Train Crashes Through Station: Gare Montparnasse
The Granville-Paris Express overran the buffer stop at Gare Montparnasse on October 22, 1895, crossed the station concourse, crashed through a window, and hung its locomotive out over the street below. The driver was running several minutes late and came in too fast. The Westinghouse air brake failed, and the hand brake couldn't stop 120 tons of momentum. The locomotive punched through two walls before its front wheels dangled over the Place de Rennes. Remarkably, only one person died: a woman selling newspapers on the sidewalk who was struck by falling masonry. All passengers survived. The locomotive remained hanging from the facade for days while photographers documented the scene. The resulting image became one of the most reproduced photographs of the nineteenth century and a symbol of industrial-age hubris.
October 22, 1895
131 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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