Dakota Datebook: Empire Builder Train Wreck

August 9, 2018 — A historic rail disaster happened at 7:20 p.m. on this date in 1945 at Michigan, N.D., about 50 miles west of Grand Forks. The first section of a Great Northern passenger train had to make an emergency stop, and the engine of section two plowed into it from behind.

The two Empire Builders were traveling to the west coast as a pair. The first section contained the Pullman slee...