The train hit the curve at Dudley Street at 60 or 65 m.p.h.; the driver had no chance

Shortly after 1 a.m. on Aug. 4, 1910, Thomas Manning, a veteran motorman for the Boston Elevated Railway, widely known as a careful and sober driver, picked up a four-car train at Egleston Square from the crew that had just let off the last passengers of the night at Forest Hills to guide it into the Guild Street yard near Dudley station for several hours of cleaning and repairs.

But, the Boston Globe reported at the time, something went horribly wrong. Somehow, the train accelerated rapidly. "Automatic stops" meant to stop runaway trains had been turned off for the night and while he was able to get through the first of two curves, when he hit the second, at Washington and Dudley streets, doing 60 to 65 m.p.h., his car caromed off the tracks - underneath which a trolley had just past - and down to the street. As soon as his car hit the ground, he was shot out of what used to be a window - after which "a shower of torn steel, wood and glass" fell on top of him as the second car came hurtling off the tracks as well and into the walls of a nearby building.

Amazingly, local police and bystanders were able to get Manning into an ambulance to City Hospital - where he was pronounced dead about four hours later.

The Boston City Archives has two collections of photos from the Dudley Street disaster, including:

One of the cars smashed into a building:

The curve after the cars had been removed:

The first and second cars on the ground:

Workers and officials afterwards:

Also see:

Beach Street crash.