Even today people rubberneck at highway crash sites so - given that human nature - it is easy to see why the Edison organization decided, in 1904, that a train wreck would be a good subject for a movie. Nineteenth-century locomotives were no longer needed. The Pennsylvania railroad was more than glad to give some to Edison rather than to pay to have them sent to the junk yard for demolition. So on August 27, 1904 - in Revere, Massachusetts - Two cameras were set up and two old steam locomotives were positioned to head toward each other at speed. After getting them going, the engineers bailed out. They collide. A closer view is added to show the crumpled locomotives, with steam and smoke bellowing, as spectators rush to get a closer look - so we know that this was a staged event.
Review of Railroad Smashup
