The Great Northern Railroad Avalanche | Snowed In | 1
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of Against the Odds early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. A listener note Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research.
Ida Starrett smoothed the hair of her eight-month-old son, Francis. He's teething and has been fidgety all night.
Shh shh shh shh it's okay. It's okay. Mummy's here. Mummy's here.
But Starrit is almost as restless as her son is. It's just past 2 a.m. on March 1st, 1910, and Starret and her three children are aboard a great Northern Railroad train. What was supposed to be a routine overnight trip from Spokane, Washington to Seattle has turned into a never-ending ordeal. While Frances squirms in her arms, Starret casts an anxious glance across the aisle at her other two children, nine-year-old Lillian and seven-year-old Raymond. Thankfully, they're both still sound asleep in their bunks. Finally, Francis starts the drift off, and Starret lies back on her bed. Well, she thinks at least she's not in Spokane anymore. That's where she and her husband had been raising their three children.
But last month, her husband was killed in an accident at the rail yard where he worked. The railroad company gave her just $500 in compensation. With little money and no prospects, she decided to move in with her parents in British Columbia. So she bought train tickets for her and her three children, thinking it would be an easy trip. They left Spokane a week ago aboard the Seattle Express during a snowstorm.
What happens to Ida Starrett and her children when the Seattle Express gets stuck in the Cascades?
They'd hoped they'd make it over the Cascade Mountains before the weather got too bad, but soon the snowfall was too heavy for the train to make it any further. Hundreds of railroad workers who are stationed up here in this mountain pass have been trying to clear the track, but they can't keep ahead of the falling snow. Now, the train is stuck. In this small railroad depot in the Cascades. Starrit and the 54 other passengers are going stir crazy. Food supplies are running low. Even worse, as the snow piles up, it's triggering avalanches on the mountainsides around them. Starrit has been hearing the rumbles of sliding snow for days. She doesn't know how much longer her nerves can take it. The snow can't last forever, she tells herself.
She just has to be patient. But as soon as Starret settles into sleep, lightning flashes outside, followed by a gigantic boom of thunder. Starret jumps in her bunk, her heart pounding. Frances wails and Starret's other children startle awake. Raymond, Lillian, you can go back to sleep, okay? It it's just some thunder. But as Starret sues Francis, she notices something. The rumbling from the thunder hasn't died down yet. Not completely. It's still sounding in the distance. And in fact, it seems to be getting louder. This isn't like any thunder she's ever heard before. Then, with a chill, she realizes the truth. That's not thunder. It's rumbling snow. An avalanche. She goes rigid. Every other noise, Frances' sobs, the howling wind, the rattle of the train car windows, disappears from her mind.
Starret's been hearing these rumbles for days, but this one sounds different. Much nearer. She clutches Francis and throws back the curtain of the window. And there it is. Exactly what she's been dreading: a towering wall of snow churning toward their train. Starret hugs Francis close, braces for impact, and she prays.
Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of the podcast American Scandal. Our latest series tells the story of college counselor Rick Singer, who thought he'd found a way to rig the admissions process for his wealthy clients until an unrelated FBI investigation inadvertently exposed the largest college admission scandal in American history. Listen to American Scandal on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts.
James Arthur Ray was a charismatic self-help guru who promised his followers a path to wealth and enlightenment by becoming the best versions of themselves.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:59
2
What happens to Ida Starrett and her children when the Seattle Express gets stuck in the Cascades?
1:59–12:36
3
How does Ida realize the rumbling outside is an avalanche and not thunder?
12:36–23:08
4
Why does Superintendent James O'Neill decide to head to the mountain despite his wife's concerns?
23:08–32:04
5
What challenges does O'Neill face when trying to clear the tracks with limited plows and crew?
32:04–49:39
6
How do the passengers, especially lawyer Louis Jesse, cope with being stranded at Wellington?
49:39–52:20
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Against The Odds
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