The first of several train wreck songs involving Chesapeake and Ohio (C & O) Railway. This true incident involved the C & O's Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) train near Hinton, West Virginia on October, 23, 1890. The train was on its way to Clifton Forge, Virginia, when it hit a rock slide. Early accounts record that the engineer, George Alley, remained on the train to try to slow it and save the lives of its passengers. Alley died at the scene.
The song was first recorded in September 1924 by George Reneau as "The C & O Wreck". The actual author of the song is unknown, but likely authored by one of the train engineers at the scene and first published in a 1913 railroad magazine. The tune appears to be the same as the one for The Wreck of the Old 97, which was in turn borrowed from Henry Clay Work's 1865 song The Ship That Never Returned.
Along came the F.F.V. The swiftest on the line She was runnin' down the C&O road Just twenty-five minutes behind