The wreck of old ‘97

The Wreck of the Old 97 was an American rail disaster involving the Southern Railway mail train, officially known as the Fast Mail(train number 97), while en route from Monroe, Virginia, to Spencer, North Carolina, on September 27, 1903. Travelling at an excessive speed in an attempt to maintain schedule, the train derailed at the Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, where it careened off the side of the bridge, killing 11 on-board personnel and injuring seven others.

​A number of ballads were written about the wreck, the most popular of which became an early country hit and the first million-selling country record in the United States when recorded by Vernon Dalhart for RCA Victor Records in 1924. That version of the ballad was credited to Lewey and his cowriter, Charles W. Noell. An earlier version was recorded by Virginia musicians G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter for Okeh Records. The music was based in large part on the late-nineteenth-century ballad “The Ship That Never Returned” by Henry Clay Work.

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