Qualla: Camp Creek Train Wreck https://qualla.com/camp-creek-train-wreck en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/u/n/camp-creek-train-wreck-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Camp Creek Train Wreck https://qualla.com/camp-creek-train-wreck Camp Creek Train Wreck: Introduction https://qualla.com/camp-creek-train-wreck/ Photo credit User:Throwaway0472617482, CC BY-SA 3.0. "We'll either be having breakfast in Atlanta or Hell." Engineer J.T. Sullivan wasn't supposed to be at the throttle of Southern Railway No. 7 on the night of June 23, 1900. The regular engineer had stayed home because his daughter had come down with pneumonia, and Sullivan had agreed to fill in. By the time his train departed McDonough, Georgia, bound for Atlanta on a rain-lashed Saturday night, two weeks of continuous downpour had turned every creek in Henry County into a torrent. Sullivan never made it to breakfast anywhere. Just north of town, the brick supports of the Camp Creek trestle gave way beneath his locomotive, plunging the train 60 feet into the raging flood below. Thirty-five of the 45 people aboard died in what remains one of the deadliest rail disasters in Georgia history.

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/u/n/camp-creek-train-wreck-wp/djun-camp-creek-train-wreck-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Camp Creek Train Wreck: A Twist of Fate at McDonough https://qualla.com/camp-creek-train-wreck/ Photo credit User:Throwaway0472617482, CC BY-SA 3.0. Southern engine No. 7 had departed Macon at 7:10 that evening hauling two coaches and a Pullman sleeper car. The plan was routine: arrive in McDonough, couple with a connecting train from Columbus, and haul the combined load north to Atlanta. But the Columbus train was late -- de...

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/u/n/camp-creek-train-wreck-wp/djun-camp-creek-train-wreck-a-twist-of-fate-at-mcdonough.mp3 0:06 2 full Camp Creek Train Wreck: Sixty Feet Into the Flood https://qualla.com/camp-creek-train-wreck/ Photo credit User:Throwaway0472617482, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Camp Creek trestle appeared in No. 7's headlamp as a void. Two weeks of relentless rain had swollen the creek into a torrent that scoured away the bridge's brick supports. Sullivan saw the gap and threw the brakes, but momentum and wet rail conspired against him. The locomoti...

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/u/n/camp-creek-train-wreck-wp/djun-camp-creek-train-wreck-sixty-feet-into-the-flood.mp3 0:06 3 full Camp Creek Train Wreck: The Flagman's Run https://qualla.com/camp-creek-train-wreck/ Photo credit User:Throwaway0472617482, CC BY-SA 3.0. Among the survivors in the Pullman car was flagman J.J. Quinlan. Battered and soaked, Quinlan was the first to claw his way up the muddy embankment from the wreckage. He found a length of rope and used it to haul two women from Boston -- Mary B. Merritt and Clara Alden -- out of ...

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/u/n/camp-creek-train-wreck-wp/djun-camp-creek-train-wreck-the-flagmans-run.mp3 0:06 4 full Camp Creek Train Wreck: The Dead on the Square https://qualla.com/camp-creek-train-wreck/ Photo credit User:Throwaway0472617482, CC BY-SA 3.0. Dawn revealed the full horror. The flames had burned through the night, and the bodies recovered were so badly crushed and charred that identification depended on whatever documents remained in pockets and luggage. The dead included three conductors, a cotton buyer, a Pullman con...

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/u/n/camp-creek-train-wreck-wp/djun-camp-creek-train-wreck-the-dead-on-the-square.mp3 0:06 5 full Camp Creek Train Wreck: What the Rain Left Behind https://qualla.com/camp-creek-train-wreck/ Photo credit User:Throwaway0472617482, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Camp Creek train wreck killed 35 people and left only 10 survivors, making it one of the worst rail disasters in the American South at the turn of the twentieth century. It was a catastrophe born of infrastructure and weather: a bridge built for fair conditions, two weeks of ...

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/u/n/camp-creek-train-wreck-wp/djun-camp-creek-train-wreck-what-the-rain-left-behind.mp3 0:06 6 full