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WRECK OF 1256 On that cold and dark cloudy evening, Just before the close of the day, There came Harry Lisle and Dillard, And with Anderson they rolled away. From Clifton Forge they started, And their spirits were running high, As they stopped at Iron Gate and waited Till Old Number Nine went by. On the main line once more they started Down the James River so dark and drear, And they gave no thought to the danger Or the death that was waiting so near. They were gay, and they joked with each other As they sped on their way side by side, And the old engine rocked as she traveled Through the night on that fast fatal ride. In an instant the story was ended, On her side in that cold river bed, With poor Harry Lisle in the cabin, With a deep fatal wound in his head. Railroad men you should all take warning From the fate that befell this young man. Don’t forget that the step is a short one From this earth to the sweet Promised Land. Researcher Paul Shue interviewed Sidney Dillard, the locomotive fireman, 45 years after the derailment of the 1256 along the James River in 1925. Dillard recalled the weather was cold and snowy the evening the train left Clifton Forge, traveling downstream along the river. At the community of Iron Gate, just outside of Clifton Forge, the 1256 pulled onto a siding to allow a westbound passenger train to pass, then proceeded on toward Richmond. Further down the line the 1256 rounded a curve and ran upon a rock slide which had buried the tracks just after the passenger train had traveled the same stretch. The locomotive left the tracks and rolled into the river. Dillard and the engineer, Sam Anderson, made it to safety, but the brakeman was killed. "The Wreck of the 1256" was written by Carson Robison, a Kansas-born songwriter and performer whose career in country music spanned four decades. Robison was extremely successful at writing songs for the country-music market, and event songs were a specialty. He wrote his ballads from newspaper accounts, and "The Wreck of 1256" was recorded by Vernon Dalhart just nine months after the disaster. @disaster @train filename[ WRECK125 SOF Feb07 |
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