The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-03-09

OIu SWlIcuDacK, on winch Ola rail-
readers worked, months away from
| their families, before the Cascade
tunnel was built, wolves and wild an
imals howled in chorus and avalanch-
es Numbered down; men became mar
tyrs for the safety of others, and
their comrades, who were spared,
toiled on for the support of their
| families; the dangers and loneliness
became part of their lives, but the
world seldom heard of it.
Only a few members of that old
crowd still linger to tell of the tor
turous fight with the winter elements
and of the fate of luckless comrades.
Will Smith is one of them. He was
in charge of one of the snow bucking
crews which worked up and down the
switchback about Wellington and
Scenic, over the very spot in which
| the two Great Northern trains were
buried with all on board the other
day Smith is division superintend-
! ent up at Kalispell, Mont, now. He
has gained position in reward for ser
vices rendered.
A Terrible Death on Runaway Train
Then there was Conductor Mitch
ell, who had charge of another crew
of men who spent their winters up
there in the deadly dangers. Con-
ductor Dahlgren and Engineers DAILY,
Jack Lanahan and Billy Burke faced
the dangers, too, and of them all
Billy Murke, still at the throttle of
Great Northern engine, is about the
only survivor.
Dahlgren met the terrible fate that
is momentarily expected up there in
the hills. Part of his train of 40 cars
broke away from the engine that was
toiling up the hill with them, and,
with Dahlgren smiling and waving
his last farewell to old familiar COM
rades, standing white, almost petri-
fled with horror, at Wellington sta
ton, he plunged with his train, run
ming a hundred miles an hour, down
the steep grade off Windy Arm. His
mangled body was found weeks later
under the hideous heap of shattered
timbers and twisted iron remains Of
; his 40 cars. His train actually
doubled up into a stack less than 100
feet in length in the canyon.
Two Comrades Died on Same Job.
Daily died some months ago after
his legs had been severed in wreck
of the Owl train, running between
Seattle and Vancouver, and Lanahan,
his old comrade, who took his place,
met a similar fate within 80 days af-
terward
The old switchback road had a
grade of four per cent and an engine
consumed 5000 pounds of coal in 60
ing over it each trip, a distance Of
about 10 miles, which has been cut
to 13,345 feet by the Cascade tun-
mel that was later built.
Double pay each month was Oft
times the reward for men who braved
the dangers of this old run, and they
were hard to get at that. Rotary
plows were kept humming up and
down the winding tracks day and
night. While night crews were clear
ing the way, day crews were mount
ing the teep incline after them with
loads Of freight and passengers, and
vice versa.
Slide Carried Rotary to Track Below.
Among them stories related by
some of the few who are acquainted
with these thrilling times, is that
of slide that rushed down the
mountain at Windy Point. near Win
dy Arm. The thunder of the grind
ing rocks, creaking of Ice and snow,
mingling with the crackle of break
ing mountain pines, gave the crew
time to flee to places of safety, but
the edge of the slide caught the ro-
tary pillow and swept it from the
tracks. Eight hundred feet below,
where the switchback made its first
lap across the mountain side, the big
machine lodged right beside the
tracks, and it was with comparative
ly little difficulty that the snow
bucking crew put it back on the
tracks and within a few hours had 1t
to work again.
1 One night some unfortunate stran-
ger was struck by small slide and
hurled down the precipitous walls OF
the canyon to lower lap OF the
switchback. The next day the rotary
was driven against him, as he stood
upright, but dead, in the icy bank.
He was so terribly mangled that he
could never be recognized.
Men Killed in Canyon Never Found.
| Men have been swept from their
work on the right of way down the
mountain side and buried so deep
in the debris and snow that their
bodies-not even their bones-have
not been found to this day. The can
yon in which these hundred or so