In 1959, a runaway train smashed through the Olympia Washington Union Pacific depot on 4th Ave and into businesses on the other side of the street, destroying half a block. There simply aren't any decent photos online that show the damage though

 train car is embedded in China Clipper Cafe on left, Olympia, March 1959, the 13th of March. Good ol lucky 13th

On March 13, a crewless, runaway 15-car train strikes the Union Pacific Depot in downtown Olympia with such force that it goes through the building and crosses 4th Avenue, destroying half a city block. One man is killed and 20 persons are injured seriously enough to require hospitalization.

The cause of the accident is quickly traced to the train crew’s failure to properly set brakes on the cars and subsequently leaving the train unattended.

About 5:30pm, the train stopped at a switching point about two miles south of downtown Olympia. Members of a switching crew uncoupled a section of the train from the locomotive, but in doing so, failed to set hand brakes and did not properly apply air brakes on the 15 cars that had been uncoupled.

 The crew then briefly left the train parked on a slight downhill grade, unattended, and it soon began coasting north toward Olympia. It quickly gathered momentum, reaching speeds estimated by various witnesses at between 30 and 60 miles an hour as it rolled toward the downtown Union Pacific Depot on 4th Ave. Twelve of the 15 train cars were loaded with plywood and plasterboard, and the total weight of the 15-car runaway train was later estimated at 900 tons.

At 5:44 p.m., the train thundered through a dead end railway bumper guard at the depot and burst through a brick wall into the depot, instantly killing a telegraph operator for the railroad.

The train then smashed through another brick wall and out into 4th Avenue, traveling more than 300 feet as it crossed the street. The first car demolished the Sta-Well Health Service. The second car twisted into Bill’s Kitchen, Haumann’s Floral and Gift Shop, and the Eastside Club Tavern. The third car struck the China Clipper, another cafe, and two more cars and an empty gondola car overturned in 4th Avenue.

Within 24 hours of the accident, Union Pacific Railroad conceded that the accident had been caused by the switching crew

That was probably the last time ANYONE finished a crash investigation of anything larger than a car in less than 24 hours.

 https://olympiahistory.org/union-pacific-train-wreck-31316/
http://www.historylink.org/File/7929