GREAT MAYBEURY, W. Va. TRAIN WRECK [This information is adapted from the account of those fateful events from 1937 as recorded by E. L. (Dizzy) Harris of Warren, Ohio ] Maybeury is located 20 miles west of Bluefield, W. VA. (see map below) It takes its name from two pioneer McDowell County coal operators . . . Mr. May and Mr. Beury. At 7:15 pm June 30, 1937, westbound N & W RR "Time Freight #85" plunged off the east end of Maybeury Bridge and into West Virginia railroad history. The disaster took four lives and tied up rail and road traffic for weeks. The eighty-nine car train was a supply train for the coalfields' company stores. The engine was N & W # 2092, only seven years old and one of the world's most powerful steam locomotives. As # 85 began the steep descent through 3,000 foot long Coaldale Tunnel, the brakeman, James C. Ball, realized something was wrong with the train . . . it was running away. Fifty feet from the Maybeury Bridge the steering wheels derailed pulling the rest of the locomotive off the tracks at 55 mph and headlong into the 180 foot Maybeury crevasse. Fifty-three boxcars followed it off the N & W main line tracks and into the inferno. There was a deafening explosion as # 2092 hit square in the middle of Route 52 and exploded on impact. Many local windows were blown out; # 2092's boiler housing was blown 893 feet. Seconds later another huge blast occurred as a Texaco gasoline tanker exploded shattering windows and blowing in doors a quarter of a mile away. Fifty-four year old engineer Willie Snead's mangled remains were not found until early the next day. Fireman Ezra McHaffa, who left two young children mourning in Bluefield, was burned beyond recognition. Incredibly, brakeman Ball still breathed but was mortally injured. He would die July 1st but, incredibly, not until after giving his story. [Note: here is the part about the fellow killed where the RR bridge crossed over the road.] Also killed in this disaster was CLARK MAXEY. Clark was walking up the hill under the trestle when Time Freight # 85 plunged onto him. The entire Maybeury hollow was ablaze in an inferno of burning coal, ash and oil. Precious cargo was scattered everywhere (bicycles, whisky, peanuts, tobacco products, canned pineapple, etc.) Fire crews from Bramwell, Pocahontas, VA, and Welch helped battle the flames with water from nearby Elkhorn Creek. Huge steam cranes took almost three weeks to clear the scrap steel and debris from the badly damaged overpass. The cause of the terrible wreck was never satisfactorily resolved. Attempts were made to place blame on a stowed away transient, but no body was ever found. The official corporate explanation reads, " derailment off bridge # 861, resulting from excessive speed from closing of an angle-cock on a head-end by a transient, to render brakes on train inoperable from locomotive."