Rail sabotage

Rail sabotage (colloquially known as wrecking) is the act of disrupting a rail transport network. This includes both acts designed only to hinder or delay as well as acts designed to actually destroy a train.

Sabotage must be distinguished from more blatant methods of disruption (i.e. blowing up a train, train robbery).

Methods

Damage to infrastructure

Notable instances

• 1861: East Tennessee bridge burnings – Union sympathizers destroyed nine railroad bridges in East Tennessee, on the orders of President Lincoln. The bridges were quickly rebuilt.
• 1864: John Yates Beall, a Confederate Navy officer, was discovered plotting to derail a Union passenger train, and executed the following year.
• 1905: The Wreck of the 20th Century Limited - Although unconfirmed, the evidence pointed heavily to malicious involvement in the derailment of the New York Central Railroad's crack passenger train, the 20th Century Limited, resulting in 21 deaths.
• 1915: Vanceboro bridge bombing – the Saint Croix–Vanceboro Railway Bridge (over the U.S.–Canada border) was bombed by German saboteurs, although the bridge was not destroyed and was quickly rebuilt.
• 1942: Thamshavn Line sabotage – the transformer station for Norway's Thamshavn Line (an electric railroad) was blown up by Norwegian saboteurs during the German occupation.
• 1951: Huntly rail bridge bombing – a rail bridge in Huntly, New Zealand, was blown up in order to disrupt coal supplies to a nearby power station, aiding the cause of striking workers.
• 1995: Palo Verde derailment – a train in Palo Verde, Arizona, was derailed by saboteurs shifting the rails out of position, causing one fatality. The case remains unsolved.
• 2002: Jaunpur train crash – a rail was broken and caused a train to derail, killing twelve people. An Islamic extremist organization was blamed.
• 2002: Rafiganj train wreck – a train derailed on a bridge over a river in Bihar, India, killing at least 130 people. A Maoist terrorist organization was blamed.

In popular culture

• The Wrecker (1929 film)
• The Wrecker by Clive Cussler deals with