I'm a big fan of old postcards ... not only can they be very evocative, but they're also a fine source of historic photographs that are seldom found anywhere else. Here's one from the Smithsonian Institution's postcard collection, showing the derailment of the Great Northern Railway's Fast Mail train near Wolf Point, back in August 1934. The Fast Mail's engineer was killed in the wreck, which took place when the train hit an automobile that had gotten stalled on the tracks. The locomotive fireman was badly scalded during the accident, but only one of the ten passengers was slightly injured.
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That's fantastic! Look how close the crowd is as the gawk at the wrecked trains!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know! You can just imagine a 21st-century personal-injury lawyer having a coronary after seeing a sight like that, can't you? :-)
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