DANVILLE, Va. (WDBJ) - More than 120 years ago, a mail train crashed as it was speeding into Danville.

Eleven people died in the wreck, and the tragedy became well-known across the country through story and song.

The Wreck of the Old 97 is the subject of this week’s visit to the WDBJ7 Archive.

“Our next report, “Old 97” is about Virginia’s most famous train wreck."

The story that Jim Kent introduced in December 1978 documented the wreck of the Old 97 75 years earlier.

Reporter Dexter Mills described what happened in his report.

“On a Sunday afternoon in the autumn of 19 and 3, engine 1102 became a legend,” Mills said. “She plunged off the trestle here in Danville carrying engineer Steve Broady and 10 of his crewmen to their deaths. There were many more train wrecks with a higher toll of lives over the years. Why then did the Wreck of Old ’97 become a part of American folklore? That is our story.”

A veteran of WDBJ radio and television, Mills traced that fateful trip from Washington DC through Culpeper, Charlottesville, and Amherst County on its way to Monroe, where it picked up a new crew.

“In Monroe, the regular Old 97 crew had been assigned to another train. No one knows why,” Mills reported. “An alternate crew was standing by headed by engineer Steve Broady. Now, the story goes that Broady had never operated a fast mail train before. And some said he had never made the run to Spencer before this day.”

“Broady reportedly told his crew in Monroe, he would drive Old 97 into Spencer on time or he would drive her into Hell.”