Trouble On Lookout Pass; book review

TROUBLE ON LOOKOUT PASS, by Bryan R. Lee; Heaven Bound Publishing

Scene: A Thanksgiving eve snowstorm in North Idaho's mountains. Westbound mixed Train #79 on the branch line between Missoula, Montana and Wallace, Idaho carries three passenger cars this trip to accommodate holiday traffic, and an unusually heavy load of forty freight cars.

Trainmaster Nelson Kohlesk, in Wallace on his monthly inspection visit, finds the small railroad yard in Wallace already full of freight cars that will not be shipped out until after the holiday weekend, with no room for the incoming cars on train 79. The only available space is a siding up on Lookout Pass, eleven miles of steep incline, with train 79 already on its way toward them. There is only one available engineer in Wallace, and he refuses to give up his holiday time, knowing the labor union will never allow Kohlesk to fire him.

Kohlesk, himself a qualified Diesel engineer, has Wallace stationmaster Mike Jones call out enough workers to make up the minimum crewmen of three besides himself to take “Extra Train 212” eastward. He radios oncoming train 79, which will reach Lookout Pass first, to pull into the siding to allow him to go by on the single-track mainline.

Putting an extra train in the path of oncoming scheduled traffic is no light matter. The hundred passengers on Train 79 will complain about their delayed arrival in Wallace. Even though cars are already assembled on one track in the rail yard, two engines will need to be hooked up on one end and a caboose on the other (this is in the 1980s); there are rail switches to open and close, air-brakes to connect up and test, and a final inspection car-by-car before setting out, and the snow storm and cold wind are worsening. The difference in a delay of 45 minutes and 30 minutes can have a bad effect on a man's work record.

Author Brian R. Lee does an admirable job of bringing all these factors into the reader's attention while moving his story along.

Extra Train 212 out of Wallace reaches Lookout Pass only to find the rail siding empty. Attempts to contact Train 79 by radio are met by silence. Wallace and Missoula stations can communicate with each other, but no one knows the whereabouts of 79 and its passengers. The deepening snow has caused a truck to skid and jack-knife across both lanes, blocking road access to the Pass. Sending a truck equipped with rail wheels—without knowing the status of the westbound train, and with no turn-around point—is not an option.

A solution appears from an unexpected direction (no, not helicopters or snow mobiles) but the author introduces a new peril to 79's passengers, to keep the reader on edge until the last chapter. A good read.

Brian R. Lee is a retired trainman and dispatcher, who also has experience as editor of a city newspaper. He and his wife Grace reside in Osburn, Idaho.