Engine 143 also called the "Wreck on the C & O" is the Carter Family version of the Oct 23, 1890 death of engineer George Alley when the FFV train on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was wrecked by a landslide near Hinton, West Virginia.

Cox collected versions from 1915-1918. The Carters is based on existing lyrics.

His engine number was Number 4 (not 143 as in the song). The express F.F.V., in the first stanza, refers to the name of the train, the Fast Flying Vestibule. The ballad is believed to have been composed by an African-American engine-wiper at the station in Hinton, West Virginia.

Cohen says the official name of the FFV was Fast Flying Virginian, but it has several nicknames, including First Families of Virginia, Fuller's First Venture, and Fast Flying Vestibule.

ENGINE 143- Carter Family

Along came the FFV, the swiftest on the line,
Running o'er the C&O road just twenty minutes behind;
Running into Souville, headquarters on the line,
Receiving her strict orders from a station just behind.

Georgie's mother came to him with a bucket on her arm,
Saying, "My darling son, be careful how you run;
For many a man has lost his life in trying to make lost time,
And if you run your engine right, you'll get there just on time."

Up the road she darted, against the rock she crushed,
Upside down the engine turned and Georgie's breast did smash;
His head was against the firebox door, the flames were rolling high,
"I'm glad I was born for an engineer to die on the C&O Road."

The doctor said to Georgie, "My darling boy, be still,
Your life may yet be saved, if it is God's blessed will."
"Oh, no," said George, "that will not do, I want to die so free,
I want to die for the engine I love, One Hundred and Forty Three."

The doctor said to Georgie, "Your life cannot be saved."
Murdered upon a railroad, and laid in a lonesome grave,
His face was covered up with blood, his eyes you could not see,
And the very last words poor Georgie said was, "Nearer My God To Thee."