31 July 2008
The Flyer Wrecks at Arnold's Lane
One late summer night 78 years ago, fate determined that Pembroke
would not be the scene of one of the worst railway calamities in Canadian history.
It was close, and only a few feet meant the difference between whether a trainload of passengers would live or drown in the waters of
the Ottawa River.
Shortly before 1 a. m. on 29 Aug 1930, the Canadian Pacific Trans-Canada Flyer was approaching Pembroke
enroute from Montreal. Uneventfully it entered the city's east end and was nearing the switch at the end of the railyard off Arnold's
Lane. Engineer George Clarke was at the helm. Within seconds, calamity struck.
Like a flash of lightning, the train went sailing off the tracks. The engine plowed through the ground, violently hauling the cars
behind it. It toppled over several times before driving itself into the earth. The baggage car, dining car, and several Pullman
sleepers crashed into one another with such great force that they tore up the tracks as they went along and snapped telegraph poles
like matchsticks.
The tender and the cab were ripped from the chassis of the engine. The cab plunged into the ground so hard that it filled up with sand.
Escaping steam from the boiler horribly scalded the men inside the cab. Clarke was hurled into the Ottawa River where he was found a
few minutes after the crash with burns, a broken arm, and a broken leg.
The 24-year-old fared much better than his crewmates. Fireman John Shouldice suffered the most serious injuries and wasn't
expected to survive. The 66-year-old veteran railway man received serious blows to the head that fractured his skull and
was badly scalded by the boiler. Another man in the engine cab had his face and head severely burnt.
So loud was the impact that it was heard as far away as Renfrew and Isabella streets, one mile distant. Down the river at the Eddy
Match plant, workers were enjoying their midnight dinner when they heard a thunderous blast. They rushed to the shore and quickly
pinpointed that the sound came from down river.
The impact jolted sleeping passengers from their bunks. Others standing in their rooms were tossed about as the engine bumped and
swayed the rest of the train along the tracks. While they did leave the tracks, the passenger cars immediately behind the baggage car
remained upright. Some were buried into the sand, trapping the occupants, while other cars came to rest on an angle, listing
dangerously toward the river. Some cars were perched precariously on the steep embankment. Many feared they could topple into the water
at any moment. The conductor in the sleeping car came to his feet. Grabbing an axe, he furiously cut his way free of the tangled
wreckage and guided terrified passengers out into darkened passageways. One of them was Mrs. H.W. Ross, of San Francisco, travelling on
the Flyer from Montreal. She thought she was living a nightmare when she was violently shaken from her bed.
In another cabin, James Carruthers picked himself up off the floor and staggered blindly through the dark. He turned his head in the
direction of the passageway where he heard a torrent of frightened cries and muffled sobs. Yanking open his cabin door, Carruthers met
Joseph Morpe in the hall. Carruthers took hold of his wife's hand and the trio calmly proceeded towards an exit. Some other passengers
found porter Lester Weekes lying underneath toppled furniture and carried the injured man out.
Meanwhile, William Fraser rushed to the scene from his river front home. Gingerly stepping through twisted metal, he spotted a stranded
cluster of passengers by one of the tilted Pullmans. He casually strolled up and told them he would lead them away from the wreck. He
then returned and helped crewmen free other trapped passengers. More Pembroke residents, who had been awakened by the crash from as far
away as Renfrew and Isabella streets, made their way to the wreck site, bringing hot coffee for the disoriented survivors.
When day broke, the injured had been evacuated and the survivors, including 42 passengers, were given lodgings for the night. Another
train was being dispatched to pick them up. CPR officials were having a good look at the scene. With most of the wreck extremely close
to the river's edge, it became clear that the Trans-Canada Flyer escaped a far worse fate. Indeed, a reporter with The
Standard-Observer stated: "It is considered little short of a miracle that the entire train did not plunge into
the Ottawa River as the tracks run parallel with the river and only about 20 feet from the water. Steel construction of the cars also
averted a heavy death toll."
However, the Flyer did begin claiming lives. Basil Watson, a passenger travelling in the cab who had been badly scalded by the engine's
boilers, died hours after being pulled from the wreck. It is believed the 26-year-old Ottawa man was an extra passenger,
aboard the Flyer for a business trip.
Less than a month later, Clarke died in hospital. While his injuries were serious, he succumbed to pneumonia. Strangely enough, doctors
hadn't expected Shouldice to make it. He fight for his life and weeks after would be transferred to Montreal, via a CPR train, where
specialists could help him.
With Watson's death, a coroner's inquest was convened and investigators feverishly searched for a cause to the crash. They quickly
found one, but not from any of the train's crew. From his bed at the Cottage Hospital, George Clarke did briefly speak with
investigators. He told them he remembered rounding the curve at 50 miles an hour and spotted the red signal light, which indicated the
switch was open. It was impossible for him to stop and the train jumped the tracks. Clarke figured if they had they would have struck a
cattle train he saw pulling out onto the main line.
Investigators next talked to Walton Featherstone, a veteran brakeman on that cattle train which arrived in the Pembroke railyards
moments before the Canadian Flyer. He admitted it was his act of opening a switch which caused the crash.
He explained that he opened the switch to allow his freight train, travelling east, to move from the main line to the siding. The
distraught man told the inquiry he opened the switch at around 12:30 a.m. Featherstone had forgotten about the matter until he was near
his train when he momentarily remembered the westbound Flyer would have to pass the siding in order to carry on through Pembroke. He
frantically raced down the track to the switch location but it was in vain. The Trans-Canada Flyer crashed about 20
minutes later at 12:50 a.m.
It would have been almost impossible to stop the train. Due to a fairly sharp curve on the track at that location, no train approaching
the switch would see the red light indicating it was open. One witness, a conductor who arrived earlier in the evening, testified he
could not see the signal light for 25 yards when approaching the switch from the east. Knowing this, Clarke could not have stopped the
train in time.
The wreck of the Trans-Canada Flyer was one of the area's worst derailments. Although two men lost his lives, had the
passenger train plunged into the waters of the Ottawa and drowned its human cargo, the Flyer would have written an infamous chapter of
disaster in Pembroke's history.
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