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This website has been archived from TrainWeb.org/vangab to TrainWeb.US/vangab.

This is by far Amtrak's worst accident. At 2:53 a.m. on September 22, 1993, the Sunset Limited (#2), Amtrak's only transcontinental passenger train, plunged into Big Bayou Canot fourteen miles north of Mobile, Alabama, killing 42 passengers and 5 crew members (three in the locomotive and two dining car workers in the dorm car). Eight minutes earlier at 2:45 a.m., a towboat, pushing six barges and lost in a dense fog, unknowingly bumped into Big Bayou Canot Bridge, knocking the track out of alignment, causing the train to derail and plunge into the mucky waters of the bayou. Locomotive P40 #819 was about 3 weeks old when it was destroyed in the accident. The three locomotive, baggage car, trans/dorm, and first two coaches ended up in the swampy waters while the third coach (34040) was left hanging off the end of the bridge.

Amtrak Equipment involved:

P40 819 (Scrap)
F40 262 (Scrap)
F40 312 (Scrap)
Baggage 1139 (Scrap)
Ex ATSF Hi-Level Trans/Dorm 39908 (Scrap)
Coach 34083 (Scrap)
Coach 34068 (Scrap)
Coach 34040
Ex ATSF Hi-Level Lounge 39973
Diner 38030
Sleeper 32067





Information gathered by Internet/Google searches. Photos are AP.

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