Narrow Escape on the Roslyn Incline
A coal train loses control on a steep mountain track, forcing a daring rescue by the crew.
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.
An engine and thirty-seven cars loaded with coal became unmanageable on the steep branch road leading from Roslyn, Tuesday evening, and dashed down the incline at a frightful speed, estimated at from eighty to one hundred miles an hour. It looked as though an awful wreck was inevitable and the two brakemen and conductor jumped, but the engineer and fireman pluckily stayed and whistled for the switch at Cle-Elum, which was given them just in time. The huge train, swaying, shaking and jumping, made the main track in safety and was brought under control before the station of Teanaway, three miles below, was reached.
“It looked as though an awful wreck was inevitable and the two brakemen and conductor jumped, but the engineer and fireman pluckily stayed.”
The steep mountain grades between the Kittitas Valley and the coal fields remain a challenge for rail and road safety today. This incident echoes the inherent dangers of the extraction-based industrial boom that built the towns along the I-90 corridor.
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