Horror on the Great Northern Rails
A head-on collision near Edwall leaves two trainmen dead and locomotives in flames, marking a deadly period for the railroad expansion.
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 worst wreck on the Great Northern railroad since the extension from Havre occurred at Edwall, thirty-five miles west of Spokane. Engineer Joseph Sninsky and Fireman Wallace were killed in a head-on collision between two freight trains, which resulted in the destruction of both locomotives, eight cars of merchandise, and the Edwall water tank. The collision occurred while the east-bound train was taking water; the west-bound train failed to heed signals and crashed into the standing train at high speed. A car filled with bulk oil instantly ignited, sending flames fifty feet into the air. Fireman Wallace was burned to a crisp, and Engineer Sninsky was found dead at his post. Another fatal wreck involving a slide and a rockfall also claimed a life near Skykomish, marking a dark month for the company's expansion into Washington.
“The body of Fireman Wallace, of the west-bound train, was found near the tank car burned to a crisp.”
The rapid expansion of infrastructure in the 1890s often came at the cost of worker safety, a recurring theme in the history of Washington's industrial development. Today, the high-traffic BNSF tracks near Skykomish and the Inland Empire still grapple with the legacy of challenging mountain topography and the constant demand for freight efficiency.
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