The New Market train wreck happened when two Southern Railway passenger trains traveling at great speed collided head on near New Market, Tennessee, on Saturday, September 24, 1904, killing at least 56 passengers and crew and injuring 106.

As it drew out of the station a telegraph arrived from New Market; from horrified depot staff it read "Number 15 has run the switch and is on the main line!

", but it was too late, despite waving arms and throwing stones at it, no-one aboard the Special noticed as the train gathered speed.

There was one last chance to warn the trains; a telegraph was sent to Hodges' Switch, the normal passing place; but no-one was on duty and the message was never received.

[1] Death was quick for most, with many of the victims decapitated or horribly mangled; 'splintered timbers, iron, and steel were piled in chaotic masses over the rails, mingling with human bodies'.

After the wreck, the locomotive was later repaired and continued to serve the Southern Railway until it was scrapped at Princeton, Indiana, on June 5, 1930.