A Handcar on the Trestle, a Train Around the Curve
Calhoun's crew was sent east of Spokane Falls to stand by a switch for the excursion trains. A belated passenger train rounded a curve onto their handcar; the men jumped, but a Chinese laborer was severely injured.
Supt. Buckley, who had charge of all arrangements for running the excursion trains over the road west of the mountains, was very particular in his orders to have every switch spiked and an operator on hand. Orders were received at this station Saturday afternoon to have a man at Trent, a way station east of here. Operator Calhoun, of this place, boarded a handcar with the section boss and three Chinese laborers in the evening to make the run. The outlook was anything but pleasant for 'Cal,' as he was expected to tap the wire and remain on the prairie all day Sunday to keep up with the excursion party.
The orders were to go, however, and start he did. Just beyond the city, when the car was on an elevated trestle, the belated passenger train, fifteen hours behindhand, shot around a curve and was right upon them. Like frogs on the bank of a pond when suddenly surprised, the occupants of the handcar hopped off and sought the outer edge of the stringers. Before they could all grab a post the train struck the car, wrecking it and severely injuring one of the Chinese laborers in the back. It was about as narrow an escape as men ever meet with, and spoiled the trip for that evening.
“It was about as narrow an escape as men ever meet with, and spoiled the trip for that evening.”
Railroad work in the 1880s depended on handcars and manual switch tenders, and Chinese laborers were routinely assigned some of the most exposed maintenance jobs. Their injuries often went unnamed in the press, even when the escape was as narrow as this one.
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