derail

Wreck of the Great Northern Fast Mail train at Wolf Point, Montana, 1934

from Smithsonian Institution

• 4 older comments, and then…
• STOP VIVISECTION-USE YUPPIES Goretomb said:

  i wonder how they moved it afterwards......

• Robert Thomson said:

  Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Montana Railroads, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

• Pixel Wrangler said:

  From The Butte Daily Post (Montana), August 10, 1934:
  
  The Wreck at Wolf Point Montana
  
  AUTO DETRAILS G. N. FAST MAIL; ONE KILLED.
  
  TRAIN PILOT IS VICTIM ON MONTANA RUN.
  
  MRS. DAVID LIVINGSTON OF N. D., INJURED BUT NOT SEVERELY; FIREMAN ED GILMORE BADLY SCALDED.
  
  CAR STALLED ON TRACK.
  
  AUTOIST MISSED CROSSING AT WOLF POINT, MONT., LEFT MACHINE ON RAILS WHILE SUMMONING HELP.
  
  Wolf Point, Mont., Aug. 10. -- (AP) -- A veteran Great Northern engineer was crushed to death and two other persons were hurt, one perhaps seriously, when a fast combination mail and passenger train, westbound, crashed into an abandoned car near a grade crossing here early today.
  
  The dead engineer was ROBERT JELLEY of Glasgow, trapped between the wreckage of his huge oil burning locomotive and the tender. The injured are ED GILMORE of Williston, N. D., fireman, scalded and severely injured about the legs, and MRS. DAVID LIVINGSTON of Benedict, N. D., not badly hurt. The latter with the other nine passengers, continued on her journey on a train that followed.
  
  The speeding train, No. 27, from St. Paul to Seattle, was carrying 11 mail and express cars and one passenger coach, when it struck the car driven in some manner across the rails by CARL BRENDON of Brockton, Mont., a carpenter en route to the Fort Peck dam to work.
  
  BRENDON said he missed the regular plank-crossing, and, unable to dislodge the machine, had gone to the depot to summon help when the crash occurred.
  
  Six of the cars were derailed three of the first express coaches jumbled in a mass with the locomotive.
  
  The other three cars remained upright and in the last of these were mail service men working. They escaped with only a shaking. The passenger coach at the end of the train was also upright but the force of the crash tossed passengers out of their seats. It was in this manner the one passenger was hurt.
  
  The fireman, GILMORE, was believed to have jumped or was thrown out of the locomotive. He was found near the wreck and was rushed to the Wolf Point hospital. By torchlight, rescuers searched the wreckage of the rest of the train but could find no other victims.
  
  Cruel Prank Of Fate.
  It was a cruel prank of fate that claimed the life of JELLEY, one of the oldest engineers on this division of the Great Northern.
  
  Nearing the age of retirement he had not worked steadily and was substituting for another engineer when killed. JELLEY had gone from his home in Glasgow to Williston, N.D., to take the throttle for the one run. His body was found tightly wedged standing upright in the cab, and rescuers were unable to remove it until the arrival of a wrecker.
  
  The dead engineer is survived by his widow and two grown children.
  The wreck occurred on the main live [sic] of the Great Northern, the very track over which President Roosevelt's train en route east, passed several days ago.
  
  Other traffic was routed over a side track without delay to travel.
  The wrecked train was one of the fastest on the northern transcontinental route, and was traveling at an estimated speed of more than 40 miles an hour when passing through Wolf Point.
  
  By some near miracle, CHARLES ENNIS of Williston, and ERNEST NELSON of Culbertson, the two mail clerks at work in the sixth car behind the jumbled locomotive, suffered no more than a severe jostling about in the crash. Desks and stands were thrown all about them.
  
  GILMORE, the fireman, will recover barring complications, it was believed today. He was at first identified as JOE MOORE, another fireman on that run.
  
  Awaiting Wrecker.
  Unable to dislodge the body of the engineer, rescuers were confronted with the necessity of allowing it to remain in the crushed cab possibly until afternoon when a heavy wrecker was due to arrive from Havre.
  
  An inquest has been called for Saturday morning and BRENDEN, driver of the car which caused the wreck, has been directed to appear at that time, authorities announced.

• Sam Nunley said:

  Beautiful Photo!!
  Seen in CITY OF GOLD
  Hermosa foto!!
  Vista en CITY OF GOLD
  
  www.flickr.com/groups/777gold/

• Loco Steve said:

  Hi I am putting together a new group about wolf point and i would like you to add this to the above group - If you don't mind .. with thanks Steve..