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Five Killed in Chesapeake and Ohio Train Wreck at Shadwell

Broken locomotive axle sends engine and coaches into the Rivanna River

A little-remembered Virginia railroad disaster killed five and injured seventeen when a locomotive axle failed, plunging cars down an embankment into a river.

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Mesa Free Press · November 19, 1897 · Page 2

1 min read

A Chesapeake and Ohio railway train was wrecked at Shadwell, Va., November 5th, and five persons were killed and seventeen injured. The wreck was caused by the breaking of an axle on the forward truck of the locomotive. The engine and two coaches rolled down an embankment and one of the coaches was partially submerged in the Rivanna river.

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