Accidents and Incidents
Trains in Pop Culture
Railroad Companies
Lines that are no longer with us
Trains, NOT Locomotives
100
This Amtrak F40PHR was destroyed in the 1996 Silver Spring collision.
What is Amtrak #255?
100
This '70s Disco song, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, was sung by Earl Jordan, who could sing 3 notes at once like a steam engine.
What is Engine of Love?
100
This company proposed to build a railroad that would go from Washington, D.C., to Hagerstown, MD, but went bankrupt in 1863 before laying any track.
What was the Metropolitan Railroad?
100
This short line that served York County, PA, and Baltimore, MD, was nicknamed the "Ma & Pa".
What was the Maryland and Pennsylvania?
100
This VIA Rail train, originally operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway, is the only transcontinental passenger train in North America.
What is the Canadian?
200
In 1995, this engine suffered a boiler explosion while hauling a Gettysburg Railroad excursion.
What is CP #1278?
200
This fictional Pacific-type steam engine, known for hauling express trains, has had several incidents, like bursting his safety valve, falling into a ditch, and losing his dome.
Who is Gordon the Big Engine?
200
This railroad worked with Homer Plessy to challenge the Separate Car Act, a Louisiana law that required passenger trains to have separate cars for Whites and People of Color, resulting in the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson.
What is the East Louisiana Railroad?
200
This railroad, headquartered in Denver, CO, served Southern MD and D.C.
What was the Chesapeake Beach Railway?
200
This was a daily Amtrak service that ran from Washington, D.C., originally terminating in Cumberland, MD, but later shortened to Martinsburg, WV, and operated from 1973 to 1986.
What was the Blue Ridge?
300
This accident in Maryland involved the engineer and brakeman on a Conrail light engine move passing Cannabis joints in the cab.
What is the Chase, MD collision?
300
This Berkshire-type steam locomotive is the basis of the Polar Express.
What is Pere Marquette #1225?
300
This was going to be the name of the National Passenger Railroad Corporation, until it was changed to Amtrak a couple of weeks before beginning operations.
What is Railpax?
300
This was a branch of the B&O Metropolitan Branch, which was abandoned in the 80s and has been turned into a bike path.
What was the Georgetown Branch?
300
These are high-priority reefer trains that carry juice.
What are Juice Trains?
400
This former CN engineer was the lone occupant of a runaway ore train, without its airbrakes tied in, for 21 minutes on the CN New Brunswick Subdivision, reaching speeds of 70 mph, before derailing on a Wye.
Who is Wesley MacDonald?
400
This folk song is about a famous engineer for the Illinois Central who passed away in a collision while running a Mail Train.
What is The Ballad of Casey Jones?
400
This railroad owned Washington Union Station and provided switching service for passenger trains that used the station.
What is the Washington Terminal Railroad?
400
This once-abandoned rail line, built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, is currently in the process of being restored.
What is the Lackawanna Cut-Off?
400
This was the symbol of the local trash train on CSX's Met Sub that is now called L112.
What is D765?
500
This 1952 collision between a commuter train and two expresses in what is now part of Greater London led to British Railways implementing the Automatic Warning System.
What is the Harrow and Wealdstone Collision?
500
These 2 SD40-2s played AWVR #1206 in the movie Unstoppable.
What are W&LE #6353 and #6354?
500
This short line holding company owns railroads in the United States, Canada, Bolivia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, Belgium, and formerly Australia.
What is the Genesee & Wyoming?
500
This railroad line, over 1,000 miles long, featured over 600 miles of railroad electrification.
What was the Milwaukee Road's Pacific Extension?
500
This is a long-distance passenger train, originally operated by the Southern Railway, currently by Amtrak, that runs from New York to New Orleans.
What is the Crescent?