To throw (a train) off the track. The word, as a verb trans. and intrans., is used by Lardner, ‘Railway Economy’ (1850), pp. 326–7. He says he adopts derailment from the French. The word, however, is more used in the U.S. than in England.
1888. The on-rushing train was de-railed and piled up in a huge mass.—N.Y. Evening Post, Feb. 24 (Farmer).
1909. Train wreckers derailed the south bound express on the Arkansas, Louisiana, and Gulf Railroad.—N.Y. Evening Post, March 11.
