I have read the posts with great interest. I note that the Silver Meteor has been in trouble on at least one occasion. I have a very incomplete record of a rear end in Geogia sometime in 1950 or 1951 for this train. The ICC website cannot help (often does not quote the train name - only the number). Can anyone tell me how long the Silver Meteor has been running, what is its train number and has this ever changed and if anyone knows of a wreck in the years mentioned.

Many thanks

-- Ray State (rhstate@spion.demon.co.uk), December 18, 2001

Answers

Larry Denton, I hope so (this was the only wreck he committed etc) he only has ONE life

-- Joseph Oates (jlosal@mindspring.com), December 22, 2001.

The Meteor was started in 1938. As for the Kittrell wreck in 1942, it is on the ICC website. This was also the wreck that resulted in the Superintendent committing suicide afterwards.

It wasn't the only wreck that caused him to do this, another pair happened on the Portsmouth Sub, one at Thelma and one at Margarettesville.

-- Larry Denton (saled@3rddoor.com), December 20, 2001.

The detailed history of the Silver Meteor has been published in several excellent references on the Seaboard Air Line, most of which are available for purchase from the Society. I recommend that you get the information from these sources as it is too detailed to be answered in an answer on this web site. As to the train number in the year in question, 1950 or 1951, the train was numbered 57-58. The only rear end collision which the Siver Meteor was involved in, which merited an ICC report was the May 18, 1950 rear end collision at Alexandria Va., where a southbound C&O passenger train rear ended the southbound Silver Meteor at approximately 8 mph. This accident is listed under the RF&P. The previous serious rear end collision involving the Silver Meteor occurred in 1942 at Kittrell NC. A description of that wreck is in an article of mine entitled "Observation Car Tragedies" in the 2nd Quarter 2000 issue of Lines South. These too are available for sale on this web site.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak@mnr.org), December 18, 2001.