| Location | Date | Culprits | Description |
|---|
| Western and Atlantic Railroad, Georgia | April 12, 1862 | 2nd, 21st, and 33rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment led by James J. Andrews | During the American Civil War, James J. Andrews and his men commandeered a Confederate train called The General. [1] |
| Baltimore and Ohio Railroad | October 14, 1864 | Confederate Guerrillas | A party of Confederate guerrillas robbed a train and burned the cars. [2] |
| West of Cincinnati, Ohio | May 5, 1865 | possibly Confederate Guerrillas | A group of armed men boarded a train and robbed it of all its valuables, it is suspected the men were Confederates angered by the south's surrender. [3] |
| Seymour, Indiana | October 6, 1866 | John and Simeon Reno | John and Simeon Reno of the Reno gang robbed an Ohio and Mississippi Railway passenger train. The men boarded the train, entered the Adam Express Co. car, and intimidated employee Elem Miller into giving them the keys, the men then emptied the safe and left the train once it stopped. [4] [5] |
| Marshfield, Scott County, Indiana | May 22, 1868 | Reno Gang | The Reno gang held up a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad and stole $90,000 ($2 million in 2024). |
| Verdi, Nevada | November 4, 1870 | a gang of five men | A gang of five men stopped a Central Pacific Railroad train in Verdi and forced the train engineer, Henry Smalls, to stop the train and stole $41,600 [equivalent to $1,001,261 in 2024] only $3,000 was returned. [6] |
| Moscow, Kentucky | July of 1871 | Farrington Brothers | Levi and Hillary Farrington, William Taylor, George Bertine, and William Barton, a former railroad brakeman, robbed a Southern Express car on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Moscow, Kentucky. They successfully made off with $1600. [7] |
| Union City, Tennessee | October 12, 1871 | Farrington Brothers | The group robbed another Mobile & Ohio Railroad and made off with about $6000. [7] |
| Adir, Iowa | July 21, 1873 | James–Younger Gang | Jesse James and the gang robbed a derailed Rock Island Line train and stole $3,000 (equivalent to $76,000 in 2023), the gang wore Ku Klux Klan mask in protest of President Grant's Enforcement Acts. [8] |
| Gads Hill, Missouri | January 31, 1874 | James–Younger Gang | The gang entered and robbed a small general store, they then stopped and boarded a train at 4:45 PM and stole $12,000 (equivalent to $290,000 in 2023) from rich men (they avoided robbing working-class men and women.) [9] [10] [11] |
| Big Springs, Nebraska | September 18, 1877 | Sam Bass, Joel Collins, Jack Davis, Tom Nixon, Bill Heffridge, and Jim Berry | The Black Hills gang led by Sam Bass boarded Union Pacific express train No. 4 at 10:48 PM and proceeded to rob the passengers and pistol-whip an employee, the men stole $60,000 [equivalent to $1,716,750 in 2023] worth of gold. [12] [13] |
| Medicine Bow, Wyoming | August 16, 1878 | Big Nose George, Frank McKinney, Joe Manuse, Jack Campbell, John Wells, Tom Reed, Frank Tole, and Dutch “Charley” Burress. | The group of 7 men planned to rob a Union Pacific train by derailing the train but were stopped by the trains crew and gang received a $10,000 bounty. [14] |
| Winston, Montana | July 21, 1881 | James-Younger Gang | Jesse James and his gang boarded a train leaving the town of Winston, Montana and proceeded to rob the express car and kill two men and the conductor. [15] |
| Glendale, Missouri | September 7, 1881 | Jesse and Frank James | The brothers committed their last robbery and stole $1,000 - $3,000 from the train. |
| Bellevue, Texas | December 11, 1886 | Rube Burrow, Jim Burrow, W.L. Brock, Leonard Brock, Henderson Brumley, and Nep Thornton | Rube and the men robbed a Denver & Fort Worth Express train in Bellevue, Texas. The gang boarded the train and held everyone at gun point, the men got about $300 from the passengers and Sgt. Chase Conner of the 24th Infantry Regiment, nearly shot the men but was persuaded not to. [16] [17] |
| Unknown | Early May 1887 | Bill Whitley Gang and Brack Cornett | Brack Cornett with the newly formed Bill Whitely Gang attempted to rob a train but it was unsuccessful. [18] |
| San Antonio, Texas | May 18, 1887 | Bill Whitley Gang | The gang robbed a Missouri-Pacific train and stole $4,000. [19] |
| Benbrook, Texas | June 9, 1887 | Rube Burrow and his gang | Rube Burrow and his gang boarded a Texas & Pacific Express and held the train engineer at gunpoint and stole $1,350.00 from the mail car. [20] |
| Near Fort Worth, Texas | September 20, 1887 | Rube Burrow and his gang | Rube Burrow robbed another Texas & Pacific Express in a manner very similar to the robbery in Benbrook. [21] |
| Genoa, Arkansas | December 9, 1887 | Rube Burrow and Jim Brock | The men stopped a St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railroad express train in Genoa, Arkansas. The train was protected by Pinkerton agents from the Southern Express Company and stole money from a Louisiana lottery payoff estimated to be between $10,000 and $40,000. [22] |
| Canyon Diablo, Arizona | March 21, 1889 | William D. Sitrin, “Long John” Halford, John J. Smith, and D.M. Haverick | A group of 4 robbers robbed an Atlantic and Pacific train and stole $1,000. [23] |
| Canyon Diablo, Arizona | April of 1889 | James Lee | James Lee robbed a train in the Canyon Diablo and went on the run until his capture in January 1890. [24] |
| Arkansas River's Royal Gorge | August 31, 1891 | Peg Leg Watson and Bert Curtis | The men halted a Denver & Rio Grande train and stole thousands of dollars and gold. [25] |
| Monroe Junction, Florida | 11 May 1892 | 4 unknown men | A train belonging to The West Indian Fast Mail was stopped north of Monroe Junction, two of the men forced the fireman and train engineer, a man known only as Dumas, to stop the train. The other men attempted to enter the express car but were stopped by two men W. N. Saunders and I. M. Cox, Saunders was shot in the breast and later died. The men fled into the woods fearing the possibility of being lynched by a mob. [26] |
| Minnesota River, Minnesota | 1 July 1892 | George, John Sontag, and Chris Evans | The trio attempted to rob a train traveling between St. Peter and Kasota but where stopped by the arrival of Pinkerton agents. [27] |
| Frenso, California | 1 August 1892 | George, John Sontag, and Chris Evans | The trio robbed a train leaving Frenso and got $500 worth of Mexican and Peruvian currency. [27] |
| Huntington, West Virginia | before 16 December 1892 | 4 unknown men | Around 11 o'clock, a train on the Chesapeake and Ohio road was held up by four robbers, two of the passengers, an unknown German immigrants and Peter Drake of Cincinnati tackled the robbers and both men were shot but not killed, the robbers fled into the dark when the ticket collector named Zingley opened fire unto the men. [28] |
| Between Houghton and Calumet, Michigan | 15 September 1893 | The LaLiberty Gang | The gang stopped a Adams Express Company train and stole $65 but were stopped and arrested by the Pinkerton Agency. [29] |
| Jackson County, Arkansas | 7 November 1893 | The Oliphant Train Robbers (presumed to be Dalton Gang) | The gang robbed a St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, the men stole $6,000 and were briefly stopped by the Irish conductor William P. McNally who shot at them with a pistol he received from a passenger named Charles Lamb, they shot him and left the train. [30] [31] |
| Fort Gibson, Oklahoma | 18 July 1894 | Crawford Goldsby and his gang | Goldsby and his gang held up a Frisco train Wells-Fargo Express Company and the St Louis and San Francisco railroad train at Red Fork. [32] |
| near Widewater, Virginia | October 12, 1894 | The Dalton Gang | At around 9:30 a train from Jacksonville, Florida heading to Boston was ambushed and robbed by the Dalton Gang. 10 miles away from Fredericksburg. [33] |
| Correatta, Oklahoma | October 20, 1894 | Crawford Goldsby and his gang | Crawford Goldsby and his gang robbed a train. [34] |
| Twin Mountain, Colorado | September 9, 1897 | "Black Jack" Ketchum and his brother | Black Jack and his brother boarded a passenger train and stole $10,000. [35] |
| Glyndon, Minnesota | September 26, 1897 | 2 men | Two men boarded the train and detached the Wells Fargo express car and ordered the conductor to continue driving, the men then looted it and planned to blow it up but were scared off by the law. [36] |
| Wilcox, Wisconsin | June 2, 1899 | Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. | A Union Pacific train was flagged down over a wooden bridge and the Wild Bunch boarded it and blew up the safe with dynamite and stole $36,000. [37] [38] |
| Cochise, Arizona | September 9, 1899 | Alvord-Stiles Gang | The gang led by Bill Downing held up the train crew and detached the Wells Fargo express car from the train and stole $10,000. [39] |