Curt Lind Railroad Stories

Curt Lind's Railroad Stories
By Curt Lind, Brakeman-Conductor

The Wreck of the 901 - A Coal Stoked Steamer

It happened within the yards of Nenana, Alaska on a clear bright mid summer weekend of 1950. The 901 was hauling freight north to Fairbanks. The work train extra 406 had part of their train parked on the main line tracks in the Nenana yards while the engine and train crew were down in the yard picking up the rest of their train.

As one comes into Nenana by rail from the south there is a long sweeping curve that moves right to left and of course any train coming into these yards, the engineer, who sat on the right side of the engine, could not see around the curve so its was the fireman's job to watch for track obstruction. Well it so happened that Moe, the foreman, was tending fire at that time and the engineer had his head out the window. The engineer had already whistled for the yard marker some distance back and they were within the yards and moving about 30-40 MPH.

At about a mile from the caboose of the X406 Moe finished tending fire and went back to his seat. As he sat down he could only see that red caboose -- of the X406 sitting on the main line and he knew that there was no stopping in time.

As Moe hollered to George Davis the engineer, "Train on the tracks, plug 'er!" and then he went to the ladder on his side and climbed down and jumped. George sat his post with the whistle in hand and rode the 901 into her death taking the caboose and an extra car with her into the woods plowing dirt and rocks as it became embedded into the soil.

It so happened that caboose #1073 had been my home for the summer of 1950 as we worked on track ballasting south of Nenana. All of my personal belongings were in that caboose and got buried in the sand under 901. I had left on the previous Friday taking 930a passenger train into Anchorage for a weekend leave. When I returned on Sunday night I had no home and no clothes or personal belongings and we spent the next day helping clear the main line waiting for a caboose to be deadheaded up to us. Smokey Burgess was our engineer with Les Harrington as fireman. I and Monty Volviva as brakeman. My memory fades on who was our conductor or who the other 901 crew members were. Seems to me one was Kermit Vadman.

The pictures of the wreck show other train crew - Don Brennan a conductor, Frank Mosher a brakeman, Ed Corey an engineer, E.W. Barnett a traveling engineer. Well the engineer George Davis and the conductor lost their jobs over the wreck.

The Wreck of the 901 - July 1950, Nenana Alaska

We worked the 406 extra all that summer between Curry and Nenana, housing at Curry, Healy, Nenana, and points between as we loaded dump cars on other trains to re-ballast tracks and follow the ballast work as we progress north. We had our own sleeping car.

One Friday we came into Nenana to spend the weekend. It was the only weekend we had off as we had worked 16 hour days, 7 days a week all summer. I left on the passenger south, at about 10am, headed for the weekend in Anchorage. I was to return late on Sunday.

About 3PM the 901, with a long load of freight behind, was barreling into the yards at Nenana headed north to Fairbanks. Hoghead Lon John Martin was at the throttle and Fireman Lorezel was tending fire. There is a long sweeping curve coming into the Nenana yards. Lorezel was tending fire so he did not see the 406 on the main line and Long John could not see as the curve was only visible on the fireman's side.

When Lorezel got back to look it was too late to stop. He bailed out and hollered at Long John: "Plug 'er and jump", as he went out the left side. Long John dynamited the brakes and rode 901 into the remaining end of the 406. There was a resounding crash as he pushed two cars and a caboose into the woods. The 406 was in another part of the yard parking the sleeping car, the spreader and the loaded shovel and cat. Long John lost his job and I lost everything I owned as it was in caboose 1073 and buried under the rubble which is still there to this day

[Webmaster's note: There is discrepancy in the names of the 901 crew. I have posted this as written by Curt Lind. Please contact me if you can clarify the names of the crew members of 901.]

901 Crash

The Squabble

Working the two mile Usibelli-Suntrana coal run from the mine to the yards of Healy. There were 500 miners living near the mine and they were served by two older prostitutes until two younger ones were brought in by the younger miners. The miners built a shack for them about one mile from the mine on the spur we hauled coal up to the yard. A running battle occurred between the older and younger women. They got shot at and their cabin burned and finally while the younger ones went to Fairbanks the older ones blew the cabin and their gear up and shipped them off to Fairbanks.

The Snowslide

We brought a train load of GI's back from Whittier and ran into snow slides at Girdwood that were 75 feet high and 1 mile long. It trapped all of us for a week at Girdwood where the Army had to drop supplies by chutes and choppers. While the train was up against the slide I walked a mile back to Girdwood with the slides booming all around me to flag for following trains. It felt like enormous earthquakes.

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