cross that White Oak Mountain

You can watch Old 97 roll

the Norfolk Southern Railroad still crosses White Oak Mountain about 11 miles north of the old Stillhouse Trestle in Danville
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online

At Stillhouse Trestle, a train that normally crossed at 50 miles per hour was traveling 10-30 miles per hour faster. Hitting the brakes hard enough to lock the wheels did not slow the train sufficiently. The track curved as it crossed the trestle, but the locomotive careened into the creeks with for cars behind it.

Of the 18 people on board, 11 died. The ballad indicates the engineer was scalded by steam escaping from the locomotive's boiler, with his hand still on the throttle. That apparently was poetic license. The September 29, 1903 issue of the Richmond News Leader indicated the engineer had been thrown from the cab, and his mangled body was found outside of it.

the wreck may have been caused because the engineer lacked experience with driving the Fast Mail on the route
Source: Virginia Chronicle, Richmond News Leader, Nine Are Killed By Train's Wild Leap (September 28, 1903)

One the sightseers who observed the wreckage was Fred Jackson Lewey. He and a cowriter, Charles W. Noel, were credited with reworking an old ballad and creating the lyrics for what became the first record to sell a million-copies in the United States, "The Wreck of the Old 97." Another observer that day, David Graves George, claimed to be the original author and later won a copyright lawsuit, but it was finally overturned on appeal. The publisher of the hit record, the Victor Talking Machine Company, paid royalties to several people who claimed to have originated the lyrics.⁴

The Stillhouse Trestle is no longer in existence and the Southern Railway track has been abandoned. The site of the 1903 wreck is identified by a historical marker today.⁵

Historic and Modern Railroads in Virginia

Southern Railway

the route used by Old 97 into Danville has been abandoned, but the site of the Stillhouse Trestle (blue circle) has a historical marker
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Danville 1:24,000 topographic quadrangle (1978)

the Wreck of the Old 97 occurred on the Southern Railway in Danville in 1903
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Danville 1:62,500 topographic quadrangle (1925)

Links

• Southern Railfan
• Southern Railway Historical Association

Source: N.C. Transportation Museum, The Wreck of the Old 97 - History and Music Video

References