The wreck of the Old 97 occurred on September 27, 1903, when the Southern Railway freight train called the Fast Mail (or “Old 97”) left the tracks and crashed at the Stillhouse Trestle outside Danville, Virginia, killing eleven people. The accident became a sensation, with thousands of spectators at the scene, newspaper stories, and even a series of musical ballads, the most popular of which became a hit on the country music charts in 1924.
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