Hands Up
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Hands Up
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photography
Description
Train robberies were more common in the past when trains moved slower, and often occurred in the American Old West. Trains carrying payroll shipments were a major target. These shipments would be guarded by a railroad employee whose duty was to protect the cargo of the "express car".
Bandits would rely on the railroad express man to open the safe and provide the goods. Without the combination required for the combination lock, it was almost impossible to break into the safe. Eventually, the invention of dynamite made it much easier to obtain the contents of the safe. If the outlaws were unsatisfied with the goods, unarmed passengers would be held at gunpoint and forced to hand over any valuables they were carrying, usually in the form of jewelry or currency.
Contrary to the method romanticized by Hollywood, outlaws were never known to jump from horseback onto a moving train. Usually, they would board the train normally and wait for a good time to initiate the heist, or would derail the train and then begin the holdup.
Famous train robbers include Butch Cassidy, Jesse James and Bill Miner. Jesse James is thought to have completed the first successful train robbery in the American West when on July 21, 1873 the James-Younger Gang took $3,000 from a Rock Island Railroad train after derailing it southwest of the town of Adair, Iowa. The first peacetime train robbery in the United States actually occurred on October 6, 1866, when robbers boarded the Ohio & Mississippi train shortly after it left Seymour, Indiana. The outlaws broke into one safe and tipped the other off the train before jumping off. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency later traced the crime to members of the Reno Gang. There was one earlier train robbery in May 1865, but because it was committed by armed guerrillas and occurred shortly after the end of the Civil War, it is not considered to be the first to occur in the United States.
Some digital effects were applied to the original image after the photograph was made. No electrons were harmed during the transition.
Image copyright 2022 Jon Burch Photography.
Uploaded
May 18th, 2022
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