The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-04-23
A PECULIAR ACCIDENT
Caused the Wreck of No. q at Chatta-
roy Last Week.

roy Last Week.
The disastrous wreck of the Great
Northern train No. near Chattaroy,
Wash, the early part of last week,
was one of the most peculiar that
has worried trackmen in years.
There seems to have been no appar-
ent cause for the track going to
pieces and the position of the train
was much as though it had been
hurled in the air by a cyclone. The
train was running on level roadbed
at an ordinary rate of speed, when
six or seven cars were thrown from
the track. 1t may have been due to
the trucks of the tender jumping the
track. The road runs along a sandy
hill, by no means steep, and with a
fall from the track to the bottom of
the grade of about Is feet. The train
had just rounded slight curve when
the engineer happened to glance back
and saw cloud of dust rising from
the string Of cars behind him. Realiz-
ing that something was wrong he
threw on the reverse brakes just as
the crash came which hurled six cars
from the track. The wreck left the
ing of the mail and baggage cars
four men sustained injuries which
will lay them up for at least two
weeks.
Speaking of the accident, Baggage
man Dyson, who was seriously hurt,
said:
1--WE were going along at good
pace in a sandy country with every
thing running smoothly when sud
denly the baggage car jumped and
Mr.. Leonard and myself were thrown
with great violence against the end
of the car. The car itself gave a cou-
pie of bounds and then turned over
on it's side, hurting everything in the
car against the end. l was pretty
badly hurt, but managed to crawl out
and also got Mr.. Leonard out. 1t was
a queer sight that confronted us
when when we were once on the out
side. All of the seven cars had beer
thrown from the track, with the ex
ception of the diner. One end of il
stayed on the track. The tender was
thrown bottom side up and hind enc
to, and was quite distance from the
track
The end of the mail car, in which
Mr.. Johnson and Mr.. Blanchard were
hurt, was plunged into the grount
and on it's side. In its career, it hat
uprooted a pine tree IS inches in dia
meter and carried it until the force
of the leap was spent. All the othe
cars were off the track and some 0
them were upturned, presenting
scene of the greatest devastation
With it all stood the engine uprigh
on the track. The engineer and fire
man had hardly been Jared, although
the tender Immediately behind hal
turned a complete somersault. TIL
track was torn up for $50 yards
Some of the rails were twisted int
veritable corckscrews. | have bee
in several wrecks, but this was tn
most sudden and most forceful of an
I have yet experienced,
at must have taken tremendou
force to tear up the track and twis
the rails in that manner, and the fac
that so few were injured adds to tn
mystery of the whole thing. Their
seems to be no explanation possibl,
as the engine remained on the tract
The force of the whole wreck wa
between the engine and the last ca
The damage done in this space, how
ever, was terrific. It could not hav
been caused by stone on the tract
by an explosion nor by spreadin
rails. 1t will probably always renal
a mystery and we should feel thanl
full that we were not killed instead {
merely being injured, as we are
Conductor Caldwell was in chare
of the train.