The other night I finished reading Martin Burwash’s “Vis Major” (possible spoiler alert, read this post at your own risk!). ”Vis” is best described as the railroader’s account of the days prior to and just after the 1910 Wellington avalanche. The book describes so well the thoughts and emotions of the railroaders as they put in their best effort towards what they truly believed to be something they could recover from. As with anyone given a task they love to do they worked with little consideration as to if they would fail or not. While the book is accurately called fiction, Martin’s knowledge of the events, access to detailed facts, and knowledge of people and railroaders brings life the events around the avalanche.
An eastbound pulls out of the siding at Scenic just below the site of ‘Wickham’s Fall’
and a bit west of the persistent slide at Shed 3.3
As I read I found myself quickly becoming so familiar with the crew as I was introduced to each player and their thoughts. I got to know some of them so well that I found myself guessing what their next action would be. Another slide at Shed 3.3? Would O’Neill give up? No way, he didn’t think that way. He’d send Blackburn back down there with the rotary and more men. Got to get the railroad open. I felt their passion especially the night Meath wouldn’t give up the throttle despite being so exhausted that he was unable to concentrate for more than a few seconds. He knew he was not at the top of his game but he had such pride that he would not let anyone else run his rotary and clear that slide. He was going to be the one to beat the beast. I wish I worked with people like that.
So many times through the book I admired the leadership of James O’Neill. His leaders gave him the goals and he set about meeting them using the tools he had. He worked hard at communicating with his bosses all the while making sure the people that reported to him knew those goals too. He knew when to let people work and when to get involved and lend a hand. He knew when to push hard and when the guys absolutely had to have a break. He knew how to talk to people and convince them of his point of view. I admire that and I wish the leaders I work with could have a bit of O’Neill in them.
In the heavy snow of January 2008 a westbound exits the new Cascade tunnel
and crosses the Tye River. Is this as bad as 1910?
Some could criticize O’Neill’s decisions, especially the one to put trains 25 and 27 on the sidings at Wellington. I won’t, that would be, in modern terms, Monday morning quarterbacking (easy to do but accomplishes nothing). As I read through the book I kept wishing O’Neill could get an accurate weather forecast . He couldn’t. They honestly didn’t have access to the fabulous information we have today. When the telegraph or phone line was up they could get weather reports from Edmonds, Everett, or Index that would give them and idea of what the weather was but that didn’t really give them a clue what was going to happen at Wellington. I feel like if O’Neill could have gotten a better weather forecast he might have been able to make different decisions. Given the information and historical knowledge he had O’Neill took the best course he could. I’m so thrilled that I can sit at Scenic today and get up to the minute weather information right on my phone.
Thanks to modern technology an eastbound in the siding at Scenic has a clear path to the east.
No one can deny how the memories of Wellington shaped the pass after 1910. The 7.76 mile Cascade tunnel is a huge benefit to keeping trains moving through the pass in the winter and set Stevens Pass up to be very reliable during all seasons. The winter of 2007-2008 was a snowy one and featured more snow piled at Scenic than I’d ever seen. Was it as bad as 1910? My guess is probably not but it was bad enough the BNSF had the snow dozer, flanger, and slot train out most everyday in February working away at the the problem spots. Why was BNSF successful in 2008? Because of the ghosts of O’Neill, Blackburn, Harrington, and Meath…of course.
Want to read it for yourself? Get your own “Vis Major” at Amazon.com.
