The Switch Engine Heist
A local manufacturer goes to court to find the thief who commandeered a switch engine and crashed it into a logging train.
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.
Claiming that he believed he could locate the man who recently stole an idle switch engine from the Tacoma Eastern yards and ran it up the main line to Bismarck, where he abandoned it, causing a serious collision, August Von Broeckliff of the Washington Manufacturing company appeared before Justice Graham yesterday afternoon and swore out a warrant for the man's arrest. Damages in the sum of $1,000 were done to a logging engine which bumped into the abandoned locomotive, it is said. The warrant has been put in the hands of a deputy sheriff, and will be served immediately.
“Damages in the sum of $1,000 were done to a logging engine which bumped into the abandoned locomotive.”
Railroad history in Tacoma is defined by industrial giants and their accidents, but the theft of an engine for a joyride is a peculiar bit of local chaos. While the logging industry has faded from the urban core, the struggle between industrial safety and local mischief remains a recurring civic theme.
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