On August 12, 1939, the City of San Francisco train derailed outside of Harney, Nevada, United States, killing 24 and injuring 121 passengers and crew.

After leaving Carlin, Nevada, engineer Ed Hecox had increased the speed to 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) to make up time.

Volunteers from Beowawe and Carlin rushed to the scene with medical supplies, but survivors were not taken to the hospital until a rescue train was assembled and took them to Elko the next morning.

[5] SP established a $5,000 bounty for the saboteurs (eventually increased to $10,000),[9] and numerous lone hobos were arrested, although some investigators argued the sabotage was likely carried out by two or more people with knowledge of railroad operations.

Other papers promoted a theory that the sabotage story was a coverup to hide SP's negligence in allowing Hecox to operate the train at such high speed.

Despite these details, the official position of both SP and the Federal Bureau of Investigation remains unchanged that the train was sabotaged, noting the evidence the rails were moved and the track circuits were bypassed.

[11][12] These similarities and the timing of the magazine article initially led to suspicion the Arizona wreck may have been a copycat crime of the Nevada derailment.