On This Date in Minnesota History: May 28

May 28, 1906 - A runaway Duluth & Iron Range freight train, carrying 30 loaded ore cars, this evening at 10 dashed down a hill from Waldo, Minn., to Two Harbors without an engine crew, conductor or brakeman, except one who was afraid to jump in the darkness. He sustained a broken leg and other injuries.

Three tramps and possibly more are dead as a result of their own carelessness or ignorance of the working of the airbrake. Twenty-five loaded ore cars were piled up, being a complete loss.

After the tramps had boarded the train at a block station the air failed to work at the top of a long hill. It is supposed that the tramps somehow turned an angle cock. The engineer and fireman were the first to jump and then the crew began dropping off. No tramps were seen to leave the fast –moving train. The engine ran ahead of the wreck, but being reversed, stopped and returned.

The Minneapolis Journal; “Carried to Death by Runaway Train. Crew Lost Control of Ore Freight at Top of Long Hill--Three Tramps Dead.”; May 29, 1906; p. 1.

https://sometimes-interesting.com/2015/03/03/ghosts-of-the-duluth-missabe-and-iron-range-railroad/

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