"On 22 October, 1895, the Granville-Paris Express rail engine 120-721 failed to stop at the platform at Gare Montparnasse (known then as Gare de l’Ouest) and overran the buffer stop. The engine careened across almost 100 feet of the station concourse, crashed through a two foot thick wall, shot across a terrace and sailed out of the station, plummeting onto the Place de Rennes 33 feet below where it stood on its nose.
All on board the train survived with five sustaining injuries: two passengers, the fireman and two crewmembers. One woman on the street below was killed by falling masonry. The accident was caused by a faulty Westinghouse brake and the engine drivers who were trying to make up for lost time. The conductor incurred a 25 franc penalty and the engine driver a 50 franc penalty; he was also sent to prison for two months."
Locomotives lined up for coal, sand and water at the coaling station in the 40th Street yard of the Chicago & North Western R.R., Chicago, December 1942.
Santa Fe R.R. yard at night, Kansas City, Kansas, March 1943.
South Water Street freight depot of the Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago, May 1, 1943.
Santa Fe streamliner Super Chief being serviced at the depot in Albuquerque. Servicing these Diesel streamliners takes five minutes. March 1943.
View in a departure yard at Chicago & North Western’s Proviso yard at twilight. Brakeman is signaling with a red flare and the train is going by during exposure, Chicago, Illinois, December 1942.
An eastbound Union Pacific freight waiting in a siding at Alray, California. Coming up through Cajon Pass. The Santa Fe tracks are used by the Union Pacific as far east as Daggett, California, March 1943.
Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. At 8:45 p.m. the train arrives at its destination, January 1943.
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