BITS & PIECES
(General Discussion)

As a young kid I use to hang around the Northern Pacific Railway's Round-House in Glendive.  I would ride in the cab of the switch engines.  One time I even got to run one up and down the switch yard for a half hour, I was thrilled to death.  Even though I hung around the NP yards, my Dad, and some of my relative worked for the NP I never know that at one time it as called the Northern Pacific "Railroad".  But it's name got changed from "Railroad" to "Railway" long before my time.  None of my railroading relatives ever told me about the change of names.  Therefore I would always call it, wrongly of course,  the NP Railroad!

About the Northern pacific railway:

"The Northern Pacific Railroad ceased to exist in 1893, when it went bankrupt.  It was reorganized a couple of years later under a new corporate name: The Northern Pacific Railway Company.  A shorter and more common version of this, of course, is the Northern Pacific Railway, which all of us know simply as the "Northern Pacific" or "NP".  But...the term Railroad is often mistakenly used instead of Railway.  There is quite a distinction between "Railroad" and "Railway"" (Bill Kuebler).

On this web site I had posted a picture of my dad because this site IS about my dad and how he died.

"We count nuts and bolts, rivets, and can tell you how this or that locomotive was re-numbered, how much it
weighed, etc., but often can't tell the first thing about the MAN in the engine. And without that man, the engine wouldn't have moved at all!

In the case of tragic accidents, I think railfans should be reminded at every opportunity that human lives were at stake, and some were lost. I must admit...until I saw your web site, the mental "picture" I had of the Harmon accident was strictly that of the two engines smashed together, which is what we see in all the photos. Now...thanks to your photo of him, I see the face of a real man, a man whose life was lost in that accident. This is so very important in the course of recording railroad history. So, thanks for doing this. Besides the personal reasons I'm sure you have, you have also done a good service for mankind. This is the proper way to record history" (Bill Kuebler).

About the steam engines:

"1. Engine numbers.
You are correct that NP's Class W-3 locomotives were numbered 1700-1834. Also, the Class W-5s were numbered 1835-1859. The other engine in the Harmon accident was no. 1837, a W-5.

2. Accidents involving W-3s.
There were many, many accidents on the NP involving W-3s for a couple of reasons. First, there were so many of them, so statistically speaking, as a group they would have experienced a higher number of accidents then a much smaller group of engines. Also, not every accident resulted in the engine being destroyed or scrapped. If memory serves, the two accidents you mentioned did not result in the engines involved being destroyed or scrapped, even though they may have been heavily damaged. Although I'd need to check records to verify this, I'm almost certain that both engines were repaired and returned to service.

As a matter of fact, one of the most horrific steam engine accidents on the NP in all its history was the huge
explosion of engine no. 5105 in July 1938, at Willis, Montana (about 37 miles east of Missoula, along the Clark Fork River). It was a big engine, a 4-6-6-4 Challenger type. This engine weighed well over one million pounds! It was huge, about double the size of engine 1756. Its boiler exploded violently, instantly killing five men and practically destroying the locomotive. The huge boiler and firebox portion hurled itself over 100 feet into the air, doing a somersault in the process, and smashed down to the ground, crushing itself with the huge impact. The boiler and firebox were torn from the cylinders, wheels, and rods. It was a huge mess. And yet... The NP actually took the remnants of this big engine--several flat cars' worth of pieces--to its big locomotive shops in Livingston. There, as the saying went, "They hung a smokestack in the air and practically built a new engine under it!" It was a big project, but at the end of it, out rolled a "new" 5105 that looked exactly like the old one. Only a few of the parts from the old engine were used in the new one, including all the wheels.

The W-3s in the accidents you mention were not likely damaged nearly as much as was the 5105. My guess is that they were out of service for repair for only a few months, and then the NP put them back in service. I will check this detail later and let you know (Bill Kuebler)."

The Northern Pacific Railway bought a series of these 2-8-2 engines made in 1913 by Alco-Brooks.  They were called Mikados or "Mikes" for short.  The road numbers in the series started with 1700 and ended with 1834.  I call these engine "sister" engines.  In 1942 at Huntley Montana engine 1720 was wrecked.  1 person was killed and 4 were injured.  In 1949 engine 1746 was wrecked at Beach North Dakota.  1 person was killed and 1 was injured.  These are just the wrecks that I know about.  There obviously were more then the ones I listed because there were so many of the W-3 class engines on the Northern Pacific Railway (Me).