The Wreck Of The Old 97

Send us Fan Mail One minute you’re chasing a schedule. The next, you’re flying off the rails. We dig into the true story behind the Wreck of the Old 97, the notorious 1903 Southern Railway Fast Mail crash outside Danville, Virginia, and why a single downhill run turned a proud on time reputation into national headlines. We break down what the Old 97 was actually hauling, why a high-stakes mail contract created brutal incentives, and how engineer Steve Brody and the crew were pushed to make u...