We’re back with another edition of Urban Legend: Fact or Fiction. In this chapter, we are going to find out if flattening a penny on a railroad track can derail a train. So strap in and enjoy this surprisingly smooth ride.
The Story
“Hey, you know you shouldn’t flatten pennies on train tracks. They can derail the train and hurt or kill a whole lot of people” – That one kid you knew growing up.
Variants
For as long as there have been trains, people have wanted to flatten coins on the tracks. No one knows why aside from a deeply felt satisfaction we all seem to get watching something metal get smushed. To discourage the practice an urban legend began to circulate “pennying” a track could derail a train.
Since this legend is so straightforward, most variants are highly regional. Mostly claiming that some (fictitious) local kid did it.
Themes
As a society we tend to gravitate towards stories about the big guy being taken down by the little guy. Tales like David slaying Goliath or Mrs. O’Leary’s cow causing the great Chicago fire are prime examples. Or something like a small, unassuming penny, taking down a huge, potenially deadly, locomotive. The average weight of the copper colored coin is only 2.5 grams verses the average passanger train’s 1,000 to 1,500 tons. So yeah the size and weight disparity is clearly there.
These cultural predispositions and the fact it’s illegal in most states to put anything onto railroad tracks, keeps this legend going.
Pop Culture
For as pervasive as this rumor is, there aren’t many examples in pop culture.
- 1982, “Pink Floyd – The Wall” – has a scene with a kid putting a bullet on a railroad track. Once the train hits it, it derails by flying into the air.
- 2013, “Rail Pennies” – Tells the story of a young boy who is obsessed with placing pennies on the railroad tracks. A habit that is destroying his family.
- 2019, “Cents” – is a film directed by Sam Davis that was announced and had casting calls in 2019 but has gone silent ever since. It’s reported to be inspired by the Potterville train derailment in 2002. Except with the fictional twist of a kid believing that they caused the accident by putting pennies on the track.
- 2025, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” – HUGE SPOILER AHEAD!
At the end of the film a single penny derails a train carrying logs. The crashed locomotive dumps these logs onto the two main characters that believe they’ve already cheated death, instantly killing them. Giving us all a fun little call back along with some bonus bloodshed.
Is it Real?
Absolutely not, but there are still very good reasons not to put pennies (or anything) on a train track. Namely because people have died doing it.
In 1997 14-year-olds Shelly Lynn Wice and Jessica Ann Hart from Oil City, Pennsylvania were struck by a train. The girls had put pennies on one set of the tracks and were waiting for them to be flattened on the other set when a train hit both of them. One girl was killed on scene, the other passed a few hours later.
In 2007, 55-year-old retired police officer David Buffa of Ripley, New York was struck by a train in Greenwich. He was on the tracks attempting to show his family how to flatten a penny. He wasn’t able to get off the railway before the 75 mile an hour train came.
These two examples show one of the major issues with pennying a track. Many people do not realize how fast trains can move and they aren’t always easy to hear coming. It’s easy to mistake the noise and vibrations of a train coming one way for a train coming the other way, or not realize two trains are about to pass eachother. This is why it’s typically illegal to be in or around the tracks.
More Train Dangers
Another issue is the coin becoming a projectile. Any small object put under a bigger, heavier object can ricochet out and hit whoever put it there. And any piece of metal, no matter how small, can become deadly with enough speed behind it. While it may not cause a derailment, these objects can fly under the train and damage smaller components. This is why it’s also normally illegal to put even small objects onto railways.
Much like the “Killer in the Backseat” urban legend, this one persists because it’s just good advice. A flattened piece of metal is not worth the risk of losing your life by turning Honest Abe into a bullet. While, no, a penny won’t derail a train, that doesn’t make it harmless.
The penny train derailment urban legend is:
