Gare Montparnasse Station Derailment and Train Wreck

Gare Montparnasse became famous for a derailment on 22 October 1895 of the Granville-Paris Express that overran the buffer stop.

The engine careered across almost 30 metres (98 ft) of the station concourse, crashed through a 60-centimetre (24 in) thick wall, shot across a terrace and sailed out of the station, plummeting onto the Place de Rennes 10 metres (33 ft) below, where it stood on its nose. All on board the train survived, five sustaining injuries: two passengers, the fireman and two crewmembers; however, one woman on the street below was killed by falling masonry. The accident was caused by a faulty Westinghouse brake and the engine drivers who were trying to make up for lost time. The conductor incurred a 25 franc penalty and the engine driver a 50 franc penalty; he was also sent to prison for two months.

The picture of the locomotive standing on its nose appears on the cover of the album Lean into It from the hard rock band Mr. Big.

The same picture also appears on the cover of the textbook "An Introduction to Error Analysis" second addition by John R. Taylor.

The inspiration was also used in a Thomas the Tank Engine episode on the fifth season when Gordon the express engine couldn't stop in time so he crashed.

The story of the train crash and the picture feature in the 2007 children's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Much of the story is set in and around Gare Montparnasse.

Replicas of the train crash are recreated outside the Mundo a Vapor ("Steam World") museum chain buildings in Brazil, at the southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, in the city of Canela.