In this page we will set out the more significant railway accidents, derailments, collisions etc. that have occurred in the Ottawa area.
The area covers any railway within the boundaries of the following points:
Coteau, Rigaud, Hawkesbury, Montebello, Maniwaki, Waltham, Chalk River, Brent, Madawaska, the Kingston and Pembroke Railway down to Kingston and the St. Lawrence River from Kingston to Coteau.
Because of the great number of accidents it is impossible to list all of them so these are limited to accidents involving:
Grade crossing accidents with highway vehicles have generally been omitted unless there is a significant number of fatalities as have trespassing incidents and accidents where employees have fallen off trains.loss of life or significant injury to passengers or train crew.
passenger trains.
significant number of cars derailed.
other significant accidents or incidents.
Set out below, in chronological order, is a general listing with hot links, where available, giving further information on the accident concerned. For items marked * a newspaper account is available electronically.
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Before 1889
1890-1899
1900-1909
1905,
September 11 - Rear end collision between
the Soo Express and the Continental Limited at Hammond, Canadian
Pacific M and O subdivsion.
1905, November 21 - Derailment in
the yard at Smiths Falls, Canadian Pacific Railway, engineer killed.
1906, September 9 - Freight train rear
ended on the Grand Trunk at Renfrew.1910-1919
1920-1929
1930-1939
1950-1959
1960-1969
1970-1979
1973, April 11 - CP
through freight from Montreal to Ottawa, #85,
was hit by a truck at the east end of Papineauville, Quebec at 1030; 3
units
were on the train; the third unit, 8565, was buried and caught fire
from cars
landing on top of it in the ensuing derailment. A
house, shed and a trailer were
destroyed by flames
and thousands of gallons of heavy oil were spilled into a creek which
flows
directly into the 1980-1989
1981, February 10 - 19 cars derailed on CNR #214 at Bristol, Quebec,
Beachburg subdivision, believed to have been caused by a broken axle.
(Branchline February 1981).
1981, March 19 - Five volunteer firemen are killed in a crossing
accident with CNR #532 at Iroquois, Kingston subdivision, m. 98.9
(Branchline March 1981).
1982, June 26 - VIA train 63 derails last two cars at high sped at m.
111, Canadian National, Kingston subdivision, near Prescott. The
cars were dragged for about a mile before overturning into the ditch.
(Branchline June/July 1982, p. 3)
1984, August 14 - 30 cars of Canadian Pacific train #482 derail
at Chesterville, Winchester subdivision. No injuries.
1986, August 24 - 12 cars of a 131 car CNR freight derailed near the
Montreal Road overpass in Kingston. (Branchline, October 1986, page 17).
1988, June 22 - 23 cars of 134-car CNR train 393 derailed at Coteau
East tying up both main lines for a day and a half. (Branchline,
July/August 1988, page 19).1990-1999
1991, January 25 - 24 cars
of an eastbound grain train derail at Dunrobin, Canadian National
Beachburg subdivision. 1991, January 31 - LRC club
car on VIA train 37 lost a wheel and derailed at M&O
Junction. The rear set of wheels on the locomotive also
derailed. No injuries.
1991, June 19 - 18 cars of Canadian National train 337 derailed at
Portage du Fort on the Beachburg subdivision.2000 to date
2007, March 12 - eastbound CN freight derails 32 cars at the Queens
switch, Kingston. No injuries.
2007, August 25 - some13 cars on CP container train #230 are derailed
at
Tichbourne by a broken rail or rail turnover. No injuries.
2008, July 15 - VIA passenger train #60 hits a flatbed truck
carrying a bulldozer which had bottomed out and unable to move on a
crossing at Mallorytown. The locomotive and baggage car were
derailed, minor injuries.
2009, February 6 - 20 cars of a CP freight train derail at Dalhousie
Mills, Winchester subdivision. No injuries.
2009, May 10 - The Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield excursion train
derailed
one car at a crossing near Larrimac, QC. The train was running at
2-3 mph, no injuries.
2009, August 16* - VIA locomotive 902 on passenger train 46 catches
fire
at Richmond, Smiths Falls sub., closest crossing McBean Street.
334 passengers were evacuated without injury, ten treated for insect
bites and stress. Both engineers were taken to hospital suffering
from smoke inhalation. |
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From the Ottawa Journal of 9 June 1886: Our Pembroke correcpondent writes: "On
hearing the sad news of the accident which occurred this forenoon
at Pettewawa (sic) a station ten miles west of Penbroke, I drove to the
scene of the disaster (through the kindness of the editor of the
Standard). Arriving at the end of a ten mile drive we found the
scene of the accident as complete a piece of train
wrecking as it is possible to imagine. The whole of the longest
span of the new three-span bridge crossing the Pettewawa river had
collapsed, and all its iron work, trestling etc. lay in a mangled
heterogeneous mass in the water of the rapids flowing underneath the
bridge, the
same having been mixed up with the remains of the steam shovel and
derrick, and also of a couple more flat cars; against the solid stone
pier on the westerly end of the demolished arch or space stood the
"conductor's van" on end, one end of the van in the rapids, the other
leaning against the stone pier just as it rushed over. The bed of
the rapids was totally blocked with wreck, at the eastern pier of this
demolished arch, with one end also in the waters, and the other reared
up against the stone pier, stood, also on her end, boxcar No. 1762,
whilst over the edge of
this eastern pier hung boxc ar No. 2918, litterally hanging over
the impromptu precipice, as it were, half way coupled to car 312, which
had escaped and there was standing on the sound span. I would at
a cursory glance estimate the length of the gap caused by the accident
to
the bridge, at say about 120 feet. The bridge was a solid looking
structure of iron in three spans and fitted into solid stone
piers. The masonry did not show the lease sign of the shock it
received. Interviewing the who found poor Williams' corpse, I
learned his hat was on his head, one hand in his pants pocket, and a
leather mit on his right hand, and it was evident he was about
"braking" as he was instantly hurried to his cruel end. John
Holyoakes was the driver on the train, John Eldred, fireman, both
escaped injury, Stewart Gthompson, in charge of
the steam shovel, was badly bruised and cut. A young frenchman
from
Ottawa, name, unknown, had his left arm badly smashed. Dr.
Dickson
amputated it at the shoulder this evening. Three tramps said to be
stealing
a ride were badly injured. Mr. C.W. Spencer and Mr. Harry Spencer
arrived with a special about 5 p.m. and investigated and commenced with
a gang of men to start clearing the wreck being engaged with two
engines. After the inquest, Williams' body will be taken to the station
by Lodge 128, A.F.& A.M., of which he was a member.
There is an account of the inquest in Journal 10 June 1886. The evidence showed that the derrick of the steam shovel caused the accident by catching the bridge overhead -- Verdict "That the deceased conductor, Frank Williams, came to his death in consequence of a railway accident at Pettewawa Bridge on Canadian Pacific Railway on the 7th instant, said accident having been caused by the deceased having failed to take the necessary precautions in approaching the bridge in time as required by his running orders." |
National Archives PA 210194
A smash up in which one man was killed and
another fatally injured, and many were badly shaken, occurred on
the Canadian Pacific Railway near Hull station yesterday afternoon.
The "Soo" train from Montreal, due in Ottawa at half past three, ran through an open switch, wrecking the engine and tender, baggage express, and two colonist cars and killing the fireman Johnson Gloden of Montreal. The train, being a through train, passed through Hull station without stopping, running at about 25 miles an hour. About two hundred yards south of the station is a switch. At that point begins an embankment that runs to a height of some 20 feet. The switch was open, and the train dashing along left the rails and thundered down the embankment. The engine tore over the earth and snow for some two hundred feet and them dug deep into the mucky soil. Both driver and fireman stood to their posts. The baggage car, rising up, broke its fastenings to the tender and over turning the engine and tender, was carried through the air and dropped to the ground some fifty feet further on from which place it ploughed through the ground some fifty feet further, the express and postal car following. |

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Ottawa Evening Journal, Thursday 14 October 1897 Shortly after five o'clock this morning the C.P.R. Toronto "Cannon Ball" Exress coming to Ottawa and a freght train ran into each other about three miles this side of Stittsville. A bad wreck resulted. Five are dead and one is badly injured. The dead are: Robt. Peden, mail clerk Ottawa. Jas Hastey, brakeman on the express, Carleton Place. James Tierney, of Cantley, Quebec, was on the freight and supposed to be stealing a ride. Engineer, Frank Laurendeau, Carleton Place, of the express is under the wreck and supposed to be dead. James Fleming of Cantley, Quebec, who was in freight. Not known how he was on. The Injured. Engineer McCuaig of the freight Carleton Place. Leg broken. Mail clerk Birchall and Expressman T.C. Hewton were badly shaken up. The Cause. The accident as far as can be learned was the result either of a misunderstanding or non-obeyance of orders between the night telegraph operator and the conductor of the express. Marion McNish, the night operator at Stittsville got instructions to cross the express and a freight at Stittsville. Why the express was not held at Stittsville as orered has yet to be ascertained but the fact is it was not held and thundering on along the downgrade met half of the freight that should have crossed it at the Stittsville switch. The result was a terrible collision. At the point where the accident occurred the express runs at a high rate of speed. Stittsville is at the top of a long steep grade. Just past Stittsville the ground rises slightly and then descends so that a train going east cannot see a train coming west. The freight train was long and heavy. The crash The engineer of the freight divided his train in two. He had taken one section to the Stittsville siding and was on the up-grade with the second section when the "Cannon Ball" express came tearing down the grade and quicker than it can be written there was a head-on crash, cries of the injured and wreckage strewn all around. The collision occurred near the Hazeldean crossing. The wreck was piled up 30 feet high. The two engines are badly damaged and the baggage car on the express and three freight cars wrecked. The scene was a sad one to witness. Doctors arrive As soon as the crash was over and a crowd gathered doctors were set for in all directions. Soon there were on the scene Dr. Richardson of Hazeldean, Dr. Channonhouse and Dr. Danby of Richmond. They worked hard to aid the injured. Jumped for Life As soon as the express appeared in sight, Engineer McCuaig of the freight put on the air brakes, but as soon as he saw a collision was inevitable he and the fireman jumped for their lives. Pinned in the Wreck Brakeman Hastey of the freight, who had been riding on the engine, did not jump. When the crash was over he was found pinned down by the leg in the wreck of the freight engine. He was conscious. He suffered terribly but lived until 8.30. The poor fellow could not be taken out. Mr. S. Mann of Stittsville was near him when he died. "Get the stuff off me", he said weakly, and I will be all right. He then swooned and shortly afterwards breathed his last. No Time to Think According to the story of Engineer McCuaig, the trains did not see each other until they were less than 8 car lengths apart, and there was no time to think. As soon as he saw the express coming he told the fireman and brakeman, he says, to jump and jumped himself, getting clear. The air was misty at the time and still comparatively dark. Descriptions of narrow escapes by crew members Pen Picture of the Wreck as seen by Journal Reporters The wreck is a terrible looking scene. Two engines lie bottoms together, with the debris of broken freight cars and tenders piled upon them. They are in a ditch on the south side of the track, in a swamp full of bulrushes. The telegraph poles on both sides are bent away from the track, the wires broken and down. The track runs through a swampy land and on both sides are low bushes. The two engines are lying together in a ditch on the south side of the track. The tender of the exress train was half way through the baggage car and the front of the second baggage car is also badly smashed. Of the passenger train, only the engine left the track while the freight engine lies beside the passenger engine and the freight cars are piled in a heap on the north side of the track. Two of the freight cars are smashed to pieces, while parts of the trucks are broken and twisted altogether out of shape. The trees beside the engines are covered with earth for twenty feet back from the swamp and right up to the topmost limbs, while the fences look as if they had been built of mud. The track where the engines met has been bent considerably, while the sleepers are broken and many will have to be renewed.. While the train hands at noon today are cleaning up the debris the wreckage was so entangled that many ties were further broken. Trains will likely be moving along the line before five o'clock this afternoon. Passengers' experiences. Ottawa Evening Journal Friday 15 October, 1897. Extensive coverage: Victims taken home, Inquest opened. McNish in Custody Operator McNish of Stittsville is being kept in custody at the C.P.R. station. The crown authorities have not yet decided to place him under arrest, but he is being held for the present. He is only nineteen years of age and feels very keenly over the accident. An expression of opinion that he is responsible for the accident should be withheld until the verdict of the coroner'sjury is given. First Train Through The first train to get past the scene of the wreck was the Brockville mixed which arrived at Ottawa at three o'clock yesterday afternoon about six hours late. -- Ottawa Evening Journal Saturday 16 October 1897. Borne to the grave. |
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This accident occurred before the Ottawa and
New York Railway was opened to traffic. It turned out to be the
most serious accident in the entire life of the line.
From the Chesterville Record of 16 June 1898: Four men killed.
Gravel train derailed with terrible results.
Accident occurred near St. Onge in Russell county.Twenty five cars reduced to splinters. Russell June 11. At 6 o'clock last night a construction train on the New York and Ottawa Railroad, with 22 cars loaded with gravel, left the track at Embrun station. The accident is supposed to have been caused by an open switch. The engine turned over on its side and ten cars piled up and were smashed into tinder. Four bodies were taken out of the wreck. They are Mr. Greenley, conductor, Mr. Crysler, fireman, and J.W. Rombough and Greenley carmen. At 8 o'clock this morning it was impossible to say if any more are under the wreck. Ottawa June 11. The accident caused quite a stir around the city and was discussed on all sides, although no authentic particulars can be obtained. The Free press sent a representative to the scene and at a late hour this morning he telephoned that the accident was most appalling Only the four bodies had been removed from the wreck and it was not thought any others met death, although an escape after the sudden pitch in occurred would have been impossible to any on the ill-fated train. From information received, the train was ditched by an open switch near St. Onge, which is about seven miles from Russell village. The train was known as No. 3 and was returning from the pit to Longfield on the last run of the day at the rate of nearly 20 miles an hour. The train consisted of an engine and 25 heavily laden cars. Just where the switch is situated there is a steep embankment and down this the engine plunged at full steam with the unfortunate victims. There was no chance for escape. In a twinkling the cars crashed together and went on top of the locomotive and the poor fellows who were in the cab. The three nearest cars were reduced to splinters and all piled up in a miscellaneous mass on top of the wrecked engine. The scene which followed was frightful. No assistance could be rendered the helpless ones. Work of rescue started at once by the railway hands, but it was hours before the bodies were recovered. The bodies of William Rombough, the cable man on the train, and Fireman Crysler were recovered about 8 o'clock but that of Conductor Greenley could not be found until 2 o'clock this morning and by that time two car loads of gravel had been shovelled away. The man's head was badly smashed and his legs broken, Fireman Crysler's body was found near that of Rombough. It was frightfully bruised. A brother of Greenley's who was also on the train was hurled head first into the ditch and one of the cars crushed him. He was killed instantly. Engineer Murray, as the train approached the switch, notices something was wrong and quickly reversing the brakes, jumped for his life. He escaped with a few bruises and a scalp wound. Jacob Brown, one of the train hands, had one of his hands frightfully crushed and Manson Hollister an ugly scalp wound. Both are in serious condition and fears are entertained for their recovery. Greenley, a short time ago, moved from the east to Ottawa, and has a wife and two sons here. Crysler was a resident of Crysler and was a
single man.
President Hibbard, when seen in referrence to the accident said ""I
know very little of the details. There is no telegraph office at
Embrun and the nearest telephone is three miles away, so that
particulars are meagre. It appears that a construction train
belonging to the contractors Messrs. Balch and Peppard was going
south. It consisted of an engine and some twenty empty flat
cars. The switch at the north end of Embrun siding had been
tampered with, possibly by someone who knew very little about it.
The wheels of the engine caught in the opening, with the result that
the engine was derailed and ten flat cars piled upon one another.
The cars were entirely demolished and the engine partially
disabled. Fireman Crysler of Crysler; Conductor Greenley, of
Ottawa and two brakemen, whose names I do not know, were killed.
This was the contractors train, the company had nothing to do with the
accident and we are in no way responsible for it. As I said
before it was purely on account of some one tampering with the switch.An inquest into the cause of the wreck on the Ottawa and New York road was held at Embrun. Dr. Ferguson, of Cumberland, presided as coroner, and Duncan McDiarmid was foreman of the jury. There was quite an array of legal talent, R.A. Pringle representing the contractors, and C.H. Cline of Cornwall and C.B. Rae of Chesterville, the friends of the victims. After hearing all the evidence the inquest was adjourned to meet again on 16th instant in the village of Russell. An order was issued for the interment of the bodies. There was also a piece on the death of Frank Crysler, the only son of the reeve of Crysler and a description of the funeral. |
Although
the papers reported that eight died in this wreck, the
total subsequently appears to have risen to ten. This
was effectively the end of racing between the CPR and CAR,
although on 17 July 1901, the largest 4-4-2 Atlantic was tested
over a measured mile at 92.75 mph. However the benefits of this speed
were apparently never reflected in running time to Montreal.
It
also may have been the last service for the almost brand new
Pullman-built car 300, which, although repaired, was
apparently destroyed in the Elgin Street car shop fire of 21
March 1902 and never again appeared on the roster.
Here is a newspaper account: Eight dead in wreck.
Ottawa Aug. 9. The Canada Atlantic
fast
train, which should have arrived here at noon today, jumped the track
at
St. Polycarpe Junction and Fireman Geo. McCuaig and a sectionman and a
second
class passenger, whose name cannot be ascertained, were killed.
It is supposed that the train jumped the track at the switch. Engineer Orr was slightly injured and five passengers more or less injured. The accident was the first since the inception of the road and General Manager Chamberlain was at a loss to imagine the cause of it. The track at St. Polycarpe is as level as a floor and there are no ditches. The track is said to be about the best piece of road on the system and is constructed with 73 pound steel rails. The fast express from Ottawa to Montreal, which leaves the Central Depot at 8.40 passed over the same track ten minutes before the ill fated express, crossing the Montreal train at Coteau Junction. The wreck train left Montreal at 9.40 o'clock and was due at Ottawa at 12.10. It was the fast express and was made up of a baggage car, a second class, a first class, two parlour cars, a sleeper and the Intercolonial parlour car. Five of the cars left the track, the Intercolonial car and the sleeper being the two rear cars remained on the rails. So far as learned, the baggage car, the second class and the engine were piled together in a heap. All the passengers that were injured were in the second class car. The news spread around town with wonderful rapidity, and the most exaggerated reports were prevalent. Hundreds of people kept the telephones ringing and called at the station to get news. Friends of the excursionists, who went to Ste. Ann de Beaupre, were especially anxious as it was feared that some of the victims were on the train. The special train with pilgrims to Ste. Anne de Beaupre was shortly behind the regular at the time of the wreck. It was due about two o'clock, but it will not likely reach here before six o'clock. Within an hour after the wreck, six doctors were on the scene attending to the injured. As the news of the accident spread around the city people flocked down to the Central Depot to await the arrival of the special train sent out to convey the passengers to the city. Many had friends on board and were extremely anxious to hear whatever news was going. Very little satisfactory, however, could be obtained, as the operators at the wires were, according to the rules, forbidden to impart any information. The killed so far as identified are O'Connor, Rochleau and Roach. Later - the identified so far are: Joseph Rochleau and daughter, of Champlain Street, Montreal. Ned Stairs, Ottawa. Wilson O'Connor, Ottawa. The fatally injured are Nellie Ryan, Aridget Ryan and Ellen McDougall of Maniwaki and Mrs. Jos Rochleau of Montreal. Most of the dead and injured were pilgrims returning from Ste. Anne de Beaupre. |
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On 9 February 1904 Canadian Pacific train 7 collided head on with Canadian Pacific train 8 about two miles west of Sand Point. Thirteen people died and nineteen were hurt in this accident. Tid Bits by Duncan H. du Fresne, Branchline, May 2006. The meet of CP trains 7 and 8
at Sand Point, Ontario. Sand Point, is a little town along the shores
of the Ottawa River and is located just west of Arnprior. It was not,
usually, the meeting point for trains 7 and 8. The meet we're about to
read about happened in 1904, just over 102 years ago. And, it was a
"cornfield meet", or head-on collision to the layman.
Mr. R. Glenn Jamieson of Sand Point sent Branchline the following article and photograph, as a result of going through the effects of his late Mother. Mr. Jamieson is a retired CN-VIA conductor and a friend of a retired CP engineman, Doug Chalmers (a former colleague of mine) who also lives in Sand Point. So, without further comment, here is the article verbatim, just as I received it: TRAIN WRECK AT SAND POINT IN 1904
"Thirteen Dead, 19 Hurt, Sand Point Collision". The Citizen (newspaper) Ottawa, Canada, Wednesday, February 10, 1904. "In a head on collision between two C.P.R. passenger trains near Sand Point early yesterday morning more than a dozen lives were lost and some nineteen people were injured more or less seriously. Travelling at a rapid rate of speed, the westbound Soo train #7 in charge of Conductor Nidd with Engineer Dudley, collided head-on with No. 8, the eastbound Soo train in charge of Conductor Forester and Engineer Jackson. Failure of the up-going train to obey orders and remain on the siding at Sand Point till No. 8 passed, was the cause of the smash. An official list of the dead follow: Joseph Jackson, engineer, Ottawa W. Mullen, newsagent, Montreal Robert Thompson, express messenger, Montreal John O'Toole, baggageman, Ottawa Ernest Dubois, fireman, Hochelaga Nelson Robertson, express messenger, Montreal Joseph Chalu, Dolphis Seguin, J. Carriere, M. LeBrun, Wm. Pouliotte of Whitney (ON) and two unidentified. Badly injured were G.T. Price, fireman, Brockville J.M. Dudley, engineer, Ottawa and many others (names on file) No. 7 left Ottawa about 3 am Tuesday, February 9, 1 904, one hour late. It was given orders to meet No. 8 at Sand Point. When Sand Point was reached the engineer instead of stopping and pulling his train into the siding, went ahead. The night was cold and frosty and the conductor said they didn't know when Sand Point was reached. The engineer either forgot himself or was unable to distinguish the siding when he came to it. The train went on travelling at a rapid rate until at a point a couple of miles beyond Sand Point it ran on the time of the down express having the right of way. It was a frosty morning - the mercury away down below Zero - causing the atmosphere to be filled with vapour. While the windows were frosted or beclouded with steam and as a result the engineers couldn't see far ahead. A minute or two later the crash came (about 5 am). Hero that he was, Engineer Jackson shut off the steam and applied the brakes -an act which did much to reduce the momentum of the train and lessen the number of fatalities. The impact was awful but it was particularly No. 7 the up train that suffered. Nearly all the cars save the rear one, were more or less smashed though they stayed on the track space with the engines locked tightly together and badly demolished at that. Beneath the ruins were the mail, express and train hands and a considerable passenger list, largely composed, however of those travelling on No. 7. Many were wedged down and unable to extricate themselves. On No. 8 the passengers fared much better but three being killed while the occupants of the rear cars were so fortunate as to escape with a shaking up. No. 7 was made up of the locomotive, a baggage car, a mail car, two second class cars, one first class and a sleeper. Engineer Jackson on No. 8 was looking for the siding at Sand Point when he saw the headlight of No. 7 approaching. He applied the brakes and reduced the speed of his train. To this is attributed the fact that No. 8 escaped with a lighter death list and smaller damage to railroad stock. Jackson stuck to his post according to Father Paradis, a passenger, who was one of the heros of the post crash, and was killed instantly. The wreckage of the locomotive and cars were piled high above him and "we could only see his hand" the priest said. The locomotive of No. 7 mounted the locomotive of No. 8. The tender of the westbound train was thrown on top of the baggage car of the eastbound train and the baggage, the express and the second class cars followed suit and piled on top of the eastbound locomotive. It was in this mix up that the list of casualties was greeted. It was a fortunate thing that the wreck did not take fire as the lamps in the wrecked cars made this possible according to Father Paradis. It was dark and intensely cold (-30 degree F). Some of the injured froze to death before they could be rescued even though fires were lit close by. A hospital train was sent from Ottawa to transport the injured to that city. Wrecking crews were dispatched. Most of the passengers on the two trains were shantymen, hired by the lumber companies in Ottawa, going to or coming from the shanties west of Pembroke and beyond." Well, that's it. Seems to me that newspaper reports are no better (or worse) today than they were a century ago. I can't help but wonder why Mrs. Jamieson kept this old newspaper clipping and photograph. Did she know someone on either of the two trains? Or was an accident like this such a momentous event in the little community that one kept clippings of these sort of goings-on? When I railroaded as a CP fireman on transcontinental passenger trains on the Chalk River sub. which passed through Sand Point, many years later, on Hudson and heavy Pacific locomotives, I never gave much thought to "cornfield meets" with other trains, and during my time there was lots of traffic on that busy main line. No doubt train dispatching and signal systems had improved in the intervening years. I always enjoyed working on the Chalk River sub. - it was a place for "heads-up" railroading. My thanks to Mr. Jamieson for sending in this historical gem of a flashback to another time in the annals of Canadian railroading, and to my old colleague, Doug Chalmers, for providing Mr. Jamieson with the Bytown Railway Society's magazine, Branchline. |

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Carleton Place Herald - Tuesday, November
21, 1905.
Locomotive Engineer Joseph St. Denis
Squeezed to
Death. Another very sad accident occurred this morning on the Canadian Pacific Railway, by which, Engineer Joseph St. Denis, of this town, lost his life. Mr. St. Denis left Carleton Place this morning, about 7:45, after spending the night at home, taking a freight train to Smiths Falls. Whilst crossing the switch in the yard at the later station, the engine left the rails and was like to upset after bumping on the ties for a distance, so the Driver Jumped to one side and the Fireman, Wm. Whyte, to the other. The engine was running toward the Driver's side, so, St. Denis was caught by the wheels and had the breath virtually crushed out of him. He died instantly. His face and limbs bore no sign of injury. Whyte sprained an ankle in his fall. The accident occurred shortly before nine o'clock. Mr. St. Denis was one of the best known Drivers on the division. A steady industrious man highly esteemed by his comrades and friends, and his tragic death is deeply deplored. He was married, his wife being a daughter of our townsman, Mr. Joe Girouard, and a family of three small children, one boy and two girls, with the widow, are left to mourn the loss of a fond parent and a devoted husband. The eldest child is nine years, the youngest three. A deportation of drivers went out on the noon train, and will likely bring the remains back on the evening train. The sympathy of the whole town flows toward the bereaved. Carleton Place Herald - Tuesday, November 28, 1905.A
Large Funeral
Was that of driver St. Denis, last Friday morning. One hundred railway employees - as fine a body of men as you would wish to look at - headed the procession, whilst as many more walked behind the hearse, and there was a large number of carriages. The Engineers, Firemen, Conductors and Trainmen were all represented. There were delegates from Ottawa, Smiths Falls, Montreal, Farnham and North Bay. Ottawa sent some forty men and ten women, the latter representing the Women's Auxiliary of the B. of L. E. The floral tributes were numerous and included a wreath from Capital Lodge, B. of L. E.; a cross from the Engineers of Carleton Place; a wreath from the Firemen of Carleton Place; a broken wheel from B. of R.T. 527; a heart from the G.I.A. to B. of L. E. 213 and a wreath from Mississippi Lodge, A.O.U.W. Among the
mourners from a
distance were the sisters of deceased with their husbands from
Montreal; a
sister-in-law and four children from Point St. Charles; and Mrs.
Conley,
another sister-in-law from North Bay. With thanks to
Kelly St. Denis for the newspaper reports. |

Tidbits
by Duncan du
Fresne, Branchline November 2006
Here's a bit of history: CN
took over operation of the BCR in 2004. About 1 00 years earlier, on
the opposite side of the country, another event in the annals of
Canadian railway history took place. The Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry
Sound Railway (and its parent company, the Canada Atlantic) was taken
over by the Grand Trunk Railway (and CN subsequently took over the
Grand Trunk by 1923) Yeah, so what? - Read on! From the files of the
Renfrew (Ontario) Mercury newspaper, dated September 14, 1906, the
following story appeared:
ANOTHER SUNDAY WRECK ON THE GRAND TRUNK "For some cause or other, since the Booth (J.R. Booth, owner of the Canada Atlantic Railway) Line has passed into the control of the larger railway, things are not running so smoothly. It may be that as part of a large machine there is too much "red tape", or the source of power is too far removed; or labour is too hard to get; or else it is hard to train. At all events, something is the matter. Grand Trunk trains do not run with the same to-the-minute regularity that Canada Atlantic trains did; and there seem to be more runoffs and smash ups. Two Sundays ago the wrecking train came up to Renfrew to raise freight cars which had jumped the track just west of Renfrew. Last Sunday it came back for several hours' work in removing the wreck from a rear-end collision. A freight train carrying a good many cars containing lumber was stalled nearly opposite the D. Airth homestead, just east of the Fair Grounds, from a "hot box". It had trouble all the way down the line with this box, and had not got as far along in its journey as expected. Engine No. 626, running light, had come east after this freight. It was in charge of engineer Swinwood. It came down through Admaston at a good fast pace, as was observed by those who were attending the funeral of the late W.L Barr. It came through the town also at a swift pace, and on east; and although there was from a quarter to a half mile of straight track between the start of the Fair Grounds and the stalled train, engine No. 626 went dashing ahead as if there were nothing between it and Goshen. It struck the stalled freight with tremendous force. The engine crashed through the van and a flat car; making matchwood of both, and making wreck as well of the front of 626; and jambing the front of the tender close up to the engine. Several of the other cars had the couplings badly damaged as well. Fortunately, there was no loss of life. All of the freight train hands had been gathered around the hot-box, except the conductor who had gone back to flag the light engine which he knew was somewhere behind him, and engineer Rathbone, of the freight, who was under his engine. He had the narrowest escape of anybody. Under his engine, he heard the puff of another engine rapidly approaching. He swung himself out from under his engine, and hardly had his legs clear before the shock of the concussion sent his train forward some ten or fifteen feet. Had Rathbone been a second later his two legs would have been cut off. The fireman of the light engine was stoking at the time of the approach on the freight, and the shock threw him against the boiler, and piled a lot of coal from the tender against him. He was somewhat bruised about the ribs; and he said it was the most sudden stop he had ever encountered. Engineer Swinwood was on his seat at the time and escaped without injury. How did this accident happen? The Mercury gathered that there were possibly faults on both sides - that the conductor of the freight, relying on the stretch of straight track to the rear of his train, had not gone back far enough with his flag. Although it is said Swinwood was asleep and did not see the flag. Possibly he was asleep, or it may have been that having passed through the town safely, and expecting the freight was far ahead - not knowing of its frequent trouble with the hot-box - he had been watching his fireman at work and did not look in front. It was almost certainly one or the other, for the engine never slackened a turn of a wheel until it hit the van. The wrecking train arrived from Ottawa shortly after eight o'clock - it was at 3:30 the collision occurred - and, working all night, had the track cleared in time for the morning express to go through on time. People walking to the cemetery and going to the funeral had a plain view of the wreck - in fact, some saw the actual collision - and in short order there was a crowd gathered about the trains. One of the men had left his pocket-book in his clothes in the van. He found the pocket-book on the top of engine 626. Another had been taking home some dozens of eggs and a tub of butter. He saw them not again. It was fortunate for Swinwood and his fireman that the flat car was between the van and the lumber cars. The flat buckled in two and acted as a buffer. Half of it, as well as the van, was thrown up on to the surrounding banks; while the other half of the flat up-ended against the lumber car. The observation cupola of the van was thrown on to the top of a car two or three lengths ahead. The front of engine 626 rose on the wheels and trucks of the van and flat; and the wheels made a great conglomeration." The actual date of this reported incident was September 9, 1 906. I received this information from R. Glenn Jamieson, retired CN -VIA conductor of Arnprior, Ontario, with thanks. |
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Head on collision between passenger train
78,
engine 207 and 3 cars and extra west engine 312. This was caused by the
failure
of engine #312 to clear for No. 78. The collision occurred at
07:55,
the engineer's watch was found to have stopped at 07:36. The
engineer
of the passenger train, Fred Rowe, was killed.
Chesterville Record 12/10/1908 Pembroke. Another fatal wreck took place one and a half miles east of here on Thursday morning. A light engine from Smiths Falls collided with the CPR local leaving here at 7.50 and as a result, Fred Rowe of Ottawa, engineer in charge of the local was instantly killed and R. Crawford, Ottawa fireman; Mail Clerk Purcell, Engineer Nagle, Smiths Falls, and W.C. Both, Baggageman, suffered slight injuries. The baggage car of the passenger train was badly damaged but none of the passengers were hurt. Both train and engine were travelling at high speed and met on a curve. Both engines were badly wrecked. The engines were almost to each other before the danger was noticed. Engineer Rowe reversed immediately, and in doing so warned Fireman Crawford, who jumped and escaped with a sprained ankle and minor bruises. Rowe was pinned beneath the engine and tender. Death was instantaneous. His head and shoulders were above the wreckage, but were scorched. His lower limbs were also burned and scalded. Fireman Patton of the light engine was going to jump when he was hurled out of the window and down the bank sustaining a number of bruises, Engineer Nagle got caught at the tender by the coal, which was piled on him. He was quickly released by the men passengers and was able to walk to the station, as he had only a number of bruises and his leg scalded. The light engine should have stopped at Granges (should be Graham) Station, about ten miles east of here. Instead an effort was made to get to Pembroke and the fatal collision was the result. The engineers watch had stopped which misled him as to the time he should make to Pembroke. |
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Bay of Quinte Railway southbound train 12,
BQR Engine #1, consisting of six freight cars, baggage and
coach derailed 5 miles north of Kingston.. Front truck of
second car left track, ditching five cars baggage car and coach.
Two freight cars, baggage and coach left the track, ran down
as 12 to 15 foot embankment and finished upside down at bottom. The
track was in good condition and the car that derailed first
was almost brand new. The accident was caused by the failure of
the truck to right itself after coming off a curve. This can
occur with new equipment, often because of the roughness
between the bottom and top centre plate surfaces. Two were killed
and fourteen injured.
This is the Ottawa Journal report: The Bay of Quinte Railway train inbound from
Tweed this morning jumped the track. The second car from the
engine and four freight cars, the mail car and a passenger car were
hurled down an embankment. The engine remained
on the track and brought the news to Kingston.
Mrs. Alfred Brown of Moscow was killed. Two women were seriously hurt, Mrs. Fahland of Clam Falls, Wis., who suffered terrible cuts about the head in addition to internal injuries. She is likely to die. Mrs. A.A. Yourex of Moscow received severe injuries to the back. There were fifteen passengers on the train at the time and it is a miracle that several were not killed. |
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Train 1273 east (#96) stalled and doubled
into Prescott. The first portion of train, consisting
of 20 cars, was placed on westbound main track while the engine
returned for the rest of train and train extra 2515 and 1220 coupled
west collided with these cars. The yard limit boards were
subsequently moved. The engineer in charge of engine 2515 had
been on duty at the time of the accident 28 hours and 10 minutes.
He had left Brockville on an extra for St. Albans and made a good
run. He turned back from St. Albans without taking proper rest.
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From the Chesterville Record, 3 April, 1913: In an accident which fortunately caused no
loss of life but in which scores of passengers had miraculous escapes,
not a few of them, however, without serious injuries, Grand Trunk
Pacific (sic) train No. 23 Montreal to Ottawa,
was wrecked about a mile east of Maxville station at 11.45 a.m.
this morning. Twelve were injured. Stopping dead in a
distance of twenty yards when at a speed of about 30 miles an hour the
wrecked train tore up the rails at the scene of the accident,
one of them piercing the second car along its full length.
--- The cause of the wreck is supposed to have been the washing away of the ballast by the recent bad weather. The three passenger coaches and baggage car and tender left the right of way and turned over on their sides, but the engine, though turned almost to right angles to its course did not leave the track. One car had to be partially chopped open before some men could be rescued. |
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A Winnipeg bound Canadian Pacific passenger
train, the Imperial Limited, was derailed at McKellar
(Westboro), near Britannia, on the Carleton Place subdivision.
Eleven people were killed and 40 were injured in this accident which
was caused when a track crew had not completed repairs. Three
colonist, one first class, one tourist and one dining car were
derailed, several lying close to the Ottawa River. All the dead
and practically all the injured were immigrants, principally from the
British isles.
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F. Merino, in company with six others, were
members of a lifting gang that took a handcar during the absence of the
Foreman after they had quit work on Saturday afternoon. They left
Chaudiere Junction after 19:00 and went to Ottawa to get provisions,
leaving there about 21:00 or 21:15 to return. The accident
happened about 21:30.
The bridge over the canal at mileage 2 had been opened to permit three small motor boats to pass and was being closed when the handcar approached the bridge and ran into the canal. Mr. Merino was on the front of the car and had no opportunity to jump off. He sustained a cut on the right side of the head and was probably stunned although the actual cause of death was drowning. The semaphores were set at danger and shewed red and the signal light on the bridge itself was burning brightly and shewed red on the side towards the track. The brakes on the handcar were in perfect order and the accident seems to have been due to the fact that none of the men on the car noticed the bridge was open until they were within a few feet of it. |
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A rock from the side of a gravel cut fell on the track and rolled under engine, cutting the ties and allowing the track to spread derailing engine tender, baggage car 8647 and leading truck of colonist car 2786. The train was travelling about 25 mph when about 1600 feet east of mile 120 engine 5138 struck a stone 24x33 inches square which demolished the pilot and went under engine. The engine ran into side of curve and down a 10 ft dump and turned on its side, tender going crosswise of track and leading truck of baggage car 8647 going nearly down a 25 foot embankment on north side. Occurred at 1.30 a.m. The Track Foreman inspected the cut 8.15 previous day and did not consider there was any danger of rock becoming loose. Roadmaster Ogden also passed this point at 9.00 a.m. on the previous date at which time there was no apparent danger of rock falling. This is the first time that a large boulder had become dislodged in this cut. An examination of the rock in the cut immediately after the accident plainly showed that a portion of rock became detatched from a large rock that was lodged near the top of the cut apparently caused by severe electric storms which occurred during the night of the accident. The crack in this rock took place approximately 12 inches under ground from slope of cut and could not be seen by ordinary inspection from track. The Section Foreman was assessed thirty demerit marks. |
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This from the Chesterville Record Thursday 26 January 1922. "Jump for your life" cried Engineer White to
Fireman Elliott as he felt his engine wheels leave the track about a
quarter of a mile south of Ellwood (formerly Chaudiere Junction about
five miles from Ottawa) at 4.35 Saturday afternoon. Elliott leapt
from his cab and fell bruised in the ditch on the left hand side of the
embankment. White applied the brakes. The engine bumped along on
the ties pulling the rest of the train consisting of the mail and
baggage cars and a second and two first class
cars as they swayed along the ties for 500 feet. Then the engine
and tender veered to the right, plunged down the steep 15 foot
embankment
with a hiss of escaping steam it turned a somersault and imprisoned the
faithful engineer in his cab. He was instantly killed.
The baggage car followed the engine and fell on the side while the mail coach shoved its nose in the ditch but stood up. The two rear first class coaches in the meanwhile lurched over on the left hand side of the embankment and toppled on their sides. The second class coach and smoker, which came immediately behind the mail coach did not leave the embankment. The accident was due to a defective rail. Although there were 175 passengers on board it is marvellous that only 15 were injured and most of these but slightly. That the second class coach didn’t follow the other coaches in their headlong fall into the ditch is due to the quick action of brakeman John Riordan. He was in the vestibule of the second class coach when he felt the wheels on the ties. He immediately applied the brakes. This quick action, no doubt, saved many lives, and there were 80 pasengers in this coach. The official accident report gives the number of injured as 21. |

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Inkerman - 60 Years Ago
By Duncan du Fresne Inkerman is a small village in eastern
Ontario, 33 miles east of Smiths Falls. At the time I'm writing about
it, it was located at mileage 91.1 on Canadian Pacific's Winchester
subdivision. Nearly 60 years ago Inkerman was made famous, on an
international scale, by its junior hockey team, the "Inkerman Rockets".
That team, and succeeding ones for the next decade, were the talk of
the hockey world, but that's not the reason why I'm writing this Tid
Bit. The year 2001 is the 60th anniversary of a terrible train wreck
that took place at Inkerman back on March 31, 1941.
Canadian Pacific passenger train No. 29,
known along the Winchester sub. as "The Perth Local", was on the
westbound side of the double track main line on its
way to Perth, Ontario, from Montreal behind light Pacific No.
2658. The local had slowed down to make its station stop at
Inkerman at about 6:30 P.M. There would be a few passengers and the
ever present milk cans, now empty, to unload after their shipment
earlier in the day on train No. 30 to various Montreal dairies. As the
local was about to make its station stop an eastbound 68-car freight
train, making good time, was passing the local on the eastbound track,
- and then it happened. A broken axle (according to the Ottawa Journal
and the Winchester Press) on a car well back in the freight train
resulted in 24 cars of the freight to start piling up.
Of course some of the cars ended up on the westbound main line,
sideswiping
the 2658 in the process. This resulted in the 2658 rolling over on
its right side right in front of the station. The local's engineer,
Fred Plato, and fireman Wallace Plunkett, both of Smiths Falls, were
killed. Inside the station were two C.P. employees, William Maxwell, a
C.P. Section Foreman from Mountain, Ontario, and Edward Pennett the
Station Agent. Both these men got out of the station, which was
physically
moved and structurally damaged by the impact. Maxwell and Pennett went
through two windows to escape. Unfortunately, both were seriously
injured,
Pennett losing a lot of blood from a bad cut in his arm and suffering
also
from burns and shock, while Maxwell, who was badly scalded, was also
suffering from burns and shock as the station was immediately filled
with smoke
and steam from the overturned locomotive. Pennett, taken to Winchester
for medical treatment, lived through the ordeal, however. Maxwell, who
was taken to the Ottawa Civic Hospital, died the following night from
his injuries. Apparently Plato was seen trying to get out of the cab
of the overturned engine but just couldn't make it and died in the
scalding steam.
In the meantime the crew in the van
(caboose) on
the freight train got bounced around pretty good but the van remained
upright
so they got out more or less unscathed. Train 29's conductor, H. Guppy,
and
brakeman C. Riley suffered minor injuries, but nothing worse - lucky!
There were two other people whose number
hadn't yet turned up that evening. One was Asa Hanes of Inkerman, a
mailman who was standing on the station platform waiting to collect
mail bags off train 29. Hanes, who had bent over to pick up his mail
bags, was thrown over by flying ballast as
the engine and rolling stock starting flying around. A military truck
from a flatcar went right over Hanes' head and he lived to talk about
it! Another individual who escaped with his life was Danny McDonald, a
50 year old hobo who had climbed onto the back of the tender of
No. 29's engine at Chesterville hoping to ride to Smiths Falls in
search of a job. McDonald escaped the wreck with severe bruises to
one of his legs and required medical attention. Seems ironic that
McDonald was subsequently charged with vagrancy and spent 10 days in a
Cornwall (Ontario) jail cell.
There was an eye witness to this terrible
affair. He was George Suffel. George lived and worked on the family
farm adjacent to the track and was only 35 yards from the station
building when the wreck occurred . He and his family had been listening
for the local train to arrive, a habit common to farm folk in those
days. Usually George would have been at the station to help unload
their milk cans but on this particular occasion it wasn't necessary as
they hadn't shipped any milk out that morning on No. 30. This might
very well have saved George's life. George remembered seeing Maxwell
and Pennett running away from the station. Both were covered with black
soot and were obviously in need of medical attention. George and his
father ran to the wreck site along with their hired hand, Donald
Burleigh, to give whatever first aid they could. George remembered
putting a tourniquet on Pennett's arm and removing clothing to relieve
the pain from scalded wrists and hands.
Other crew members on the train were A.J.
Slack of Smiths Falls who was the mail clerk and Fred Forrester of
Smiths Falls who was the C.P. Express messenger. Slack had a fractured
rib and Forrester was uninjured. About 25 passengers on the local were
also uninjured.
It was the best part of a week before the
wreckage was cleared and the track rebuilt. In the meantime Toronto -
Montreal passenger trains were rerouted through Bedell, utilizing the
Prescott sub. and passing through Ottawa.
About 75 yards of main line track had been torn up and wrecked cars and
lading were scattered all over. Two auxiliary cranes,
one from Smiths Falls and the other from Montreal, were sent to the
site for the cleanup. Thirty yards from the point of impact one
freight car crashed through the platform of a feed storage building,
reducing the platform and building to kindling wood. According to
the Winchester Press in 1986, the old station, which had been rebuilt,
was sold off a few years later and moved to the village of Mountain
to be used as a private residence. It was still extant in 1998, on
County Road 1. This rebuilt station bore little resemblance to the one
in the wreck, however. Its order board was removed (along with its
operator), the bay window was gone, as was the extended front roof over
the platform.
As a P.S. to this story, all you (ex-CP 4-6-2) 1 201 fans out there
will be pleased to know that four or five years after the tragedy she
was the regularly assigned engine on train 29 and 30. She escaped
unscathed until the end of the steam era, and beyond.Tid Bits by Duncan du Fresne, Bytown Railway Society,, Branchline, December 2001, pages 12-13. |
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By Duncan H. du Fresne
As I write this Tid Bit it is just over 57
years since tragedy struck on the evening of December 27, 1 942, at the
Canadian Pacific Railway station in Almonte, Ontario, when a Canadian
military troop train operated by Canadian Pacific struck the rear of a
local C.P. passenger train.
Thirty six people died and 207 were injured, many very seriously, when the regular first class passenger train, No. 550, "The Pembroke Local", hauled by light Pacific No. 2518 and consisting of ten wooden cars was proceeding eastward toward Ottawa from Petawawa. At the time operation on the Chalk River Subdivision was by Timetable and Train Order, there were no automatic block signals. The train was crowded as a result of holiday traffic, the weather, and wartime conditions, and was consistently losing time at each station stop. If that wasn't enough fireman Frank Dixon was having trouble keeping the boiler pressure up on the 2518 due, in part, to a leaking flue in the rear tube sheet. The engineer on train 550 was Joe. Sauve and the conductor was M. O'Connell, assisted by J. Morris with Trainmen J. Tunney and T. Gilmar. The weather certainly wasn't helping, in addition to it being dark, there was a rain and sleet storm to contend with. Following train No. 550 was a 13-car troop train from western Canada, bound for Montreal, via Chalk River, Carleton Place and Smiths Falls on the Chalk River subdivision, and then via the Winchester sub. to its destination. It was designated by C.P. as Passenger Extra 2802 East, (2802 being its engine number, a C.P. Hudson [4-6-4] type locomotive), crewed by engineer Lome Richardson and fireman Sam Thompson. Train 550's engine and train crew were unaware that they were being closely followed by a passenger extra but, even so, at Almonte, under the rules of the day they should have been "protecting" (with fusees) the rear of their train as it was outside "station limits" by 170 feet (as defined by the rule book). At Almonte the local was 40 minutes late, arriving there at 8:32 P.M. CP 4-6-4 2802 stands on the shop
track at Smiths Falls, Ontario, with those big smoke deflectors. Date
unknown.
The crew of Passenger Extra 2802 East, with conductor John Howard in
charge, were aware that they had been closing up on No. 550 since the
operators at both Renfrew and Arnprior had been ordered by the
dispatcher to hold their train in order to maintain the required 20
minute "block" behind the local. In fact the troop train had arrived at
Renfrew
only five minutes after No. 550 had departed and arrived at Arnprior
only eight behind the preceding train.Approaching Almonte, Passenger Extra 2802 East was proceeding at about 45 MPH at which time speed was reduced to about 25 MPH after a 12 pound brake pipe reduction had been made. The approach to the Almonte station is on a left hand curve approaching from the west, followed by the crossing of the swift flowing Mississippi River. The train order (board) signal at Almonte was briefly observed by Sam Thompson through the mist from the river and the rain and sleet as being "green" (indicating that no train orders were to be picked up). Lome Richardson, on the right side of the 2802 as it rounded the left hand curve could not see the signal or the rear end of train No. 550 because the length of 2802's boiler obscured his view. It wouldn't have mattered much anyway as a train order (board) signal has nothing to do with indicating whether or not the track is clear. In addition to those other restrictions to visibility, 550 was also partially obscured by escaping steam from the tail end car heater line. On the assumption that train 550 had left the station at least 20 minutes before, engineer Richardson released the brake to drift through. As it turned out the train order was green alright, however, this was because the rear end of No. 550 had not yet passed it, the train still being stopped at the station, so the operator had not yet changed it. Neither Richardson nor Thompson saw the local until they were only about 400 feet from it when 2802's headlight reflected off the glass in the rear coach door. Richardson put the brake in emergency, but it was too late. At 8:38 P.M. it happened, engine 2802 struck No. 550, completely telescoping the last car, coach 1028, and partially telescoping coach 1516, the second to last car, stopping midway through it. Both of these cars were reduced to scraps of metal and kindling wood. The troop train consisted of engine 2802, 1 3 heavy steel cars and a caboose, and weighed more than a thousand tons. The elderly wooden coaches offered little resistance to the onslaught or provided safety for the passengers. Fortunately, there was no fire as a result of the collision and there were lots of rescuers. A not-to-heavy jolt was all that was felt by engineer Joe. Sauve and fireman Frank Dixon on the 2518 which shows the frailty of those wooden coaches. Lome Richardson suffered an injured chin, inflicted by flying debris from the wreckage of 550. Sam Thompson came through it without a scratch. Military personnel on the troop train got a minor shaking up, probably as much from the emergency application of the brake as the collision itself. On the local, things were very different. A massive rescue operation began, first by local people in Almonte and the surrounding area, by military personnel from the troop train and Sam Thompson off the 2802. Soon local doctors and nurses arrived and later medical people from Carleton Place, Smiths Falls and Ottawa. A nurse I know was ordered to come to work sometime after midnight at the Ottawa Civic Hospital from her home in Ottawa, as were other nurses and doctors. She didn't know why, and didn't ask, but responded to the call. An Ottawa to Petawawa passenger train was turned into a hospital train at Carleton Place, and the remains of train 550 was similarly made into a hospital train to transport the injured to Ottawa. The town hall and the O'Brien theatre in Almonte were turned into temporary morgues and a place of refuge for the injured. The Smiths Falls auxiliary was called out, however, it wasn't until after 5:00 a.m. the following morning that the line was cleared. Despite the amount of damage to the wooden rolling stock, the rails and ties were, basically, left undamaged. The 2802 had its pilot damaged and the engine truck derailed, really quite minor. Without a doubt it was one of the worst train wrecks in Canadian history. Looking back at that terrible night, from the year 2000, the thought of wooden coaches being used as late as 1942 seems incredible to most outsiders, but was quite well accepted by railwaymen and the rail travelling public alike. Those old cars would outlast the wartime years and still be in service into the very late 1940s, and many into the 1950s. A coroners inquest was established, with a jury of five men, and was held immediately after the tragedy. It was headed up by Dr. Smirle Lawson, the Chief Coroner of Ontario who, after hearing the evidence, was convinced that the C.P.R. should shoulder all of the blame. Obviously the Company disagreed, as did the Board of Transport Commissioners, who blamed many of the employees involved for rules violations. "The inquest concluded that the blame for the wreck must be placed entirely on the Canadian Pacific Railway Company for three reasons: First, they had no operator stationed at Pakenham when in (our) opinion the accident might have been avoided by the 20 minute block system. Second, there was no protective signal at a most dangerous curve, at the entrance to the town (Almonte). Third, the green light showing above the Almonte station gave the engineer of No. 2802 the impression that he might proceed. Had this signal been red, according to the testimony of the engineer and fireman, this train could have been stopped. We place no blame whatever on the crews of the trains No. 550 and No. 2802, but we do feel that an effort could have been made from Smiths Falls to call an operator at Pakenham and Almonte. We recommend that in order to prevent the occurrence of a similar catastrophe and to safeguard the travelling public, especially under wartime conditions: (a) That an operator be placed on steady duty at Pakenham. (b) The immediate installation of an automatic station protective signal west of Almonte. 8 That a standing order be issued for a speed limit not exceeding 25 miles per hour through Almonte and that this order be strictly enforced by the railroad officials. (d) That the block signal device at the station here be changed to give protection to standing trains". At the inquest a great deal of the time was spent discussing the operating rules used by Canadian railways and by which train operation is governed. It is obvious the Chief Coroner didn't understand train operation, or the rules, and became very agitated when they were cited over and over by the various witnesses. In inquest recommendation d) it is obvious he had still not found out what the "block signal device" as he called it, (train order signal), at the station signified. Of course, it only signifies that there are, or there are not, orders for a train. It conveys no meaning whatsoever as to the status of the railway. In retrospect, it could have been a much more meaningful inquest in the opinion of this writer at this late date. The 2802, standing on the shop
track at
West Toronto on November 1, 1957. The 2802 likely looked much like this
in
1942, without those "elephant ear" smoke deflectors.
Parties involved at the inquest were, of course, passenger survivors of the wreck, the railway employees involved, the Brotherhoods representing the running trades employees, both minor and major officials of the railway, the Dominion Board of Transport, and others. The Brotherhoods put the blame on the C.P.R., mainly for not keeping the operator on duty at Pakenham, the first train order station west of Almonte. Had that operator been on duty the dispatcher might have had him hold the troop train at that location. The second war years and the holiday season presented a busy time on the railway with extreme demands on the system, as well as the men and equipment, even the Coroner said that current conditions demanded new rules and equipment. Had the troop train been following the rules, to the letter, they should have been able to stop, and had the crew on the local made an effort to protect the rear of their train, there would not likely have been a collision. Fault all round? Probably. Three rules violations were cited in the Board of Transport Commissioners report. First, the crew of No. 550 did not follow rule #36, which states that "a red or yellow fusee, as the case may require, will be used for protection of a train which is not making the speed required by schedule or train order and is liable to be overtaken by a following train". The Board's report also stated that: "The crew of No. 550 had no advice that passenger extra 2802 was following them, but in view of the fact that the train was losing time due to the very heavy traffic incident to the holidays, and having in mind that the rear end of the train was two car lengths out side the west switch at Almonte, good judgment should have dictated to the crew of this train that some protection was necessary, and fusees should have been dropped in accordance with the above mentioned rule". Secondly, rule 91, paragraph 3 states: "Schedule speed must not be exceeded by schedules of trains other than the first section, nor may a train following a train carrying passengers, exceed the schedule speed of such train unless clearance shows arrival at a station ahead". In the Board's report, they elaborated by saying: "This rule was applicable to passenger extra No. 2802 immediately that train was stopped by the train order signal at Renfrew for the twenty minute block on No. 550. It again became applicable when this train was stopped by the train order signal at Arnprior, as has been pointed out [supra] in both instances, namely, between Renfrew and Arnprior, and Arnprior and Almonte. The schedule speed of train No. 550 was exceeded in the first instance between Renfrew and Arnprior by six minutes, and in the second instance between Arnprior and Almonte by five minutes. These two instances of exceeding the schedule speed of train No. 550 form a clear and most serious violation of the said rule, and a major contributing factor to the accident". And, in addition, they also said: "It does not appear that there was any determined effort on the part of the engineer or conductor of passenger extra No. 2802 to actually check their times with the schedule speed of train No. 550, which they knew was ahead of them". The engine that powered the
ill-fated local train at Almonte, Ontario, on December 27, 1942, was
CPR's light Pacific No. 2518, shown in Montreal in 1933 with open cab,
little 5,000-gallon tender and single cylinder air compressor. A fine
engine that had a life span of 49 years.
Without a doubt the worst of the three rule violations cited by the Board was rule 93a which states, in part: "The outer main track switches of passing tracks will be considered 'station limits', and main track may be used inside of such limits by keeping clear of first and second class trains. All trains except first and second class trains must, unless otherwise directed, approach and pass through such limits, prepared to stop unless the main track is seen to be clear..." They also said: "It is abundantly plain that the main track ahead had not been seen to be clear and it is equally plain that passenger extra No. 2802 did not approach the 'station limits' prepared to stop". While I have only quoted the most salient points from the Board's report I am going to quote the Board's findings in total so that the reader may compare them with the findings of the Coroner's Inquest, which are very different: "There can be no other conclusion drawn from the facts but that had the rules been observed there would have been no accident. Departure from the rules, resulting in the accident, may be summarized as follows: 30. Failure of the crew of passenger extra No. 2802, and in particular the engineer and conductor thereon, to observe the provisions of paragraph 3 of Rule 91 and Rule 93(a) of the General, Train and Interlocking Rules of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, in that passenger extra No. 2802 exceeded the schedule speed of train No. 550, and that the engineer of passenger extra No. 2802 did not have his train under control and prepared to stop as he approached Almonte Station. It is also felt that the company's official who was riding this train at the time erred inasmuch as he failed to take such necessary action as would ensure compliance with the rules. 31. Neglect of crew of first-class passenger train No. 550 to provide protection by way of red or yellow fusee, as required by Rule 36 of the General, Train and Interlocking Rules of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, to the rear end of No. 550 when it was known that their train was not making the speed required by schedule, and that the rear end of the train while standing at the station at Almonte projected some 170 feet west of station limits. 32. The west approach to Almonte Station is on a curve, and under certain weather conditions a mist arises from the falls near this west approach to the station. The combination of these facts having been disclosed, it appears that the erection of a station protection signal west of Almonte would be an additional safeguard to a train standing at Almonte Station. A direction to this effect will go to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company accordingly". Engineer Richardson was taken out of service. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers fought long and hard to have him reinstated and were moderately successful in getting him a job as a permanent locomotive fireman on a yard engine in Prescott, Ontario. Sam Thompson went on to finish his career as an engineer working out of Ottawa West. The conductor of passenger extra 2802, John Howard, became victim number 37 when he took his own life (by drowning) before the inquest got underway. He left his son a letter which stated that taking the blame for the disaster was more than he could bear. Nine months short of retirement, John Howard had never been involved in an accident of any kind after 40 years of service. Truly a night, and a nightmare, to remember. One night, about 10 years later, I was the fireman on one of those late night westbound through "western" passenger trains. The engineer I was with, whose name I have forgotten, said he felt sick, probably his heart, after leaving Carleton Place. In any event he stopped the train at the Almonte station, got off the engine and asked the station operator to get help and medical attention, which he did. In the meantime the Smiths Falls dispatcher, after an hour or so delay, got another engineer out to the train and we continued on to Chalk River. I'm sorry that I no longer remember any further details of that incident, but don't think I didn't remember the "Almonte Wreck" on that terrible night 10 years earlier while I was sitting on that engine at Almonte, protected, I might add, by automatic block signals. As an occasional visitor to the town of Almonte, well over 50 years after that fateful night, when I cross the tracks on the road crossing immediately west of the location where the station used to stand, and where the Almonte town hall building still stands, I think about the infamous Almonte wreck and its devastating horror, shattered lives, broken bodies, and the sadness it brought to so many innocent people. The story of the Almonte wreck was first printed in Branchline in December 1988 and was written by Ron Ritchie. Ron, a BRS member and friend, finished up his railroad career as Assistant to the President of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and now lives in Hudson Heights, Quebec. I have somewhat embellished his original story with details I have learned in the interim, and remembered, and thank Ron for his diligence in keeping so many of the facts of this incident logged as well as so many other "happenings" on the railway. A big tip of the old Tid Bitter's cap to Ron. Tid Bits by Duncan du Fresne, Bytown Railway Society,, Branchline, April 2000, pages 8-10. |
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On May 10th, 1946 Canadian Pacific passenger
train #7, 'The Dominion', westbound, hit an open vandalized switch just
west of Renfrew station and the locomotive,
Royal Hudson 2858 and a baggage car rolled onto their
sides. There were no injuries. Auxiliary cranes from Smiths
Falls and Chalk River rerailed them. 2858 is currently sitting in the
locomotive bay at the Canada Science and Technology Museum, Ottawa.
Bytown Railway Society,, Branchline, July-August 1994, page 16, and April 1998, page 17. |
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Extract from an article by Duncan duFresneBytown Railway Society,,
Branchline, January 1982, Pages 10-11-12.
But Travie Short is remembered better for
another story. Ironically train number 83's return from Smiths Falls as
an extra is involved, as is Fourth Class train number 89 3 another
Ottawa West -
Smiths Falls via Carleton Place job that also handled much of the CIP
production from Gatineau. On the night of March 18, 1950, 83's extra
and 89 were
to meet at Ashton, Ont, The extra had a car to set out at Ashton
anyway, on the business siding parallel to the passing track. The extra
planned to pull their train into the passing track, cut off head end
cars
to the one they had to set out, pull out through the east end switch
and
then back into the business track. It was a bad night, a heavy March
snow
storm with very high winds was lashing the valley. The extra
pulled
slowly into the passing track, 89 was west of Stittsville and eating
away
the time and distance over to Ashton. The crew of the extra had
correctly
left their headlight on as they were not "in the clear". The story goes
that
the wind was whipping the smoke and exhaust, as well as the snow,
around
the extra's front end. As westbound 89 got the extra's headlight in
sight
the wind caused the smoke, steam and snow to obscure the light, then
clear
up, then obscure it again. In the cab of the onrushing 89 this was
mistaken
for a deliberate "highball" signal indicating (illegally) that the
extra
was "in the clear". The hogger on 89 opened, up his throttle and roared
past the east passing track switch not knowing that just ahead,
obliterated
by the flying snow, was the tail end of the Extra, still foul of the
main
line. Standing on the west switch was a ballast car of rock. The 2624
plowed
into it, rolling over in the process, cars piled up in all directions.
The
little station on the south side of the main was demolished. When all
motion
had ceased, 89's engine crew were dead and her head end brakeinan, Tom
Gilmer,
had saved his life by jumping just before the collision. The dead
fireman
was George Hannam, - the engineer was Travie Short.
From an Ottawa paper 19 March 1950: Like the Toys of an Angry Giant (with picture) Smashed and tossed
by the trenendous impact of tons of steel, the wreckage of CPR
freight No. 83 lies scattered across the main transcontinental line at
Ashton, 20 miles southwest of Ottawa. The broken cars spew their
cargo across the snow, the one in the right upper background spreading
hundreds of cases of beer about. Seven cars, the
engine and the tender are spread around in much the same confusion as
would result if a small boy in temper had upset his toy train.
The early morning collision Saturday of No. 83 with the rear end of
an eastbound freight affected train schedules and connections from
Montreal to Sudbury, while dispatchers rerouted freight and passenger
to by-pass the smash-up in which two crewmen died and two others were
injured. The wreckage was cleared, 250 yards of ripped up track
replaced and the line opened for traffic again late Saturday. At
either end of the torn right-of-way, the railway wreck-clearing cranes
can be seen beginning the job of working their way to the centre of the
pile-up.
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The Westboro Wreck
By Michael Iveson. Canadian Pacific Train No. 8, "The Dominion"
was better than an hour-and-a-half "off the advertized" on January 20,
1951 when it crested the grade near the suburban Ottawa station of
Westboro
and struck a coal truck at the Chuchill Avenue crossing, just east of
Westboro Station.
The truck driver and his helper, employees of the nearby Independent Coal and Lumber Company, were able to jump clear of their vehicle and were uninjured. The train and its crew were not so lucky. Powered by Royal Hudson No. 2821, the "Dominion" was rolling along at better than 70 mph when the collision occured. Upon impact, the truck was thrown against a switchstand just at the crossing. The force of the blow opened the turnout, diverting the train into the siding of the Cummings Coal Company. The engine was unable to negotiate the tight curvature of the siding. It derailed and ploughed down the track embankment on its side, coming to rest some 500 feet from where the Westboro transitway station is now located. The wreckage also included a heavy weight baggage car, a 2200-series coach, a heavy weight diner, and a sleeper. The balance of the train stayed on the rails. The train's Engineer, Albert Scharf, was trapped in the cab of the 2821, suffering fatal burns. His Fireman, Earl Fergus, miraculously survived, retiring from CP engine service a couple of years ago. In all, some 30 passengers and crew members were injured that day. The 2821 was hauled out of the mud and snow and rebuilt. Ironically, it was involved in yet another collision - a cornfield meet with sister 2823 on the North Bay Subdivision. She was rebuilt after this incident, and was scrapped in December of 1959. On a personal note, my mother and I had just waved at the crew of Number 8 as it had passed our home not two minutes before the accident. My father, who worked on Saturday morning in those days, was driving down Churchill Avenue and witnessed the accident. He was one of the first to reach the crew trapped in the cab. I spent the next few days after the accident watching the equipment being rerailed. After its retrieval, the 2821 was stored on a siding at Westboro Station until it could be shipped to Montreal for repairs. To this day, as I approach the intersection of Scott Street and Churchill Avenue, I still think of that awful wreck of January 21, 1951. Bytown Railway Society,, Branchline,March 1987, page 6 |
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1953, October 11 -
Derailment of a Canadian Pacific passenger train on the Castor
grade, Maniwaki subdivision.
Bytown Railway
Society,, Branchline, January 2005, pages 12-13.Tid Bits by Duncan H. du Fresne
Death and Disaster on the Castor Grade (This article is a reprint, with some embellishment, from an original article written by the author in May 1982) Castor grade was the railroader's name for a part of the long grade on Canadian Pacific's Maniwaki subdivision which began at a point approximately one half to three quarters of a mile north of the railway's Gracefield, Quebec, station, at mile 57.8. The grade was several miles long and contained a number of left and right hand curves, with a steep embankment on the east side for most of its length. It is hard to believe that the Maniwaki sub. is nothing but a memory north of Wakefield now, but back in 1953, the time of our story, it was still quite a busy pike, and steam power and wooden consist passenger trains still reigned. Let's go back to October 10, 1953, and a bit of background information. It's a Saturday afternoon and the regular passenger engine crew that brought the daily, except Sunday, train No. 534 down from Maniwaki have "booked off after their 11:05 A.M. arrival at Ottawa Union Station (CD) and after having brought their engine back to Ottawa West shop. This was the regular crew's normal practice at the time for it gave them their only chance to sleep in their own beds for two nights out of the week and have what remained of Saturday, and all of Sunday at home. All other nights were spent in the company's Maniwaki bunkhouse. This crew would "book on" again sometime late on Sunday so that they could go out on their regular assignment, train No. 535, on Monday afternoon. This arrangement meant that a spare engine crew had to be called to take the Saturday afternoon passenger train, No. 539, on the return trip back to Maniwaki. In those days, the Saturday afternoon return trip departed Ottawa (CD) earlier than the regular Monday-Friday schedule (2:20 P.M. instead of 4:15 P.M.), and would more likely than not, for the reasons stated, have a spare list engine crew assigned. There was also a Sunday morning passenger train scheduled out of Ottawa and this job would also be worked by a spare list crew. It left CD at 9:15 A.M. as train No. 537. The crew that went north on Saturday came back to Ottawa on Sunday evening on train No. 538, departing Maniwaki at 5:50 P.M. Similarly, the crew that went north on Sunday morning came back to Ottawa on Monday morning, on the regular schedule of train No. 534, departing Maniwaki at 7:40 A.M., arriving at CD at 11:05 A.M. In addition to these passenger movements there were two way freight jobs on the sub. which operated daily, except Sunday, as trains No. 79 and 80, often with a spare list crew on the weekend. This job left Ottawa West yard (UY) for Maniwaki early in the morning, arriving in Maniwaki in the late afternoon-early evening period. The northbound Saturday morning crew on this job had the pleasure of spending their weekend at C.P.'s little "resort" bunkroom in Maniwaki until Monday morning. Their Monday morning departure for Ottawa West was after the departure of No. 534. Lots of freight extras were operating on the pike at that time, as well as the odd passenger extra, but we'll not be concerned with them here. On the weekend of October 10-11, 1953, train No. 79 left UY on Saturday morning, as per usual, with a spare engine crew. The engineer was "Sergeant-Major" Lou Brunet, and the fireman was Ray Higgins, quite a good friend of mine. In the afternoon of that day the Saturday only passenger train, No. 539, left CD with light Pacific No. 2221 on the head end of a train consisting of a wooden bodied baggage car and two wooden coaches. As usual there was a spare engine crew on board the 2221 with Richard (Dick) McNally as engineer and C. Kenneth Learmonth as fireman on the hand-fired coal burning 2221. Fireman Learmonth was a Smiths Falls "north end" fireman who had been "cut off the list" (laid off) in Smiths Falls and had come over to Ottawa West to exercise his seniority and work, rather than sit around Smiths Falls until he was once again assigned to the spare list there. This was to be Learmonth's first trip over the Maniwaki sub. Dick McNally was an "A" list spare passenger engineer who knew the branch (Maniwaki sub.) extremely well. By Saturday evening the engine crews of 539 and 79 were both in the Maniwaki bunkhouse and there they spent the night. At 12:35 P.M. on Sunday, train No. 537 arrived in town. I no longer recall who her crew was, but now there were three engine crews in the Maniwaki bunkhouse. As stated earlier, the crew off 537 would spend the night in Maniwaki and leave for Ottawa Union Station on train 534 on Monday morning. The Plot Thickens Sometime after 537's arrival it was decided by some, or all, of the three crews now in the bunkhouse to have a beer. Normally this would have resulted in the boys walking the short distance over to the main street and frequenting one of the several drinking/dining establishments. But for some reason or other it was decided to get some beer and bring it back to the bunkhouse. My friend, Ray Higgins, allegedly went over to town, got the beer, and brought it back. I have no idea how much was consumed, but some was. In any event at 5:50 P.M. it was time for train No. 538 to depart with McNally and Learmonth on the 2221, hauling three cars. They left town and headed south for Ottawa. It was to be their last trip! The Castor Grade. At about mileage 60, approximately two miles north of Gracefield, the train got rolling down the grade at too high a rate of speed for the curvature when, suddenly, the 2221 left the rails, plunged down the steep east embankment and rolled over on her left side. The tender jack-knifed, ending up on its left side, at about a 60 degree angle to the 2221, spilling out her 7,000 gallons of water and 10 tons of coal in the process. The baggage car followed the engine and tender down the embankment and lost both its trucks along the way. Nevertheless the baggage car's body remained upright, almost touching the back of 2221's tender and the front of the wrecked engine. The three pieces of equipment formed a sort of triangle where they lay. The leading coach left the rails and rolled almost completely over on her right side but, along with the second coach, which remained upright, remained on the right of way. By the time Conductor D.H. McDiarmid made his way to the head end to review the situation and get his portable 'phone set up on the dispatcher's wires, both McNally and Learmonth had climbed out of the wreckage and had made their way back to the embankment. Both had been burned and scalded badly and were writhing in pain, but they were alive. McDiarmid made contact with the dispatcher and briefed him on the situation, and I'm sure his description of what had happened was vastly different to the one that got out to the public. Somehow or other the whole thing got blown out of all proportion. I was at home in Ottawa that evening and what I heard on the radio was that there had been a train wreck near Gracefield, Quebec, that it was a "major disaster" and that C.P. was assembling a "mercy train" at Ottawa West station to take "anybody who could help" up to the wreck site. Two Ottawa hospitals took action to get nurses and internes just coming off duty to the "mercy train". They alerted operating room teams, called in their blood bank staff, drew donor lists from files, notified local wholesale houses of the possible need for extra cots, mattresses and stretchers and sent out a "code A" radio alert. While all this was going on two ambulances were "racing" up Quebec highway 11 (now 105) to Gracefield. It wouldn't be much of a race on that road as it is now, let alone as it was in 1953. As it turned out the "mercy train" was cancelled when more accurate information became available and cooler heads prevailed, however, the two ambulances got to Gracefield, still several miles from the remote location of the wreck. In the meantime both McNally and Learmonth had been brought down to Gracefield by a section man's track-motor "speeder" to await the arrival of the ambulances. They received some emergency treatment by Doctors Ren6 Lafreniere and Arthur Desjardins of Gracefield and were subsequently taken to the Ottawa General Hospital by a St. John Ambulance Brigade crew, alive, only to die 20 and 23 hours later respectively. Three of the passengers, out of a total of 35, required hospital treatment for leg and ankle injuries. All of the other passengers were somewhat shaken up and a few suffered minor cuts, bruises and shock, mostly from broken glass and luggage flying around when the first coach rolled over. It was not a major disaster in the normal sense, but it certainly was for Dick McNally and Ken. Learmonth. As in such cases a C.P.R. investigation was held, as was a Coroner's Inquest. There was some debate about the location of the Coroner's Inquest inasmuch as the accident happened in Quebec, but the two deaths occurred in Ontario. Autopsies were carried out in Ottawa and copies of the report were turned over to Quebec authorities to deal with near the scene of the derailment. Canadian Pacific's investigation into the events that led up to the tragedy was thorough. Their investigation team comprised the following officials: Mr. T.E. Wheeler, Superintendent, Smiths Falls Division; Mr. G.E. Pielow, Assistant Superintendent, Ottawa; Mr. G.E. Mayne, General Manager, Eastern Region, Toronto; and Mr. F.A. Pouliot, Quebec District General Superintendent, Montreal. Their investigation resulted, basically, in putting the blame on certain employees for the consumption of beer and the violation of rule "G" by the engine crew before going on duty. The way freight engine crew of Brunei and Higgins were fired for the same rule "G" violation as it was, allegedly, either one or both of them who brought, and consumed, alcohol on the company's premises. 537's engine crew was exonerated. Rule "G", by the way, in the 1951 Uniform Code of Operating Rules (UCOR), stated: "The use of intoxicants or narcotics by employees subject to duty, or their possession or use while on duty, is prohibited". But, was this really the only cause? The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen argued that a mechanical fault on the 2221, and fireman's Learmonth's total lack of familiarity with the branch were the causes. How?, Why? The 2221 was one of the Gl light Pacific's with an Elesco boiler feedwater pump in her tender. Water from that pump, under high pressure, made its way to the boiler through a flexible pipe connector between the tender and the engine known as a "Barco" connector. That particular connector had been leaking badly just prior to the accident, and this had been documented. Both of the Brotherhoods took the position that Learmonth was carrying the water low in the boiler, and as he didn't know the road was not aware that they were about to descend a long grade and that the water should have been up high just before the long descent. Furthermore, and to compound Learmonth's problem, it was early evening, dark, and it was raining. As the train rolled over the top of the down grade the boiler water ran ahead in the boiler and disappeared from sight in the water glass. Learmonth opened up on the water pump throttle to recover the water but due to the leakage at the Barco joint it was taking too long for the water to rise in the boiler. Dick McNally in the meantime, becoming aware of Learmonth's problem, started work to get the right side Hancock non-lifting injector in operation to get some vital'water into that boiler. While he was working at this his concentration on running the engine was broken and his exact position on the grade was lost. During this process the train gathered too much speed, and very quickly got out of control. A few seconds later the 2221 hit a right hand curve, left the rails, and plunged down the embankment. Dick McNally, 57, and Ken. Learmonth, 36, were dead. The beer drinking incident, regardless of how little (or how much) might have been consumed prior to the start of that fateful trip, was strictly against the rules. The Brotherhood's position, however plausible, and there was documented evidence to support the leaking Barco joint argument, was still only speculation. Brunet and Higgins never got their jobs back. Both Learmonth and Higgins had young families. I'm not sure what happened to Brunet, but Ray Higgins went into retail sales and got back on his feet. Dick McNally was survived by his wife, Grace, two brothers and one sister. I worked with Dick McNally on the branch and main lines. Dick was a character, but a pleasant guy to work with and one who knew what he was doing. My most vivid memory of Dick occurred on a trip on the main line from Ottawa to Montreal one day on a Royal Hudson. We were roaring along at high speed with one of those heavy western passenger trains and Dick was having a bad time getting the throttle to stay "latched". Each time he would set the thing where he wanted it, it would slip out of place and begin to close. Dick tried to jam it in position by sticking a wad of cotton waste between the latch and the lever, but to no avail. I can still see him on that seat, with both arms raised holding the throttle open, with his "trade mark" red bandana around his neck flying in the breeze, and yelling over the roar of the Hudson to me: "mate, it's like trying to hang onto a mad bull". Dick was missed by us all. Serious railway accidents, like all accidents, really strike home when you are intimately involved. I had been the fireman on the 2221, on that job, at that time, for that engineer. I might have been on 538 that night just as easily as Learmonth. Would it have been my last trip? Many of us at that time asked that question. Railroading, for all the interest and pleasure the fans get from it, is a serious business. For those who earn, or have earned their livings from it see it as a very unforgiving "game" if played carelessly. One has to be fully aware of what's going on about you, especially when handling steam power, if you are to survive. It's a sound message for BRS members who enjoy it as a hobby. Let's keep our accident free safety record intact by practising "heads up" railroading. Postscript The 2221 was mortally wounded that night. With the aid of the Ottawa West auxiliary, DIG 4-6-0 #1059, a Lidgerwood winch and a crew of men, the 2221 was dragged back up to the right of way and subsequently put back on the rails. It was towed to Ottawa West where it stood on the rip-track for disposal for a short time. Some time later she went to Angus (shops) in Montreal and was scrapped. For those of us who had to deal with the 2221, we were glad to see her go for she was a pain in the neck. This engine had gained a reputation on the Division for not being a very good "steamer", that is to say it was impossible to keep her "hot" (maintain maximum boiler pressure). This was unusual for the Gls were really good engines and all the others steamed quite well. Getting rid of her was no loss, but two of our Brothers were dead and two others had their lives put in a turmoil, a bad situation. Post, Postscript I'm not finished with the 2221 just yet. In the next issue of Branchline I'm going to write about one of those Pilgrimage trains that we got from time to time out of Ottawa (and Hull), and a trip I had on a Pilgrimage train with that same 2221 only months before the Castor Grade accident. Stay with me! This
is how CP 4-6-2 2221 looked after her arrival on the Ottawa West rip
track. She was no where near this bad after her fatal plunge on
Thanksgiving weekend 1953, but her recovery resulted in just about
wrecking her. Note the missing door panel on the left side of the
tender, the location of the Elesco feed pump. Photo by Addison Schwalm.
Bytown Railway
Society,, Branchline, March 1997, pages 18-19.Tidbits by Duncan H. Dufresne. TRAGEDY ON CASTOR GRADE: Still, another
memory, a very unpleasant one, comes to mind. On the evening of October
11,1953, a news flash came over the local radio stations in Ottawa that
a terrible passenger train wreck had just occurred on the Castor grade
north of
Gracefield, Quebec. It was a Sunday evening so the engine crew would
be the spare crew which went north on Saturday. In any event an appeal
for medical help was being broadcast and for a time it seemed that
there
was a great loss of life and many injuries. This, however, was not the
case and for reasons I no longer recall the radio people, and perhaps
others,
had badly overreacted. The fact of the matter was that the engine on
train
538, powered by G1 class light Pacific No. 2221, had left the rails on
a curve on the downgrade, rolled over on her left side down the steep
embankment,
quite a distance from the tracks. The wood bodied baggage/express car
followed
the 2221, lost both its trucks in its plunge, and ended sitting upright
in
a position 90 degrees to 2221's tender which, itself, was 90 degrees to
the
2221 and lying on its left hand side. Its forward truck was missing.
The
engine, tender, and baggage/express car sort of formed a strange
looking
triangle at the foot of the embankment. The first of the two all wood
coaches
left the track, rolled over to an extreme angle to its right, but
remained
on the right of way. The other coach, also remaining on the right of
way,
rolled over to an angle of only about 15 degrees. Only 3 of the 35
passengers
reported on the train were seriously hurt. The most serious injury was
a
broken ankle, but everyone, at the very least, was given a good shaking
up,
together with cuts and bruises. No doubt it scared the living daylights
out
of all of them.
THE REAL INJURIES: Yeah, there were others in more serious condition. The engineer, Dick McNally, and the fireman, Ken Learmonth, both survived the wreck, but they had been badly scalded. They in fact had climbed off the overturned 2221, crawled up the embankment, and were ultimately taken to hospital in Ottawa where both succumbed to their injuries. Dick McNally was a local Ottawa West engineer working on the spare "A" list. Learmonth, on the other hand, was a "north end" (working out of Smiths Falls) fireman who had recently been "cut off" the spare list there and had come over to Ottawa where he "stood" for work. The trip up the Gatineau was in fact his first trip over the Maniwaki sub and, unfortunately, his last. The 2221, the only G1 class engine in Ottawa that nobody was too fond of (it wouldn't steam worth a damn), was hauled out of there, and sent to Angus Shops in Montreal where it was scrapped. (People like me did not shed a tear over that). A big investigation followed this accident and you can be sure the cause was attributed to human error. The BLE (Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers) and the BLF&E (Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen) didn't agree with the findings, and with some very good reasons, but there was no denying there was human error. The circumstances leading up to the accident, the accident itself, the fallout from it and most important, the people involved in it, is a story itself and has appeared in other issues of Branchline. And lest you wonder in those days before train radio how the word of the accident got out so quickly from the wilderness, it goes like this. Parallel to the railway were the telegraph lines that linked the station operators together with the dispatcher. The train's conductor, Harvey McDiarmid, went over to the line, hooked up his portable 'phone to the dispatcher's "pair" (of wires) on the cross arms and presto, he was talking to the Smiths Falls dispatcher's office. Space age communication it ain't, but it worked! Next month I will write about the various jobs (trains) that ran on the Maniwaki sub.. What working on them was like, or more precisely, what earning a living on them was like toward the end of the steam era, the branch line era, and the branch line passenger train era, wooden cars and all! |
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The Ottawa Citizen
noted a derailment on Monday 26 January some7 miles west of Aylmer, on
the rock bluffs just east of Breckenridge, due to a broken rail; the
temperature the previous night had been -20F/-30C. One load of oil for
the Hilton mine and 18 empty hoppers went off. Passengers from the
morning train from Waltham were
taxied to Ottawa presumably from Breckenridge.
The Ottawa West auxiliary was ordered at 08:45 with diesel 8707
and the Smiths Falls auxilliary was ordered at 12:45 with diesel
8701. An additional work train was ordered at 13:45 with steam
locomotive 2207. The work trains returned to Ottawa West late
in the evening of Wednesday 28 January 1959.
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1962, January 7 - "The Dominion" derails at
St. Eugene, Canadian Pacific, M and O subdivision
and derails the three diesels (8474-1902-1910) and several cars.
Tid Bits by Duncan H. du Fresne, Branchline, December 2006. CP
Train No. 8 - "The Dominion"
The following incident involving CP train No. 8 near St. Eugene,
Ontario, at mileage 27.4 of the former M & O subdivision, on
January 7, 1962, holds a special memory for me for several reasons. I
left CP as a locomotive fireman in 1957. It was not easy. I had been a
company employee for 1 2 years, never much wanted to do anything else
but be an engineman, and I must admit it was the steam locomotive that
made me think the way I did (and still do). In any event circumstances
well beyond my control and understanding (the introduction of
diesel-electric power and the elimination of firemen) resulted in my
having to leave CP and do something else with my life. That "something
else" (by pure luck) resulted in my joining the Federal Government's
Department of Transport as a trainee Air Traffic Controller. I started
training at the Department's ab-initio (VFR) school at Malton Airport
(Toronto). Again, it was not easy. It was a very tough course and, for
me, having little formal education which ended at age 1 5 when I joined
CP, meant that getting my nose into the books was something I never had
much experience with. But, when your back is against the wall and you
have to do something, it can surprise you just what you're capable of.Jump ahead a few years. Unlike the railway, advancement in the air traffic control business, for those who fitted in, was fast and furious. After more courses I very quickly advanced to become an (IFR) air traffic controller. This, after nearly three years of working in what amounted to a "probationary" period, I had reached my goal. (When I started I really didn't know what my "goal" was!) At that time (the late-1950s) the Department was introducing radar for air traffic control purposes and, once again, I quickly went through the training and became qualified to control IFR (instrument flight rules) traffic using radar. Jump ahead to 1962. Now, with a few years experience behind me with the use of this new control "tool" at the Ottawa Terminal Control Unit, I learned that this early radar system (AASR-1, for those of you who may be interested) had several idiosyncrasies, not the least of which was that of detecting large moving objects on the ground as well as in the air (a small change in the "tilt" of the antenna corrected this), however, on the morning of January 7, 1962, yours truly was working as the departure controller when I spotted a slow moving target moving away from Ottawa in an easterly direction. There was little doubt about it, it was a ground target. A quick 'phone call told me that CP train No. 8, with 11 cars, had just departed the old Ottawa Union Station and was east of Hurdman. I was following the progress over the ground of that train on air traffic control radar!! Well it didn't last all that long but I did get intermittent "hits" on the train for about 20 miles. This really amused me and I told my controller colleagues to take a look. It also brought back a lot of memories of my days on CP as I, from time to time as a spare fireman, got called for No. 8 to Montreal. In the steam era, this was a very good job for there was a lot of "miles" (pay) in it as there was a lot of terminal detention time in Montreal (Windsor Station) and the return of the "draft" to the Glen Yard which was done about as slow as a Hudson could turn her driving wheels (no point in being in a hurry when you're making money). Sometime later I heard the news. Train No. 8, "The Dominion", had derailed near St. Eugene, Ontario (just west of the Ontario/Quebec boundary). No one had been killed in the accident, but there were injuries. Most notable, for me anyway, was the engine crew of Harold Greenlaw (engineer) and Frank Alexander (fireman), both long service company employees and former colleagues and friends. Both men were returned to Ottawa and ended up sharing the same room at the Ottawa Civic Hospital where they enjoyed giving the nurses a hard time. They both had been bruised up pretty good and I just can't remember or not about broken bones.
Meanwhile, back at St. Eugene. Auxiliaries were sent out to the site from both St. Luc in Montreal and Smiths Falls (Ontario) to clean up the mess. While I have not been able to determine which cranes were used, the St. Luc crane appears to be a modern 250-ton Industrial Brownhoist. The Smiths Falls crane, although slightly smaller, was still steam powered. The conductor on the Smiths Falls auxiliary was my old friend, Don Gaw. In fact it was Don who took the photographs that accompany this Tid Bit. He ultimately became a member of the Bytown Railway Society (BRS) and many members of the Society accompanied him on his retirement trip from Ottawa to Sudbury and back on the local Budd car(s) in 1 983. Don is no longer with us but his brother Sam (J.C.), also a one time C.P. railroader, is, and is also a BRS member. So, were these wrecked first generation units scrapped? Nope! They were traded in for second generation power. The 8474 went back to MLW for more modern C-424 unit No. 8300 (and later renumbered No. 4200). Similarly, GMD F9B unit 1902 became GP30 8200 (later 5000), and F7B 1910 became GP30 8201 (later 5001). Bytown Railway Society,, Branchline, December 2006, pages 10-11. |
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Story by Bob Rupert,
Citizen staff writer.
PORTAGE DU FORT --
'Police and railway officials describe the situation as dangerous. 'Three cars of gas were among 27 cars derailed when a westbound CNR freight and a transport trailer truck crashed near the station here. Portage du Fort is 65 miles northwest of Ottawa. 'Only
takes a spark
'Some 200 spectators have
been forced back by police who are attempting to cordon off the
area. There is no immediate danger to Portage du Fort, a mile and
a half away.
'However, an offical
said: "It only takes a spark to set it off."
'The train was also
carrying explosives as well as the gas, but there was no fire or
explosion despite the fact all the derailed cars were strewn on both
sides of the track, some completely overturned and others left
balancing on their ends. Three diesel engines were thrown on
their sides.
'Three
in hospital
'Three of the train crew,
engineers Bill Callan and Edward Rock, both of Ottawa, and a brakeman,
Raymond V. Markle, 45, of 108 Minnetonka Road, Ottawa, were injured and
are in Pontiac Community Hospital in Shawville.
'None of the injuries are
reported as serious.
'Driver of the
tractor-trailer truck, Rosaire Cantin, 45, of 2648 Clarenda Street,.
Ottawa, escaped unharmed. The truck's trailer was sliced into six
pieces.
'Owned by
Morrison-Lamothe bakery, the transport was hauling 800 loaves of bread
which were strewn over a wide area.
'The freight train was
also loaded with heavy construction equipment. including iron pipes and
chemical tanks.
'For a time, railway and
police officials feared for a large crowd that had garhered at the
scene. "One spark and the whole thing would have gone up." one
workman said.
'The crowd was pushed
back and the dangerous cars isolated.
'The accident happaned at
7:30 a.m. as the northbound truck headed along the Portage-Bryson
highway. The train was westbound.
'The conductor, Ernest
Beddington, 38, of 98 Nicolet Street, Hull, riding in the caboose, was
not injured.
'Two of the four men
involved in the wreck have been released from Pontiac
Community Hospital.
'Still hospitalized are
Bill Callan, 53-year-old chief engineer who lives at 44 Havelock
Street, Ottawa, and fireman Eddy Rock, 52 of 66 St. Francis Street,
Ottawa.
'Mr. Callan, who may have a fractured thumb, said the
train was travelling about 49 m.p.h. when it struck the truck. He
said that he saw a flash ahead (probably the aluminum trailer) and hit
the emergency brake.
''"It's a peculiar feeling when you know you are going
somewhere, but don't know where you will end up. I thought my
fireman was dead when I was him. He and the brakeman were lying
right on top of me after the train turned over on its
side.
'Railway
line cleared
'The main line of the Canadian National Railway at Portage du Fort, 35 miles southeast of Pembroke, opened again for normal traffic at noon FRIDAY. 'Work crews and security
guards were kept busy thoughout the day and night THURSDAY to
clear 27 freight cars and three diesel engines off the right-of-way
after one of the most spectacular level crossing accidents in the
area's history.
'A westbound CNR freight
was derailed about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, in a collision with a
Morrison-Lamothe tractor-trailer.
'Engineer William Callan of
Ottawa has been dischared from the Pontiac Community Hospital in
Shawville after X-rays showed no serious injury. Fireman Edmond
Rock, also of Ottawa, is to be dischared Monday. He suffered
multiple bruises. |
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The morning express to Montreal (No. 232)
was
struck behind the engine by a northbound [gravel] truck at the crossing
in
Leonard and the coaches and heavyweight parlour cars derailed. At least one 2200-class
coach (no 2294) rolled on to its side and skidded several hundred feet
before coming to a stop (end-on) against large trees, the only thing
that protected an occupied CPR house.
As this coach bounced along the roadbed, passengers were
ejected through the shattered windows and crushed or severely injured. The number killed was 8
immediate, possibly more afterwards.
Bill Linley went to the wreck scene and took these photographs:
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