Almonte Ontario - The train wreck involving a troop train slamming into the back of a passenger train at Almonte on 27 Dec 1942 made international news headlines.
 
The Canadian Press reported on it in a special overseas newspaper for soldiers serving in Europe.
 
While none of the soldiers on the troop train were injured, several servicemen on the passenger train were killed including two cousins from Chalk River, 28-year-old Private Eldon MacDonald and 22-year-old Trooper Charles MacDonald.
 
A double funeral attended by military officials from Camp Petawawa was held for the two young men a few days after the crash, a grave site scene that repeated itself throughout the Ottawa Valley.
 
Most of those who were killed were from Renfrew County.
 
Some were young people like Florence Rantz of Petawawa, Muriel Hunt of Pembroke, Marie Green of Renfrew, and Private Melville Bailey of Calabogie.
 
The magnitude of the accident applied tremendous pressure to determine why it happened.
 
As the victims were being laid to rest, the Ontario government was taking swift action, ordering an inquest under the direction of the province's Chief Coroner, Dr. Smirlie Lawson.
 
Premier Gordon Conant, in his capacity as the province's Attorney General, was also talking about accountability, saying, "If the evidence justifies it, there certainly will be charges laid."
 
But before the inquiry could get started there was more tragedy.
 
John Howard, the experienced conductor of the troop train, took his own life.
 
He was only a few months away from retirement, but as the most senior crew member on the troop train, Howard had carried a heavy burden, devastated by how many lives had been lost in the crash.
 
On the eve of the start of the inquest, Howard had left a note for his family explaining "he could not live with being blamed for the deaths of all of those people."
 
His body was found in the Rideau River, near his Smiths Falls home.
 
The inquest had been called into the death of Frank White of Eastview, Ontario, one of the victims of the crash.
 
The chief coroner, Dr. Lawson, had travelled from Toronto to Almonte to conduct the autopsy on White the day after the accident.
 
Nine days later, Lawson would be back in Almonte to preside over the court proceedings that would last two-and-a-half days and point the blame for the crash on Canadian Pacific Railway.
 
The five-man jury cited three reasons for their conclusions.
 
They criticized the company for not having an operator stationed at Pakenham where they believed had there been an employee present, the troop train would have been held back to ensure the 20 minute block was observed.
 
They made the assertion, knowing that CP normally did not staff the Pakenham depot on Sundays or on holidays.
 
The jury also called into question the lack of protective equipment "at a most dangerous curve at the entrance to the town," believing it had also contributed to the accident.
 
The jurors further cited the green light at the Almonte station gave the engineer of the troop train the assurance to proceed, believing the operating practices of the railway were unclear, even to railway employees.
 
The green light was to let the troop train crew know there were no train orders for them to pick up, but in his charge to the jury, Coroner Lawson stated, "This to me appears to be a method of operating a train that is liable to confuse any man. In addition to interpreting conflicting instructions, he had to handle his big engine, estimate his speed, watch for signals, safeguard the lives of all the Canadian troops behind him, and also safeguard his own life and that of his fireman."
 
In his final words to the court, jury foreman Grant Dunlop said, "We place no blame whatever on the crews of trains 550 or 2802."
 
Not surprisingly, that wasn't the opinion of the Board of Transport Commission.
 
The Board had representation at the inquest, and had started its own investigation of the crash.
 
It would release its findings a few months later, but in the immediate days following the inquest, Ontario Premier Conant, himself a lawyer, wrote to the chief commissioner of the Board, Colonel James Albert Cross, imploring that action be taken.
 
Prime Minister Conant, as he was referred to during that era, had consulted the chief coroner to ensure he supported the jury's findings before writing his letter to Cross.
 
Knowing he had Dr. Lawson's support, the Premier urged that Cross call a meeting of the Transport Board to discuss "changes in the rules and regulations so that such accidents may be prevented in the future."
 
Conant further wrote that, "an accident resulting in the death of thirty-six persons, and injuries to over one hundred commands the attention of the entire nation, and our citizens should be assured that adequate steps will be taken by the proper authorities to prevent the recurrence of such a catastrophe."
 
Much of the testimony at the inquest had focussed on the rules of operation and the block system.
 
At one point, Dr. Lawson had said the engineer and conductor on the troop train had been given contradictory orders, "Run a fast train but keep a safe distance between the Local train. This was enough to confuse any man," the Coroner told the courtroom, a message he would repeat in his final instructions to the jury.
 
The operating policies had been in place since 1909 and many Canadians thought they were outdated, particularly given the increased traffic on railways during the war, but Colonel C.C. Sibbard did not share that opinion.
 
Using testimony heard at the inquest, the statements made by the crew members of both trains, his own interviews with CPR officials, and his knowledge of railway operating practices, Sibbard's conclusion was in direct opposition of the jury's findings.
 
Sibbard declared that the accident was the result of human error.
 
"From whatever angle one reviews the evidence there appears to be but one conclusion, and that is, had the rules been strictly observed, as they should have been, the accident need not have occurred," wrote Sibbard in his investigative report.
 
He concluded that both crews had erred.
 
He placed most of the blame on the crew of the troop train for not staying 20 minutes behind the passenger train, travelling too fast, and not being prepared to stop when entering Almonte.
 
However, Sibbard also found fault with the passenger crew for not using a flare at the Almonte station, knowing that they had been losing time during their entire journey.
 
"It is my opinion that the accident was caused by the failure of the human element, and not as many outsiders have expressed it, by an obsolete set of rules."
 
However, Sibbard acknowledged that the rules were under "constant scrutiny" and recommended to the Railway Association of Canada that there would be some benefit from having a uniform code of operating rules.
 
The Transport Commission released its final report in the spring of 1943.
 
Much of the report was based on Sibbard's conclusions.
 
As expected, it placed the blame for the accident on both crews, keying in on the operating rules that the Commission deemed had been violated.
 
In the aftermath of the inquest findings, and the Transport Commission's report, some families filed lawsuits against the railway and received financial settlements.
 
CP installed new safety equipment along the railway near Almonte, responding to one of the jury's recommendations to put in an automatic station protection signal west of the village.
 
It's now been 78 years since the accident happened.
 
Trains no longer run through Almonte, the tracks torn up several years ago, but the memories of that fateful night linger through the families that lost relatives, or had first responders who tended to the injured.
 
Near the site of the former Almonte train station there are two large memorial stones that share the story of the crash and list the names of all 39 victims of the train wreck.
 
The stone reads, "Erected in memory of those killed or injured and to the heroism and dedication of all those who responded to this disaster."
 
The former O'Brien Theatre, located just a few metres from the crash site, was used as a first aid centre.
 
It still stands, but is now a community centre.
 
The Old Almonte Town Hall, which housed the dead on the night of the crash, and hosted the three-day inquest is also there, still the centre of local government.
 
The Rosamund Hospital that treated the most seriously injured patients in the immediate minutes after the accident closed in 1961.
 
The Almonte wreck was the most deadly train accident in Canada since 1910 when a passenger train derailed while crossing the Spanish River bridge near Webbwood, Ontario, killing 43 people.
 
In the days following the Almonte crash there was extensive newspaper coverage.
 
Stories were written about the victims of the crash, and the heroes who responded to the tragedy, such as the many Almonte residents who opened up their homes to the injured, or the doctors and nurses from neighbouring communities who responded to the call for help.
 
There were also stories of fate.
 
In its coverage, the Ottawa Citizen wrote about how Private John Hughes had been waiting in Ottawa for his new fiance, Theresa Lapierre of Pembroke, to arrive at Union Station.
 
Late in the evening he learned the train his soon to be wife was supposed to be on had been involved in an accident.
 
He remained at the train station for hours, combing the newspapers for any information he could find about his girlfriend.
 
Then without warning, Lapierre appeared at the station.
 
She had boarded an early morning train from Pembroke, telling her future husband that she had been late by five minutes the previous evening, and had missed her train.
 
Her tardiness may have saved her life.
 
In the mid 1960's, as the 25th anniversary of the accident was approaching, one of the Ottawa Valley's best known musicians, the late Mac Beattie, wrote and recorded "Train Wreck at Almonte," a song that tells the story of the tragedy.
 
Beattie's lyrics are poignant, particularly near the end of the song when he sings, "How little did they know that disaster lay at Almonte. There were many killed that night. Valley people will remember that fatal Almonte train wreck in December '42."
 
Author unknown.