Stop That Train!
Posted on | November 16, 2009 | No Comments
The other day at the brewbar, my coffee was placed under a card with this photo on it. The image wasn’t unfamiliar, but I was particularly struck that day by the magnitude of what I was looking at and set about to find out more. Without further ado, here is the story of The Gare Montparnasse Derailment of 1895.
Opened in 1840, the Gare Montparnasse is one of six Paris train stations. This one however, will always stand apart as the site of the great derailment. On October 22, 1895 the Granville-Paris Express steam train overran the buffer stop, sailed across 30 meters of the station concourse, crashed through a wall and across a terrace then took a 10 meter nosedive, where some fortunate photographer (think box camera era) happened to be.
The accident was caused by a faulty brake and an engine driver who was trying to make up for lost time. The conductor and engine driver were both fined and the driver was sent to prison for two months. Amazingly, everyone on board the train survived, but a woman on the street below was killed by falling masonry.
Oddly, there is a replica of the crash outside of a museum in Brazil.
Now you know.
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