Name/Title
Print, PhotographEntry/Object ID
P17595Description
Views of a Great Northern Train running northbound with engine 3214 wrecked near the junction of Lakeview and Fort Lewis. Story attached. Black and white, 1942, 2 1/8x3 1/8. ---- The wreck of Great Northern Railway engine 3214 took place at Lakeview, Washington at 3:05 P.M. on July 23, 1942. Lakeview was located somewhat near the present intesection of SR 512 (Puyallup-Tacoma Highway) and old Highway 99 although I am sure a better description of the location is available. In those days Lakeview looked a lot differeent than it does now. At that time all Great Northern trains, under their trackage rights arrangement of 1909, used the old NP "Prairie Line" between Tenino and Tacoma rather than the more efficient NP "Point Defiance line" which runs thru Nisqually Flats and along Puget Sound under the Narrows Bridge. Parts of that old "Prairie" line are still visible running thru Yelm and Rainier, WA but most of it has been torn up. Bob McInnis or Bud Jensen could tell you more about that. Anyway, on the day in question, the Great Northern train running northbound with engine 3214, with Conductor Wayne Bostwick, engineer Ray Foster, brakeman D.J. Miles and Fireman Don Kukull was coming into Lakeview where the NP Fort Lewis line formed a junction. An NPRy local freight off of the Fort Lewis line, also running north, backed out past the junction, with the intent of entering a siding track which was located on the prairie line. The Great Northern train came within sight of this NP train and tried to stop, but was unable to do so in time to prevent cornering the rear car of the NP train (probably a wooden caboose but nobody remembers for sure) and demolishing it, and derailing engine 3214 which for whatever reason, then entered the sidetrack and demolished several more NP flatcars before coming to rest upright, completely clear of the main running track. Four or five cars in the NP train were of course either destroyed or badly damaged. Nobody on the NP train was hurt, but engineer Foster cut his knee and pulled some back and arm muscles, brakeman Miles skinned his nose and bruised his knee and Fireman Kukull bruised his knee and hand. Many years later, Kukull told me that when he saw the NP train and realized there would be a collision, he jumped out the window of engine 3214 without giving it a second thought. He also told me that in addition to the bruises, when he landed he skidded along for considerable length and tore most of his clothes and skinned his arms and his rear end pretty badly. Kukull eventually became Master Mechanic on Burlington Northern Railroad and retired off the M.K.T. "Katy" Railroad in Kansas in approx. 1980 as Chief Mechanical Officer. Bostwick was a rather colorful old conductor who worked on the Cascade Division of the GN for many years and retired in 1963. I am sure that Jensen and McInnis would remember Bostwick, and probably at least have heard of Don Kukull. I don't know if anyone was disciplined for this wreck or not -- the GN train was running too fast and the NP train probably should have sent a flagman out to protect their back up movement, but were not required to do so, because switching movements at Lakeview came under the "Yard Limit" rule which required all trains to make their move in a manner which would permit them to stop before crashing into some other train or switch movement. Engine 3214 was repaired and Great Northern trains stopped using the prairie line and began using the Point Defiance line in June of the following year, 1943. One of the drawbacks to the prairie line was, there were not any block signals, and its capacity for handling a lot of trains during wartime was not very good.Collection
Donated and narrated by David SprauCataloged By
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Railroads - Train WrecksGeneral Notes
Note
Original or Copy: CopyCreate Date
January 19, 2005Update Date
October 23, 2024