"Engine One-Forty-Three" (Roud 255) is a folk ballad in the tradition of Anglo-American train wreck songs. It is based on the true story of the wreck of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway's Fast Flying Virginian (FFV) near Hinton, West Virginia in 1890.[1][2]
The song's earliest documented appearance was in Railroad Man Magazine in 1913 as "The Wreck on the C. & O.", while its earliest recording was in 1924. The first use of the title "Engine One-Forty-Three" was for a recording by the Carter Family in 1929, which became one of the group's best-selling records and the basis for many subsequent recordings.[3]