Wreck of Nineteen Three

Merry Bear

This recording was revised 8/7/2014 with sound effects (train and whistle) and wah-wah guitar.

WRECK OF NINETEEN THREE

People listen to me tell you
Of the story of a man
Roamed the country in a school bus
People called him Danville Dan
Cause he told the tragic story
Of the wreck of nineteen three
Of the train wreck in old Danville
In Virginia, off a hill
Use to call it White Oak Mountain
That’s what locals called it then
Called that route the Ninety Seven
Sent eleven to Heaven
Danville Dan knew all about it
Told the tale with song and wit
Now I’ll tell you of that story
Though I only know a bit

In September twenty seven
“Fast Mail” left from old Monroe
With Steve Broady at the handle
People knew he wasn’t slow
If he passed the Stillhouse Trestle
If the train, it did not stall
Then the “Fast Mail” could make Spencer
In Northern Caroliner
The Eleven O Two was fast
Listen to her whistle blast
Pride of Baldwin Locomotive
Gave Steve all she had to give
But that train was an hour late
When she met her dreadful fate
Plummeting down a three mile grade
And she pulled a mighty weight

Steve, he tried to make up lost time
On a route he didn’t know
Didn’t know of White Oak Mountain
That you had to ride it slow
Some say he was doing ninety
In the year of nineteen three
And that grade he could not wrestle
And he sailed off the trestle
That old train dropped some fourty feet
Many died in scolding heat
Some had jumped and lived to say it
“Fast Mail” pierced the ground she hit
Seven lived to tell their story
And the rest went to glory
Broady belted out one last scream
As he laid there in the steam

You have listened to me tell you
Of the story of a man
Roamed the country in a school bus
People called him Danville Dan
Cause he told the tragic story
Of the wreck of nineteen three
Of the train wreck in old Danville
In Virginia, off a hill
Use to call it White Oak Mountain
That’s what locals called it then
Called that route the Ninety Seven
Sent eleven to Heaven
Danville Dan knew all about it
Told the tale with song and wit
Now I’ve told you of that story
Though I only knew a bit