Rail

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

(colloquially known as wrecking) is the act of disrupting a

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

network. This includes both acts designed only to hinder or delay as well as acts designed to actually destroy a

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

. Railway sabotage requires considerable effort, due to the design and heavy weight of railways. Sabotage must be distinguished from more blatant methods of disruption (e.g., blowing up a train,

train robbery Since the invention of locomotives in the early 19th century, trains have often been the target of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables. Train robbery was especially common during the 19th century and is commonly asso ...

Methods

Relay cabinet arson

In 2022, setting fire to rail relay cabinets that control track operations was a common method of sabotage during the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Track obstruction

Damage to infrastructure

;Notable instances * 1861:

East Tennessee bridge burnings The East Tennessee bridge burnings were a series of guerrilla operations carried out during the American Civil War by Southern Unionists in Confederate-held East Tennessee in 1861. The operations, planned by Carter County minister William B. C ...

– Union sympathizers destroyed nine railroad bridges in East Tennessee, on the orders of President Lincoln. The bridges were quickly rebuilt. * 1864:

John Yates Beall John Yates Beall (January 1, 1835 – February 24, 1865) was a Confederate privateer in the American Civil War who was arrested as a spy in New York (state), New York and executed at Fort Columbus on Governors Island. Early life and education Be ...

, a

Confederate Navy The Confederate States Navy (CSN) was the Navy, naval branch of the Confederate States Armed Forces, established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the Amer ...

officer, was discovered plotting to derail a Union passenger train and executed the following year. * 1880:

Ned Kelly Edward Kelly (December 185411 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader, bank robber and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing armour of the Kelly gang, a suit of bulletproof ...

and his gang of

bushranger Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...

s in Australia had railway tracks torn up to derail a police special train. The police were tipped off about the plot and later engaged the Kelly gang in a shootout, Ned Kelly emerging as the only survivor. * 1905: 20th Century Limited derailment - Although unconfirmed, the evidence pointed heavily to malicious involvement in the derailment of the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

's crack passenger train, the ''

20th Century Limited The ''20th Century Limited'' was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along th ...

'', resulting in 21 deaths. * 1915: Vanceboro bridge bombing – the Saint Croix–Vanceboro Railway Bridge (over the U.S.–Canada border) was bombed by German saboteurs, although the bridge was not destroyed and was quickly rebuilt. * 1939: 1939 City of San Francisco derailment * 1942: Thamshavn Line sabotage – the

transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

station for Norway's

Thamshavn Line The Thamshavn Line () was Norway's first electric railway, running from 1908 to 1974 in what is now Trøndelag county. Today it is operated as a heritage railway and is the world's oldest railway running on its original alternating current elec ...

(an electric railroad) was blown up by Norwegian saboteurs during the

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

. * 1951: Huntly rail bridge bombing – a rail bridge near Mahuta, three miles from

Huntly, New Zealand Huntly () (population ) is a town in the Waikato district and region of the North Island of New Zealand. It was on State Highway 1 (until Huntly bypass opened in March 2020), south of Auckland and north of Hamilton. It is situated on the ...

, was severely damaged by dynamite charges during an

industrial dispute Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike in British English, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Working class, work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Str ...

. The sabotage was discovered after the bridge rocked noticeably as a slow moving morning passenger train came to rest across the bridge after braking for, and striking aside, warning sleepers laid across the track. Police believed it was an attempt to intimidate open-cast mine-workers who were not on strike. * 1995: Palo Verde derailment – a train in

Palo Verde, Arizona Palo Verde is a small Unincorporated area, populated place in Maricopa County, Arizona, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is located about west of Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, and southwest of downtown Buckeye, Arizona, Buckeye on Histor ...

, was derailed by saboteurs shifting the rails out of position, causing one fatality. The case remains unsolved. * 2002: Jaunpur train crash – a rail was broken and caused a train to derail, killing twelve people. An Islamic extremist organization was blamed. * 2002: Rafiganj train wreck – a train derailed on a bridge over a river in

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

, India, killing at least 130 people. A Maoist terrorist organization was blamed. * 2022–2023: Belarusian Rail War and the Russian Rail War - rail sabotage campaigns carried out by Belarusian and Russian opposition and paramilitary groups opposed to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Damage to trains

Intentional switch misalignments

* 1982: An NJDOT commuter train crashes into a pasta factory in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, killing the engineer. Four youths who tampered with the switch were charged. * 2024: On April 22nd, a BNSF coal train derailed and collided with a freight car on a siding in Bennett, Nebraska, after a switch was intentionally misaligned by a teenager who proceeded to film the accident.

Motivations

Vandalism

* Greenock rail crash was caused by vandals.

Internet clout

* The April 2024 Bennet, Nebraska rail incident was caused by a teenager intentionally misaligning the switch and filming the crash.

Extortion

Klaus-Peter Sabotta Klaus-Peter Sabotta was an extortionist who sabotaged German railways in December 1998, only six months after the Eschede disaster. He claimed to represent former employees of the German railway operator Deutsche Bahn who had been made redundan ...

sabotaged trains and attempted to extort money to prevent sabotaging more.

Terrorism

*Both ISIL and Al Qaeda have advocated for rail sabotage and have published detailed instructions for how to commit such acts. * Rafiganj train wreck * 2001 Angola train attack *There have been 41 rail sabotage incidents in

Washington state Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

since 2021, thought to be

ecotage Ecotage ( ) is sabotage carried out for environmental reasons. Cases All damage figures below are in United States dollars. Some well-known acts of ecotage have included: *Circa 1969 to 1985 – ecological activist James F. Phillips, opera ...

Military or resistance

Operation Washing The Sabotage of the Asopos Viaduct Operation Washing was the successful destruction of the railway bridge over the Asopos (Boeotia), Asopos River in Central Greece (geographic region), Central Greece by four British Special Operations Executiv ...

In popular culture

*''

The Invisible Man (1933 film) ''The Invisible Man'' is a 1933 pre-Code American science fiction horror film directed by James Whale loosely based on H. G. Wells's 1897 novel, ''The Invisible Man'', produced by Universal Pictures, and starring Gloria Stuart, Claude Rains and ...

'' *''

The Wrecker (1929 film) ''The Wrecker'' () is a 1929 British-German sound crime film directed by Géza von Bolváry and starring Carlyle Blackwell, Joseph Striker, and Benita Hume. The sound version was a Part-Talkie prepared by Tiffany-Stahl Productions and was copy ...