Record #:

10608

Author(s):

Causey, Don, Sr.

Abstract:

North Carolina's earliest railroads were plagued by mechanical failures that often resulted in wrecks, derailments, and deaths. Even after the introduction of steam engines, many tracks and rails were constructed completely of wood or, later, wooden rails capped with thin strips of metal. The wooden rails would often fail outright, and the metal-capped rails often lost their tops, which would then bend upwards, piercing the floor of the rail car. The grandson of Governor Edward Dudley was seriously injured and his nurse killed by an unfastened rail in 1845.

Source:

The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 38 Issue 4, July 1970, p15-16, il

Subject(s):

Railroads--History