A few days ago I loaded a couple of shots of the NP Z3 4020 with a steam rotary in the Wallace yard under the Lookout Pass Story. Once again the photos were with a brownie camera and it was a dark day.

I figured it would be easier to type out the story than to try to load it since it is a bit beat up. This article appeared in the Wallace Miner, I believe the date should be January 24th 1955. The date is missing from the article. I thought this might be of interest since this was the end of steam service to the Kellogg/Wallace era on the UP and near the end of NP steam service to Wallace. My father was a railfan but not much of a photographer but we took along my brownie camera, which we both took some photos with. We picked up my cousin Steve who lived in Silverton and went to the yards in Wallace to see the wrecked UP 2894. Soon after we arrived the NP Z3 4020 arrived from plowing Lookout Pass(a different time than in the story). I have typed out the entire story from the Miner without any editing.

Wallace-- The engineer and fireman of the Union Pacific passenger train narrowly escaped death or serious injury yesterday afternoon when the train from Spokane jumped the tracks near the Wallace yards and the locomotive overturned. The coachs left the track but did not overturn.

The engineer and fireman, Chester W. McCabe and William G. Bozarth, respectively, both of Spokane, were hospitalized but their injuries were not serious. They probably will be released from the hospital today.

Had any steam pipes broken or had the boiler exploded, there almost certainly would have been deaths or critical injuries as a result of the accident.

McCabe and Bozarth were trapped for a short time in the cab of the locomotive. The tender had plowed into the rear of the engine.

Seven passengers in the train and three other crew members were shaken up.

The locomotive is oil fired. Wallace firemen were called late yesterday afternoon to put out the fire in the firebox after attempts to shut off the oil had failed.

The locomotive apparently was badly damaged and traffic on the line was blocked. No freight trains left Wallace for the west last night.

Union Pacific officals said the passenger train from Spokane today probably will stop at Kellogg and passengers and mail will be transferred there to highway vehicles for Wallace.

A railroad derrick is expected from Spokane today to put the locomotive back on the rails and clear the tracks.

Between 60 and 70 feet of track was torn up when the locomotive plowed off the rails and then overturned. Had it gone a few feet further it would have plowed into the water tank.

S.S.Nelson local UP agent, said cause of the accident has not been determined. A rail was broken, but it is not yet known yet whether this occurred before or after the accident.

The accident was another in a series that has plagued transportation in this district this month.

Traffic was restored on the Northern Pacific freight line from Wallace to St.Regis this morning after an eight day lapse.

The steam locomotive pushing the rotary plow went off the rails near Lookout January 16. It was back on the rails Thursday but the train was held at Lookout Friday because of fear of snowslides. Saturday on the descent down the hill the rotary plow left the rails and a bulldozer had to beused yesterday to get back on the rails.

The plow and train arrived at Wallace at 10 o'clock last night, the trip from Dorsey required four hours because of the heavy accumulation of snow on the roadbed.

Highway transportation over Lookout was blocked Friday by snowslides east of Lookout Pass, and then again for awhile Saturday when the railroad rotary begain plowing out the tracks down Lookout. The rotary throws snow from the rails onto the highway for a distance near the pass and because of the heavy snow this blocked traffic for about three hours.

Travel on Highway 10 was restored about 6:30 pm Friday after Zanetti bulldozer crews and Montana State high crews cut a one-way path through the snowslides.

Three trucks, one carrying bombs, were buried in the slide but the four drivers escaped injury.

This slide was one of the three on the Montana side. One earlier blocked traffic until Idaho highway crews, coming to the assistance of Montana, cleared a path. The third came Friday was cleared by a Montana Sno-Go that was enroute to the big slide.

End of story.

The Union Pacific was only using steam because of some flooding between Harrison and Cataldo, if I remember this correctly. They had discontinued steam on all passenger trains in 1954. We used to ride the passenger train every Saturday from Kellogg where we lived to Wallace to visit my maternal grandfather for a few hours.

best,
L.A.Scrafford