Engine One-Forty-Three (original) (raw)

"Engine One-Forty-Three" is a ballad in the tradition of Anglo-American train wreck songs. It is based on the true story of the wreck of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway's Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) near Hinton, West Virginia in 1890. The song's earliest documented appearance was in Railroad Man Magazine in 1913 as "The Wreck on the C. & O.", while its earliest recording was in 1924. The first use of the title "Engine One-Forty-Three" was for a recording by the Carter Family in 1929, which became one of the group's best-selling records and the basis for many subsequent recordings.