The Wreck of the Old 97

by Larry G. Aaron

Overview

With Fast Mail train No. 97 an hour behind schedule, locomotive engineer Steve Broady, according to legend, swore to "put her in Spencer on time" or "put her in Hell."

Through eyewitness reports and court testimonies, historian Larry Aaron expertly pieces together the events of September 27, 1903, at Danville, Virginia, when the Old 97 plummeted off a forty-five-foot trestle into the ravine below. With more twists and turns than the railroad tracks on which the Old 97 ran, this book chronicles the story of one of the most famous train wrecks in American history, as well as the controversy surrounding "The Wreck of the Old 97," that most famous ballad, which secured the Old 97 a place within the annals of American folklore.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596298767
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	08/13/2010
Series:	Disaster
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	1,098,397
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Larry Aaron is associate editor of Evince newsmagazine and a published historian from Danville, Virginia. He has received first-place awards for his writing from the Virginia Press Association and also edited the award-winning book Danville in the Civil War by Lawrence McFall. Among his published works are Aaron Ancestors of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, a genealogical study; Keppy's War, the memoirs of Captain John Kepchar in World War II; The Race to the Dan, a history of events in the southern campaign during the American Revolution; and Pittsylvania County: A Brief History, published by The History Press.

Table of Contents

Foreword G. Howard Gregory 9

Acknowledgements 11

Introduction 15

Steam, Steam and More Steam 19

Wrecks on the Rails 25

Working on the Railroad 31

Southern's Fast Mail 45

Late to Monroe 51

Running Like the Wind 67

That Three-Mile Grade 79

Stillhouse Trestle 87

The Fatal Plunge 95

The Mourning After 111

Blame it on Gravity 123

Old 97 Over the Years 135

Selected Bibliography 153

About the Author 159