Landslide at Norma Beach

A very large piece of our property along Puget Sound slid down and covered both main tracks near MP 23 north of Edmonds, WA to a depth of nearly 20 feet. There was no slide fence protection at this spot, and the eastbound Empire Builder was due at Edmonds! My dad quickly broke a nearby slide fence to drop all the signals to red and then telephoned the GN Edmonds train station to warn them of the slide. The eastbound Empire Builder was held there, and later returned to Seattle. Work trains brought in two bulldozers on flatcars and both worked all night long to finally clear the #1 main track by morning! Clearing away the dirt and debris continued as trains passed by under red flag and slow order protection. The pictures below were taken of the second slide in the same spot, which was much smaller than the original slide. Thanks to my brother for sharing his photo collection.

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