A steam locomotive sits inside the wrecked depot, its smokebox front buried in fallen brick and splintered timber. A ribbed radiator stands upright in the foreground; suspended lamps and a fanlight window frame the damage, and daylight shows through the broken roof.
White handwriting on the negative reads “Engine in C. & N. W. Depot July 21 1911 / Lincoln Nebr.” Contemporary reporting, summarized by History Nebraska, records that early that morning a runaway Missouri Pacific freight engine, No. 2364, left its hostler behind near 9th and Vine Streets, ran over the bumper at the end of the Northwestern track and broke through the north wall of the Chicago & North Western depot, wrecking the ticket office. It happened about 5:30 a.m., before staff arrived; no one was hurt, and some 3,000 people came to look by mid-morning.
Real photo postcard on AZO stock (four-up-triangle stamp box, c. 1904–1918) with an unused divided back. No photographer or publisher is credited, and the reverse carries no correspondence or mailing evidence.
- Title on card
- Engine in C. & N. W. Depot July 21 1911 / Lincoln Nebr. (inscribed)
- Medium
- RPPC
- Subject
- Lincoln, Nebraska, Railroad
- Dimensions
- 5.45 × 3.43 in (138.5 × 87.2 mm)
- Condition
- Some soiling and a few short dark marks on the reverse; the photograph is otherwise clean and the card appears sound, with no visible tears or major creases.
- Provenance
- Event identified from the negative caption and History Nebraska, "Runaway Train in Lincoln" (https://history.nebraska.gov/runaway-train-in-lincoln/), citing the Lincoln Evening News. History Nebraska holds Edward Gehrke photographs of the same wreck; this card carries no credit, so no photographer is attributed. AZO four-up-triangle stamp box, c. 1904–1918.
- Catalogue no.
- MRPPC3445
Catalogue details
Location
Chicago & North Western depot, 840 S Street, Lincoln, Nebraska · Lincoln, Nebraska, United States
Photographed subject · Exact site · 85% confidence
Negative caption: "Engine in C. & N. W. Depot July 21 1911, Lincoln Nebr." History Nebraska RG2133.PH000012-000360 gives the C. & N.W. Depot address as 840 "S" Street. History Nebraska, "Runaway Train in Lincoln," says the engine passed 9th & Vine, then ran over the bumper at the end of the Northwestern track into the depot. That fits: Vine is three blocks north of S on the same line. Pin placed mid-block on the 800 block of S Street (between 8th and 9th); the side of the street is unconfirmed.
Source: archive
