Wreck of the Old 97

Well they gave him his orders at Monroe Virginia

 

Saying Steve you're way behind time

 

This is not 38 it's old** 97; you must put her into Danville on time

 

Well, he turned around and said to his black greasy fireman

Just shovel in a little more coal

And when we cross this big White Mountain, we'll watch old 97 roll

 

It's a mighty rough road from Lynchburg to Danville

On a line on with a three-mile grade

It was on that grade that he lost his airbrakes you see what a jump he made

 

They were going down the 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.

He was scalded to death by the steam

 

Then the telegram come to Washington city And this is how it read

The brave engineer that run old 97 he's a-laying in old Danville dead

 

Now all you ladies heed this warning

From this time now and learn

Never speak harsh words to your true loving husband

He may leave you and never return.

 

*"Old 97," was a Southern Railway train officially known as the Fast Mail. It ran from Washington DC to

Atlanta, Georgia. On September 27, 1903 while enroute from Monroe, Virginia, to Spencer, North Carolina, the

train derailed at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia. The wreck inspired a famous railroad ballad, which

was the focus of a convoluted copyright lawsuit but became seminal in the genre of country music. –

www.wikipedia.org

 

** Locomotive 1102, a ten wheeler (4-6-0) engine built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, had

rolled out of the factory in early 1903, less than a year before the wreck.– www.wikipedia.org