Isn't that the "lucky" one with all the 13's? Ran off a bridge on Friday the 13th?
No. I found this though:
At seven-fifteen pm June 30, 1937 westbound N & W time freight #85 plunged off the east end of Maybeury Bridge and into W. VA. railroad history. The disaster took four lives and tied up rail and road traffic for weeks. The eighty-nine car train was a supply train for the coalfields company stores. Engine was N & W # 2092, only seven years old and one of the world's most powerful steam locomotives.
Maybeury is located about fifteen miles west of Bluefield, W. VA. It takes its name from two pioneer McDowell County coal operators....Mr. May and Mr. Beury.
As time freight # 85 began the steep descent through 3,000 foot long Coaldale Tunnel the brakeman, James C. Ball, realized something was wrong with the train....it was running away.
Fifty feet from the Maybeury Bridge the steering wheels derailed pulling the rest of the locomotive off the tracks at 55 mph and headlong into the 180 foot Maybeury crevasse. Fifty - three boxcars followed it off the N & W main line tracks and into the inferno.
There was a deafening explosion as # 2092 hit the road below and exploded on impact. Many local windows were blown out. # 2092's boiler housing was blown 893 feet. Seconds later another huge blast occurred as a Texaco gasoline tanker exploded shattering windows and blowing in doors a quarter of a mile away.
The entire Maybeury hollow was ablaze in an inferno of burning coal, ash and oil. Precious cargo was scattered everywhere. Many local residents were to later delight in this....it is said. Bicycles, whisky, peanuts, tobacco products, canned pineapple, Vicks medicine, etc.
Fifty-four year old engineer Willie Snead's mangled remains were not found until early the next day. Fireman Ezra McHaffa, who left two young children mourning in Bluefield, was burned beyond recognition. Incredibly, brakeman Ball still breathed but was mortally injured. He would die July 1st but, incredibly, not until after giving his story.
Fire crews from Bramwell, Welch and Pocahontas, VA helped battle the flames with water from nearby Elkhorn Creek. Huge steam cranes took almost three weeks to clear the scrap steel and debris from the badly damaged overpass.
Cause of the terrible wreck was never satisfactorily resolved. Attempts were made to place blame on a stowed away transient but no body was ever found. The official corporate explanation reads, " derailment off bridge # 861, resulting from excessive speed from closing of an angle-cock on a head-end by a transient, to render brakes on train inoperable from locomotive."
Also killed in this disaster was CLARK MAXEY of the Cliff Yards Maxey family. Clark was walking up the hill under the trestle when Time Freight # 85 plunged onto him.
The Maybeury wreck claimed four lives and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, millions in todays dollars. Doomed engine # 2092 was never rebuilt. Maybeury hollow smelled of the fumes for months. Some years later, early 1950's, the main line was rerouted over the Maybeury cut and the bridge dismantled. The foundations of the historic bridge remain but are hidden from view by trees and other vegetation.
THE ABOVE IS FROM AN ARTICLE BY
DR. STUART McGEHEE, ARCHIVIST
EASTERN REGIONAL COAL ARCHIVES
