…remember this:
I first saw this photograph when unpacking a carton at the bookstore where I worked in college. It was the cover of the technical title An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurements. I remember it so well because I photocopied it, and it’s found a home on every bulletin board/tack-up area I’ve had since then.
How perfect is that photo for the title, though? I’d say putting a locomotive through the side of the building qualifies.
Anyway, I never knew the story behind it, and stumbled upon it today. It happened at the Gare Montparnasse train station in Paris on October 22, 1895. The train’s brakes failed and it overran a buffer stop, sending it almost 100 feet through the concourse before exiting the station in this ungainly manner. Everyone on the train and in the station lived. A woman on the street was killed by falling masonry.
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I read somewhere, sometime (or heard it on TV or the radio, I know it wasn’t a newspaper because I’ve given up on them) that rail travel is, based on passenger miles, the most dangerous form of public travel. Of course, I have no idea if it’s true.
I also heard that the oft-repeated quote that air travel is safer than driving is not true based, again, upon passenger miles.
Love the pic.
I’ve always loved that photograph. I’ve been to the museum that is in that station a couple of times and it’s really an awesome building. I can’t imagine the crowds thoughts as they were standing around waiting on the train only to have it go roaring past the stop and out the side of the building!