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Re: 1962 North Coast Limited Wreck At Granite Lake, ID
Author: Dale Jones
Date: 03-05-2011 - 10:48
I would also like to thank Bill Kuebler for his informative and exhaustive research into the Granite Lake Northern Pacific wreck. I was not aware of much of the information he has presented.
As I mentioned in my first post – I was expressing the views of a Northern Pacific employee of that era. Frank Reisenbigler very well might have been just a “grumpy old man” and was only venting his years of frustrations of working on the railroad. After all – why was he working the switching crew at Yardley with all those years of seniority? Maybe he had some personal axes to grind or maybe he was just “counting the days” until retirement – so he didn’t want to work too hard. This teenage railfan was just happy to get to ride around on a “real” railroad.
Whatever the reasons for his distrust, the 1960’s was a time ripe for “Conspiracy Theorists” – considering the JFK “Grassy Knoll” theories and all. Maybe Mr. Reisenbigler [and others] really believed the NP management was trying to hide something concerning this accident. Maybe the railroad had actually hid or falsified information in the past so the NP had lost the trust of its employees? As for his personal experience where the railroad apparently lied about the conductor of his train not reading orders because he was drunk. Maybe the conductor was a teetotaler ? maybe he was a closet drunk. Many people can be alcoholics and other folks are not aware of it.
As for my personal observations about the “crime scene.” Well…the accident happened in March 1962 and it was not until a couple of years later that I climbed around on and around the trestle. I was not specifically looking for “clues” – just hanging out. So – even though no locomotive “body parts” could be visible from atop the trestle – it obviously does not mean that there are not any parts still buried very deep in the mud. My comment concerning the urban myth was to try & counteract the many “urban myths” of “locomotives-in-the-lake” that seem to spread through the Pacific Northwest like a noxious weed. Of course…that could be another whole thread – but it appears that the CP steam locomotive that slid off the barge into Kootenay Lake is the only confirmed still in the lake “locomotive-in-the-lake” story that can be proven. I know there were many stories of how there still is an NP locomotive in Granite Lake – just not true.
Just one question that I have – when I used to hang out at Granite Lake circa 1964…the Athol depot was still intact on the old Granite Lake line. Was there still an operator in that depot in 1962? Wouldn’t he [she] have noticed and reported the North Coast Limited screaming by at excessive speed?
Anyway – thanks again to Bill Kuebler for clearing up this bit of history.
Talk to ya later,
Dale Jones
As I mentioned in my first post – I was expressing the views of a Northern Pacific employee of that era. Frank Reisenbigler very well might have been just a “grumpy old man” and was only venting his years of frustrations of working on the railroad. After all – why was he working the switching crew at Yardley with all those years of seniority? Maybe he had some personal axes to grind or maybe he was just “counting the days” until retirement – so he didn’t want to work too hard. This teenage railfan was just happy to get to ride around on a “real” railroad.
Whatever the reasons for his distrust, the 1960’s was a time ripe for “Conspiracy Theorists” – considering the JFK “Grassy Knoll” theories and all. Maybe Mr. Reisenbigler [and others] really believed the NP management was trying to hide something concerning this accident. Maybe the railroad had actually hid or falsified information in the past so the NP had lost the trust of its employees? As for his personal experience where the railroad apparently lied about the conductor of his train not reading orders because he was drunk. Maybe the conductor was a teetotaler ? maybe he was a closet drunk. Many people can be alcoholics and other folks are not aware of it.
As for my personal observations about the “crime scene.” Well…the accident happened in March 1962 and it was not until a couple of years later that I climbed around on and around the trestle. I was not specifically looking for “clues” – just hanging out. So – even though no locomotive “body parts” could be visible from atop the trestle – it obviously does not mean that there are not any parts still buried very deep in the mud. My comment concerning the urban myth was to try & counteract the many “urban myths” of “locomotives-in-the-lake” that seem to spread through the Pacific Northwest like a noxious weed. Of course…that could be another whole thread – but it appears that the CP steam locomotive that slid off the barge into Kootenay Lake is the only confirmed still in the lake “locomotive-in-the-lake” story that can be proven. I know there were many stories of how there still is an NP locomotive in Granite Lake – just not true.
Just one question that I have – when I used to hang out at Granite Lake circa 1964…the Athol depot was still intact on the old Granite Lake line. Was there still an operator in that depot in 1962? Wouldn’t he [she] have noticed and reported the North Coast Limited screaming by at excessive speed?
Anyway – thanks again to Bill Kuebler for clearing up this bit of history.
Talk to ya later,
Dale Jones
