The Montana plaindealer. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1906-1911, 1910-12-09
WRECK KILLED ten
NORTH OF SPOKANE ABOUT
TWENTY MILES.
Loaded Freight Trains Going Down Hill
Meet in Head-on Collision-Most OF
the Victims Lived at Hillyard-Both
Train Crews Gone-Train Took Fire
Traffic Blocked for as Hours.

Traffic Blocked for as Hours.
Spokane. Nov. Ordered to pass the
Gamble extra" at Milan, Wash, train
No. 451 plowed on through yesterday
morning $ early darkness, a bare hour
or two before the Sabbath sun had
arisen. Fifteen minutes later, and
..45l'' and the ''apple extra were
ground into kindling wood, eight lives
were ~spufed out, four men manned ana
several hundred thousand dollars worth
of property destroyed, one Of the most
disastrous freight wrecks in the history
of the Great Northern road.
Around an easterly sloping curve OF
q side hill about two miles east of Chat
tarov. Wash, Is miles east of Spokane,
the two mighty consolidated engines
crashed together. Both were pulling
heavily loaded trains Of freight cars,
and both were on the down grade at a
terrific rate of speed, estimated by the
crew survivors at 40 miles an hour. The
collision happened to occur at almost
where one down grade ends and an up
grade begins, so that both engineers
were giving their big steel horses ther
heads for a good start for the long up
hill climb, a combination Of almost
every condition to make the impact and
its -nsequence terribly disastrous.
Traffic on the main line of the Great
Northern will have been suspended from
40 to 4s hours by the time the Wreekage
is removed, and the line is not expected
TO be cleared before tonight.
The known dead:
IL. L. Hepburn, Hillyard, engineer
train No. 451, body recovered.
John Blanchard, Hillyard, fireman
train No. 451, body recovered.
Joe Keefe, Hillyard, conductor train
No. 451, body not recovered.
Allen Glass, Hillyard, engineer apple
extra, body not recovered.
L. b. Mcintyre, Hillyard, brakeman
apple extra, body not recovered.
Unknown man, train No. 451, charred
remains removed from fire.
Two unknown boys, train No. 45l.
charred remains removed from fire.
The injured;
"Scotty" Dempster, 430 Grant street
Spokane, apple extra, right shoulder dis
located.
Horsfall, Hillyard, conducto.
apple extra, bruised.
Charles Bolton, Hillyard, brakeman
train No. 451, head slightly cut.
R. J. Armstrong, Chopaka, B. G
/. slightly bruised.
Running on Fast Schedule.
Train No. 451 was running on its reg
ular schedule, westbound. The appl
extra was eastbound, running on a tas
schedule of five hours between Hillyarc
Wash, and Troy, Mont. Train No. 40
was loaded with paints, automobile
some furniture and live stock, most o
the load extremely infammable materia
and considerably lighter than the appl
extra, which carried, besides frui
heavy loads of grain and lumber.
Every man of both train crews thu
happened to be near the front of h
train is dead. One brakeman saved hin
self by Jumping, but he is injured. IL
brakemen who happened to be in IL
rear of their trains escaped with MIN
injuries. Conductor Horsfall mirae
lousy escaped.
The loss to the road in the wreekal
is almost inestimable. A pile Of 10 ca
of train No. 451, jammed into the spa
of an ordinary living room, caught ii
Immediately, and were speedily reduce
to a smoking mass of wood and tangl
writing steel. This mass was burnil
at an early hour yesterday before Il
apparatus, summoned from Spokane,
miles away, could start a stream
water on the ruins.
Beneath this molten pile are
bodies of three trainmen victims, not
covered at a late hour last night.
The smashup behind the engine
the apple extra was no less impressi'
but fortunately did not catch fl
Bursted boxes of apples, piles
shingles, gaping sacks of grain 81
articles of furniture, charred emf
cans of paint and oil, twisted trucks
automobiles, and other ruined freiG
was scattered along the track for
yards.
COOK NEVER AT
POLE, SAY EsKIM