A rear end collision of two freight trains at Arrow junction at 11:15 yesterday morning brought death to three trainmen. Victims of the worst train crash in north central Idaho history were:
Ed Feehan, 54, Lewiston conductor on the Stites freight. He was crushed to death when a diesel locomotive plowed into the rear of the caboose in which he was riding.
Albert Mely, 55, Spokane, the diesel engineer, who was crushed by tumbling wreckage when he jumped from the train.
Harold Brown, 47, Spokane, a brakeman, who jumped from the diesel and suffered internal injuries and a fractured leg. He died at St Joseph’s hospital at 4:30 yesterday afternoon.
Coroner Andrew F. Vassar said the caboose in which Feehan was riding was tossed into the air by the diesel locomotive. It came down on top of the diesel and Feehan was thrown inside the burning cab. His body was not extricated until 3 yesterday afternoon after the Lewiston fire department put out the blaze.
Mely jumped out the south side of the diesel cab, but was crushed as 12 cars from both trains fell into a twisted heap after the crash, Vassar said.
Brown jumped out the north side of the cab, and was injured when he struck the ground, according to Vassar.
The diesel fireman, F. A, Reisenbigler, Spokane, who was only slightly injured, was pinned in the cab door, Vassar said. He was pulled out by other members of the train crew, treated at St. Joseph’s hospital for minor cuts, and released.
Fay Ferris, a brakeman, riding in the rear unit of the diesel was shaken up and sustained a wrenched left shoulder. He was not hospitalized.
Twelve railroad cars were piled in a jumbled heap of wood and steel 50 yards long after the crash.
Seven logging flat cars of the Stites local were demolished. Two flat cars and a box car all loaded with lumber and parked on a spur track at the wreck scene were also caught up in the crash and torn to bits.
Work Clearing Track
L. M. Lagerquist, manager of the Camas Prairie railroad, said last night it is hoped the tracks be cleared by morning. The CPRR wreck train was at the scene yesterday afternoon. Another and larger work train was due to leave Spokane at midnight.
Railroad officials who investigated the tragedy yesterday said it appeared that Mely’s vision was obscured as his diesel rounded a curve at the west end of the Arrow junction yard. They said he probably did not see the Stites freight halted at the junction.
There were five box cars on the spur track. Railroadmen said they probably blocked Mely’s view as the diesel rounded the curve.
Other crew members of both trains said they heard Mely apply the air brakes just before the crash. He was unable to halt the diesel before it rammed the caboose and tossed it into the air.
The speed of Mely’s locomotive was placed at about 25 miles an hour.
Freight Left Here
The Stites freight left the east Lewiston yards at 9 yesterday morning and the Spokane freight pulled out at 10:35, according to CPRR records.
The Stites freight stopped at the forebay of Potlatch Forest, Inc. millpond to pick up 75 empty logging cars and then left for Arrow at 10 a.m. At Arrow, the freight was halted again to switch from the main NP line to the Clearwater river line to Stites.
The Spokane diesel, hauling nine cars of varied freight went directly to Arrow after leaving here at 10:35.
Railroadmen said last night there was no reason, “under ordinary circumstances” for the engineer of either train to be concerned about a collision because of the difference in departure times.
“Indications are,” Dick Miles, CPRR chief clerk, said last night “that the Spokane diesel engineer failed for some reason to observe the train ahead.”
Charles Dunlap, Clarkston, was engineer of the Stites freight Robert Tripplett Asotin, was fireman; and Dave Livingston, Lewiston Orchards, and W. R. Hull, Lewiston, the brakemen.
The remaining cars of the Stites train were hauled to Orofino yesterday afternoon.
A fire engine from the Lewiston Normal hill substation put out the fire started by a train wreck at Arrow Junction at 11:15 a.m. yesterday. The engine, was out for two hours and 43 minutes.
This story was published in the Nov. 12, 1951, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
