The 1953 Pennsylvania Railroad train wreck was a railway accident which occurred at Union Station in Washington, D.C. on January 15, 1953. The brakes on the cars of the Federal Express, a passenger and mail train operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad, malfunctioned and the train crashed into the station, jumped the passenger platform, and plunged through the floor of the passenger terminal into the basement of the station. There were no deaths, and only 43 people were injured.