The Last Oregon Train Robbery
On October 11, 1923, at the summit of the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon, Southern Pacific Train No. 13 slowed to a stop at Siskiyou Station. This was required by Company rule to test the air breaks before descending the mountain. The stop was also used to uncouple the helper engine that had been used to help the train up the steep grade and tight switchbacks. The train had only accelerated to five or six miles an hour by the time it reached Tunnel No. 13, about a hundred yards away. It was slow enough to allow three bandits to jump on board the mail car, about 12:40 in the afternoon.
The train was known was the "Gold Special," as it frequently took gold shipments up and down the West Coast. The bandits thought this train would be carrying $40,000 in its mail car, a significant enough amount to take a chance. Hugh held up the engineer and the fireman with a shotgun and ordered them to halt the train. They immediately obeyed and stopped the train, with the engine just emerging from the mouth of the tunnel. It was somewhat of a challenge since the grade of the tunnel was downhill and the train may have been moving as fast as 20 miles per hour when the robbers ordered it stopped.
Ray saw the mail clerk look out the window of the mail car, and fired at him but he missed. Hugh and Roy walked the engineer and fireman up to the front of the tunnel so they would not be injured when they blew up the mail car. Ray affixed the dynamite to the mail car. After the explosion Hugh kept a gun on the two railroad men while Roy and Ray tried to uncouple the mail car from the train.
At that time a man with a red light came toward them. It was the brakeman, Coyle O. Johnson. Hugh ordered Johnson to uncouple the mail car from the engine. But he couldn't do it because of the damage from the explosion. They ordered Johnson to go tell the engineer to pull the mail car away from the rest of the train with the engine. As Johnson turned to comply, though, Ray shot and killed him. Roy told the engineer what he wanted, but the engineer could not budge the train. They couldn't see anything in the car through the steam and smoke so
Latest Articles