page_title: Fast Mail (Southern Railway)
section_title: Accidents and incidents
hierarchical_section_title: Fast Mail (Southern Railway) / Accidents and incidents
context_page_description: The Fast Mail was a Southern Railway mail and express train that operated between Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, Louisiana. The southbound Fast Mail carried the train number of 97, and was later known by the nickname of "Old 97". One such trip made by the train, on September 27, 1903, derailed at Stillhouse Trestle in Danville, Virginia, and was later known as the "Wreck of the Old 97", which the service was most well known for.
  The train's normal consist was two railway post office cars, one express car, and one baggage car. It was the first exclusively mail and express train in the southern United States, and it was the last fast mail train in the United States to receive a subsidy for its fast service schedule.
context_section_description: On October 12, 1902, the northbound Fast Mail derailed as it accelerated out of Greensboro, North Carolina. The train had just gotten up to 40 mph (64 km/h) when the locomotive ran over a small piece of iron just ³⁄₄ inch (19 mm) long that was left on the track and derailed.  The engineer was able bring the train to a stop a little more than 200 yards (180 m) later with all the rolling stock remaining upright.  After about an hour, the locomotive was rerailed and the train was again back on its journey northward.
  The September 1903 accident inspired the famous railroad ballad - Wreck of the Old 97. As mentioned in some versions of the song, Old 97's locomotive, a class F-14 4-6-0 No. 1102 did make it to Spencer, North Carolina. It was hauled to the Southern Railway Spencer Shops where it was repaired and placed back into regular service for many years afterwards. In 1947, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation erected a memorial plaque near the location of the eponymous accident.
  Southern Railway's train 97 had previously been in another fatal accident earlier in 1903. On April 13, Train 97 left Washington at 8:00 am en route to New Orleans. As the train approached Lexington, it struck a large rock on the track causing the train to derail and become ditched killing the engineer and fireman. The locomotive that pulled the train is unknown. Southern #1102 had yet to be delivered to the railroad at that time.
  Another accident involving this train occurred on June 8, 1903, near Fort Mill, South Carolina.  Freight train number 74 had been given orders to wait at Fort Mill for train 97 to pass, but the engine crew misinterpreted the order and proceeded onto the single-track line. The two trains collided head-on about 1 ¹⁄₂ miles (2.4 km) north of Fort Mill, knocking both train's engines off the track and completely destroying the first RPO of train 97.  The crewmen in both engines were able to jump to safety and the mail crew on the Fast Mail were far enough back that they sustained only minor injuries.
  On February 16, 1911, a group of men stopped and robbed the northbound Fast Mail in the early morning near Gainesville, Georgia.  The thieves set off explosives in the express car to gain access to safes that were carried on it, and were reported as stealing packages worth $14,000 (equivalent to $384,150 in 2019).  Posses were organized to find the perpetrators. After the robbery, the train crew was able to continue the train's regular northward journey, arriving at Greenville, South Carolina, with a visibly damaged express car, only 40 minutes behind its regular schedule; following a crew change there, the train continued on its regular route northward.  The perpetrators and some of the loot were found and the men were arrested on March 1.
caption: Aftermath a few days later of the September 1903 derailment and wreck.
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