Trains Plunging into the Sound
A coal train narrowly escapes total destruction as landslides continue to ravage the Great Northern line north of Everett.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The slides on the Great Northern shore line began again late Saturday night and the track is blocked between here and Everett. The worst slide of the day came down about 8:30 last night. As a coal train was passing mile post twelve, a great mass of earth with trees mixed with it descended upon it. Two of the cars were knocked into the Sound and the balance of the train narrowly escaped. Fortunately, none of the trainmen were near the point where the slide struck the train and thus they escaped injury. The track is blocked at three different points and probably cannot be cleared for several days.
“A great mass of earth with trees mixed with it descended upon it. Two of the cars were knocked into the Sound.”
The unstable bluffs north of Seattle, particularly between Everett and Edmonds, have been a persistent engineering nightmare for over a century. Today, the BNSF railway tracks still face the constant threat of landslides, forcing the city to navigate a difficult, ongoing debate about moving the rail line away from the Sound's edge to ensure long-term stability and passenger safety.
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