Jun 18, 2013
On this
week’s program, we have a train wreck……. No really it is true an
actual famous train wreck that occurred on September 27,
1903.
The Old 97
was a Southern Railway train officially known as the Fast Mail. The
train started its career in December of 1902. It ran mail from
Washington DC to Atlanta, Georgia and had the reputation of never
being late. On September 27, 1903, it would be late because the
train derailed at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia. The
wreck inspired a famous railroad ballad called “The old 97”.
Our tale comes from the OTR series Suspense,
gives a possible reason for the disaster and makes use of that
famous song throughout the production. While this story is a
departure for the Suspense series it does manage to keep you
guessing until the final outcome is revealed. Whether any of the
events in our story are true is anyone’s guess, but it is still is
a good tale. The episode is called The Wreck of The Old 97 and
first aired on March 17, 1952.