A Hobo's Waving Coat, and Three Slides That Shut the Line North of Newport
A landslide near Scotia derails a Great Northern freight — saved from worse by a tramp flagging the crew with his coat — while two more slides in the Morrissey cut strand the night passenger and keep Newport passengers in local hotels until morning.
Last Friday afternoon westbound local freight No. 689 on the Great Northern ran into a landslide near Scotia. The engine and four cars were derailed. A hobo waving his coat saved the engine crew as the train rounded a curve and ran into the slide, the engineer and fireman jumping. The engineer escaped unhurt, but the fireman had his ankle sprained. The fast mail, No. 3, and 28, the eastbound mail, were routed over the I. & W. N. between Newport and Spokane. The slide and wreck were cleared at 7:30 the next morning.
Several slides in the Cascades, west of Leavenworth, tied up traffic on the Great Northern Monday night. Eastbound trains were badly delayed and westbound trains were routed over the N. P. from Spokane to Seattle.
The Great Northern has an extra gang at work straightening the telegraph line between Newport and Albeni Falls and placing the poles on the right-of-way along the big fill east of town. Along Fourth street the poles are being set along the north edge of the right-of-way, and the street is beginning to look like a forest of cedar poles, with the telegraph lines of both railroads, electric light and telephone lines.
Thursday evening a big slide occurred in the Morrissey cut, about two miles north of Newport on the I. W. N. The northbound passenger, due here at 7:18, was held at Newport over night, and down river passengers were provided for by the company at local hotels. A big gang of men was put to work to clear the slide and was making good progress when at 2 a.m. another big slide came down, and they did not get the tracks cleared until 10 o'clock the next morning. Another slide at the same place delayed trains Monday morning.
“A hobo waving his coat saved the engine crew as the train rounded a curve and ran into the slide, the engineer and fireman jumping.”
Wet November weather dropped the hillsides onto the Great Northern and the Idaho & Washington Northern within days of each other, and Newport's hotels filled with stranded travelers. The detail that survives is the tramp who ran down the track waving his coat to stop a train he had no ticket for. Landslides in the Pend Oreille valley still close roads and rails, and the same cedar pole lines along Fourth Street have been replaced by fiber strung on the same right-of-way.
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