Rail

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

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

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

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

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

. Sabotage must be distinguished from more blatant methods of disruption (e.g., blowing up a train, train robbery).

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, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

Track obstruction

Damage to infrastructure

;Notable instances * 1861: East Tennessee bridge burnings –

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

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 and executed at Fort Columbus on Governors Island. Early life and education Beall was born in ...

, 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. * 1905:

20th Century Limited derailment On the night of Wednesday, June 21, 1905, the New York Central Railroad's flagship passenger train, the ''20th Century Limited'', derailed in Mentor, Ohio, on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway line, killing 21 passengers and injuring m ...

- 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 and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

'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. * 1942: Thamshavn Line sabotage – the

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

station for Norway's

Thamshavn Line , logo = , logo_width = , logo_alt = , image_name = Bårdshaug stasjon.jpeg , image_width = , image_alt = , caption = Passenger train at Bårdshaug Station in 191 ...

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

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

. * 1951:

Huntly rail bridge bombing The Huntly rail bridge bombing occurred on the Glen Afton (or Awaroa) Branch, near Huntly, New Zealand around 3 AM on 30 April 1951, when high explosives were set off on a railway bridge. The bombing took place amid the 1951 New Zealand waterfron ...

– a rail bridge near Mahuta, three miles from

Huntly, New Zealand Huntly ( mi, Rahui-Pōkeka) (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 s ...

, was severely damaged by dynamite charges during an

industrial dispute Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...

. 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 populated place in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is located about west of Phoenix, and southwest of downtown Buckeye on Historic U.S. Route 80. Brief history The Palo Verde area was settled in 1886, by John ...

, 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 state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

, India, killing at least 130 people. A Maoist terrorist organization was blamed. * 2022 rail war in Belarus

Damage to trains

Motivations

Terrorism

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 Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the 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 1969–1985; ecological activist James F. Phillips, operatin ...

Military

Mischief

In popular culture

*''

The Wrecker (1929 film) ''The Wrecker'' (german: Der Würger) is a 1929 British-German silent crime film directed by Géza von Bolváry and starring Carlyle Blackwell, Joseph Striker, and Benita Hume. The film was based on the play of the same title by Arnold Ridle ...

'' *'' The Wrecker'' by

Clive Cussler Clive Eric Cussler (July 15, 1931 – February 24, 2020) was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached ''The New York Times'' fiction best-seller list ...

deals with