At the Brockton Fair, in 1933, they staged a real train wreck! Two engines, head-on. Two unmodified locomotives were withdrawn from use in the mid-1930s.--1389 and 1406--were purchased in September 1933 by the Brockton Agricultural Society.
The engineers opened the throttles and then jumped... ...Two old Boston & Maine B-15 class steam locomotives due to be scrapped were renumbered 666 and 999.
The name “Miss Brockton” was painted on the coal tender of 666, “Mary Wiggins” on 999.
Miss Wiggins was a Hollywood grade B movie actress.
The two engines backed off a quarter mile apart. Then their engineers yanked open the throttles and leaped off. The rather unspectacular collision, just violent enough to ring the engine bells, raised a big cloud of steam, smoke and dust. To my knowledge that was the first and last train wreck staged at Brockton."
A reporter who went in 1933 said it was unspectacular and he said she (Wiggins) "Rode the wreck" and was going to "leap out in spectacular fashion" as she was "known" for her "stunt work" in movies.
He said it was a disappointment.
I speculate that Mary Wiggins was famous enough, to enter pop culture, and that's why her name was used for a character in the 1st season of the Andy Griffith Show
Born in Florida on November 8, 1909, she joined a traveling carnival straight out of high school and got her first screen credit in the short film The Campus Vamp in 1928. Her stunts in films included diving, crashing cars, parachuting and flying planes.
In high school she was a 2 time high diving state champion
Among the stars that Wiggins doubled for were Clara Bow, Dorothy Lamour, Jane Wyatt (Lost Horizon), Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night), Ann Sothern (Hell-Ship Morgan) and Barbara Stanwyck (Union Pacific). During WWII, Mary was one of the first Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) when she reported in 1943. She flew as a ferry pilot for the army, a group commander, and a flight instructor at Hondo Army Air base
Tragically, Wiggins took her own life on December 19th, 1945 after reportedly being despondent over a financial transaction. She was 36 years old.
https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=USA&wheel=2-6-0&railroad=bm#806
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