Survival of the Chesterwoods train wreck

On September 12, 1843, while Woodruff was traveling on an express train, it struck rails that had been tampered with and piled up. The passenger cars were saved by a train of freight cars between them and the engine, which was destroyed and the engineer killed. Woodruff escaped unhurt.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

Sept. 12, 1843.—At five o'clock p.m., I left Boston on the express train for Portland. While passing through Chesterwoods, six miles south of Kennebunk, after dark, and while going at full speed, we struck one of the rails which some persons had raised by rolling a log under it, and landed in a pile; three cars were filled with passengers, and their lives were saved by having a long train of freight between the passenger cars and the engine; all of them were mashed to pieces; the engineer was killed, some of the passengers had bones broken; I escaped unhurt.