A runaway train barrels toward Nyack

Editor’s note: The following story was taken from John Fraley’s book, “Rangers, Trappers and Trailblazers”

By JOHN FRALEY

For the Hungry Horse News

In 1901, A Great Northern freight train rocketed out of control towards Nyack, a remote siding between Glacier National Park and the Great Bear Wilderness

Jim Hill’s Great Northern Railroad brought the telegraph and train over Marias Pass and into the Middle Fork of the Flathead River corridor by 1892. The rails cut through the wilderness in a narrow swath, dividing the future Glacier National Park on the north side of the wild river, and the Great Bear Wilderness on the south side. This visionary man brought transportation and communication to one of the last undeveloped landscapes in the United States.

In the next decade, even though the rails were new and untested and crossed a rugged, mountainous terrain, passenger and freight travel went along relatively safely. The Great Northern built a reputation for reliable, efficient operation. The beginning of what became the Railroad’s “See America First” approach drew passengers from the East and Midwest to Montana where they could enjoy the beauty of the area later known as Glacier Park and other wild areas in this virtually untouched Montana landscape.

On Aug. 31, 1901, two Great Northern Railway engines hauled a heavily-loaded 28-car freighter east from the little, remote Nyack Siding. The freighter, No. 10, was headed to Essex, the major train yard on the west side of the mountains. The steam engines labored around the serpentine layout of the track which closely hugs the Middle Fork of the Flathead River Canyon for the 16-mile distance to Essex.

When the freighter reached Essex, it ran on the siding to let Passenger Train No. 3 pass. No. 3 was traveling from east to west. It had left Havre 200 miles east of Essex, crossed over Marias Pass, and chugged down the west side of the divide to reach Essex. The passenger train, which contained 13 cars, rolled slowly through the yard. Attached to the regular train at Havre were two additional cars: the first was a car jammed with 39 laborers bound for Jennings to work on a project there. Conductor Swain of No. 3 checked in 45 workers who boarded at Havre, but six had gotten off the train along the way at Shelby and Cut Bank, leaving 39. The second car attached at the very end of the train was an important one, a private car carrying Great Northern Assistant General Superintendent P. T. Downs, his son, and a few others. Downs was returning from an inspection trip of his division.

At about 8:10 p.m., the west-bound passenger train passed by the siding at Essex. Engineer Harry Sharrar uncoupled the helper engines on the freighter and ran them up the track to the roundhouse to take on coal. The engineer had turned the switch to allow the engines up the main track. The engineer and his fireman then went to dinner.

Rear Brakeman A. L. Gates set the brakes on six or eight of the rear cars on the freight train to secure it, and Head Brakeman E. Harmon checked the train. Both men left to attend to business. Conductor Archie M. Matthews, who was in charge of the freighter, was satisfied that all proper precautions were in place to secure the train. Matthews went to the main station to get his orders and prepare to unload the freight.

When Matthews returned, he was dumbfounded to see that his train was simply gone.

Apparently, the brakes had slipped and the rolling freight cars on the siding track forced the switch and rumbled onto the main track. With nothing to stop it and no one to monitor what was happening, the engine-less freighter rolled back down the tracks in the direction it had originally come. At first, the freight cars moved slowly, but the train picked up momentum and speed as it rushed down the steep mountain grade with no engine or brakes to slow or control it.

Meanwhile ahead of the runaway freight on the same track, the passenger train also chugged west. The regular passengers were treated to views of the Middle Fork corridor, spectacular peaks, and the bluish, clear waters of the river tumbling along through the canyon not far from the tracks.

On the leisurely ride, the passengers could look across the Middle Fork at the spectacular untouched drainages of Ole, Park, Coal and Muir creeks, drainages that would someday form a big chunk of Glacier National Park’s backcountry.

The train carefully eased through the final bends of the Great Northern track before emerging from the long, steep canyon and into the flat at Nyack siding. At this beautiful flat, the tracks straightened and twilight views opened up for the passengers as they looked at the wide Middle Fork bottoms. No. 3 reached Nyack ahead of time. There was no signal to stop, but the engineer slowed the train to about 7-8 miles per hour.

The passengers reportedly were talking and enjoying the relaxed, scenic ride. The conductor and the brakeman of an east bound freight No. 16, standing on the rear platform of their train, probably waved as Passenger No. 3 slowly chugged past. This freight train had moved off the main track onto the siding to let the passenger train pass.

But ominously, just to the east, Freighter No. 10 had been closing the distance between it and the passenger train at an incredible rate. Amazingly, the runaway freight held to the track as it careened around the bends, when all logic would say it should have derailed. When it rounded the last bend, and emerged into the Nyack flat, it was rocketing along at an estimated 70-100 miles per hour on the main track and bearing down on the rear of the passenger train.

The engineer of the eastbound freighter that was parked on the siding at Nyack reported that he heard the roar of the runaway train as it rounded the bend in the tracks just a quarter-mile from Nyack.

He couldn’t see the freighter because it carried no engine or lights. He tried to alert the engineer of the passenger train but he couldn’t do it in the few seconds of warning he had.

No telegrapher was present at Nyack, and the freighter moved so fast that the trainmen and the passengers of No. 3 received no warning of the hundreds of tons of metal and freight rapidly bearing down on them.

Was there any chance to avoid a crash? To find out, read next week’s issue of the Hungry Horse News...

Fraley’s book is available at www.farcountrypress.com.