"I told them to get those locomotives out of there, to drop their load and come on home,"

 

North Coast Railroad History post:

"Today is a landmark for North Coast Railroad History. 20 years ago today, yes 20 YEARS AGO... The last train from Eureka CA left to head south to the Bay Area, and it never made it. This rainy Saturday marks 20 years without rail service on the North Coast. "

"So what happened to that train? It made it to Island Mountain, (half way to Willits) and never left. We encourage you to read the account, as it was a dramatic one. A sad end to a beautiful railroad. October 23, 1914 to February 17th, 1998. "

Quote below from the LA Times in 1999.

It was a..."Rainy Tuesday in February, 1998, when train engineer Nick Mitchell and conductor Gary Kittleson chugged out of the South Fork station in a miserable storm.
Hauling more than $500,000 worth of high-grade redwood, they were headed for a rendezvous with a northbound train at the Island Mountain station, an unpopulated outpost amid a stretch of track so secluded that it winds about 70 miles without a road crossing.
Just before 5 p.m., as a horizontal rain beat against the windshields of the two locomotives pushing the load, the men heard the first distress call from train master Ferguson. He radioed Mitchell that the foul weather had turned their sister train back south.
Worse, a critical situation loomed straight ahead: Just a quarter-mile down the line, the incessant rains had created a condition local conductors know as "swinging track." With the ground washed out from beneath them, the rails dangled in midair like a windblown suspension bridge.

"I told them to get those locomotives out of there, to drop their load and come on home," said Ferguson, a third-generation railroad man with a ruddy face and cowcatcher beard.
Even after ditching their heavy load, the men escaped with little time to spare. A few hours later, the rains washed out more than 300 feet of track just north of them, stranding the cargo on an island less than a mile long. Even today, it's still impossible to reach the marooned cars without a 45-mile hike one-way through uninviting terrain." -May 14, 1999. John M. Glionna, LA Times.