A Landslide Tipped a Locomotive Into Lake Washington and the Water Boiled
A freight train running the Lake Shore road hit a slide in the dark, the crew jumped for their lives, and the engine rolled over on its side in the lake, its wheels still churning as the steam died.
A freight train on the Lake Shore road was passing along Lake Washington, two miles west of Lake Washington, yesterday evening when a slide struck it, knocking the engine and 120 feet of track into the water and ditching the cars. None of the crew were hurt, but the track was blocked for eight and a half hours.
Train No. 23 left this city at about 6 o'clock and was proceeding at good speed when it ran into a slide, which was probably started by the motion of the train. The engine ran smack into the slide and the train stopped. The crew, seeing the danger, jumped for their lives. The engine swerved to one side and plunged into the lake, and then a great mass of steam and vapor arose from the water as the fire went out. The engine settled down in the lake and turned over on its side, the wheels swishing around in the water as long as the steam lasted and making a great commotion. The engine took 120 feet of track with it into the lake, and two flat cars and two box cars were derailed and more or less smashed. They were thrown with the engine and are not in the water. There were thirty-three cars in the train, and twenty-nine of them remained on the track.
The crew consisted of Conductor McCarthy, Engineer Peak and Fireman Hoolihan.
As soon as the news reached the city, Superintendent Kline got a wrecking crew of twenty together, and with an engine and three cars proceeded to the scene of the wreck. The crew got to work at 1:30 p. m., and by 4:30 the track was relaid. Most of the time was spent in shoveling the slide off the track so that trains could pass. Transfers of passengers and mails were made during the day.
Today the wrecked locomotive, which is partially submerged, will be put on the track. The first thing to be done will be to get the locomotive up off its side with block and tackle. Then the front end will be raised up and tracks placed under it. Then a locomotive will be hitched to it, in addition to tackles, and it will be hauled onto the tracks, a staging being built for that purpose. The getting of the cars onto the track will be a comparatively easy matter.
Superintendent Kline estimates the damage at not over $1,000.
“The engine settled down in the lake and turned over on its side, the wheels swishing around in the water as long as the steam lasted and making a great commotion.”
Landslides fouling the rail line along Lake Washington are a Puget Sound staple — the bluffs above the water still slough onto the tracks between Seattle and Everett today, and a single mudslide can shut the Sounder for days. In 1895 the result was a locomotive on its side in the lake, wheels churning as the steam died. The geology hasn't changed; only the equipment has.
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