The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - Retelling One of Canada's Worst Train Accidents

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

December 27, 1942, a Canadian military troop train smashed into the rear of a local Canadian Pacific passenger train killing more than 30 people and injuring 150 more. The crash, considered one of the worst train accidents in Canada's history, is the topic of Jamie Bramburger's latest book, "Sudden Impact: The Almonte Train Wreck of 1942." Jeyan Jeganathan visits Almonte to talk to Bramburger about the factors that led to the crash, and the people affected on that fateful day.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From epic camping trips to scenic local hikes, spending time outdoors is a great way to create lasting memories to share with friends and family. This summer, TVO is celebrating the natural wonders that inspire unforgettable adventures with great documentaries, articles, and learning resources about beloved parks in Ontario and beyond. Visit tvo.me slash Ontario summer stories for all this and more. And be sure to tell us your stories for a chance to win great prizes. Help TVO create a better world through the power of learning. Visit TVO.org and make a tax-deductible donation today. Almonte is a town with a population of about 6,000 people in the Ottawa Valley.

It's known for its historic ties to the textile industry and as the birthplace to basketball inventor James Naismith, along with being the filming location of multiple Christmas movies. But it's also the site of one of Canada's biggest railway disasters, the topic of Jamie Bramberger's new book, Sudden Impact, the Almont train wreck of 1942. December 27th, 1942 will go down in this town as one of the worst disasters in train accidents in Canadian history. It's devastating. 38 people ultimately are killed in this crash and more than 150 are injured. More than 80 years later, Jamie Bramburger is retelling the story forever etched

in the history of the Ottawa Valley. JAMIE BRAMBURGER, This is a beautiful portrait of Florence that she had given to her family two days earlier as a Christmas present. In the bottom right corner, it says, Love, Florence, Xmas 1942. At the time, trains were the preferred method of transit. Canadian Pacific Railway trains roared through the downtown core of Almonte,

a scenic town located in Lanark County, 50 kilometres southwest of Ottawa. A lot of people didn't have vehicles. And with so many soldiers away, in particular, young women were using trains to get to and from locations because many were working in the public service in Ottawa, in the nation's capital, supporting the war effort for Canada. That evening, train stations along that route were flooded with holiday- goers returning home after visiting family for Christmas.

You had a local passenger train known as the Pembroke Local. It started from Petawawa, a small, what is now a large military community in the Ottawa Valley. But at the time, it was really just started getting its footing as a military base. And the train was making stops in a number of locations across the Ottawa Valley as people were returning from the Christmas holidays to work. The Pembroke local would make stops including Renfrew, Arnprior and Pakenham

before arriving in Almont. The train, which would normally be pulling three to five wooden passenger cars, was dragging ten cars this evening and falling further and further behind schedule. Unknown to the crew of the Pembroke Local, a large metal military locomotive carrying soldiers from Alberta to Halifax was trailing behind it. At the time, railways used what's

known as a 20-minute block system to control the flow of trains. If a train arrived at a staffed station, and this is a really, really important point, if there was a station operator and a train arrived and another train was coming behind it, the trailing train could not leave that next station until 20 minutes had elapsed from the time that the leading train had departed. In this particular case, the 20-minute block system was put in place twice, in Renfrew and again in Arnprior. Unfortunately, what happened between Arnprior and Almont, where there are two smaller stations,

Pakenham and Sneddon, there was no Canadian Pacific Rail staff member on duty. And so what that meant was, while the local train had to stop in both Pakenham and Sneddon, the troop train didn't have to stop. There was no reason. They weren't picking any passengers up. And so they just continued to move forward. A mixture of freezing rain, snow, and mist from the Mississippi River below affected visibility. Poor winter weather played a factor,

but an inexperienced engineer was another. The engineer of the troop train had come on duty with a new crew in Chalk River, which is, you know, the train had originated, the troop train from Western Canada, but a new crew came on board, a new locomotive at Chalk River. By his own words, when he was asked for his statement following the crash, Oren Richardson, who was the engineer, said, I didn't have a lot of experience driving this powerful of a locomotive. As the troop train made the bend into Almont, its speed dropped to 40 kilometers an hour. According to the train's firemen, the Almonte station's train order signal was green, suggesting all was clear. By the time the engineer sees the train in front of him,

he can't stop. He applies his emergency brakes, and the collision is sudden. The last two coaches are destroyed. They are blown into matchsticks, smithereens. There's nothing left of them. Soldiers spilled out of the troop train to help those in the wreckage, while Almonte locals opened their doors for the injured.

The local 550 train would have been stopped right here. But you can see the distance. It was pulling 10 wooden coaches. So it stretches back quite a ways. The platform would have had about 150 people here. And all of a sudden, when the impact happens, there's this surge, and the train kind of moves forward. But people don't really know what happened,

because there's so much distance to where the impact actually occurred at the intersection with Bridge Street. In 1978, the Almont train station was demolished. And today, the site is home to the Almont branch of the Mississippi Mills Public Library. The train tracks remained until 2012, but were pulled to make way for the Ottawa Valley Recreational Trail. However, many other significant buildings still stand. When the local Rosamond Hospital quickly filled with victims, the nearby O'Brien Theatre became a temporary hospital. The Almont Old Town Hall was used as a temporary morgue on the night of the crash.

And less than two weeks later, it was the centre for a coroner's inquest, one of many investigations into the fatal crash. The coroner's jury exonerated the crews of both trains. The coroner's jury exonerated the crews of both trains. They essentially blamed the railway because they did not staff the Pakenham station, which would have allowed a 20-minute block to be put in place, which would have allowed enough separation for the local 550 train to get out of the station before the troop train arrived. Contrary to that outcome was the transport commission investigation. And the transport commission cited human error as the cause of the crash.

They said there were two violations of the troop train crew, essentially that the train was traveling too fast and it was, you know, intruding on the passenger train schedule, even though it was well off track. And also that the train wasn't under control coming in. It was going too fast. But they also said that the local passenger train had a responsibility to light flares when they knew they weren't keeping their schedule.

So two separate outcomes from a coroner's jury and from a transport commission investigation. And ultimately, the Ontario government and the coroner's inquest and also the OPP investigation didn't lay any criminal charges. Bramberger's book not only examines the many factors that led to the crash, but also the people who were involved, including the military train's conductor, John Howard. On that night, John Howard is at the back of the train in what many people call the caboose or the van in those days. And he's ultimately in charge. So as this troop train is progressing down the Ottawa Valley and making these stops, he's having conversations with its engineer who is at the front of the train and ultimately driving it. And he's using things like skin and eye.

You know, remember that there's a train in front of us. He's having these conversations all the way along. When the accident happened, John Howard doesn't know exactly what's happened because he's at the back of the train. But he quickly goes to the front. He checks on all of the soldiers that are on the troop train. There's no serious injuries of any of those soldiers. He gets off the train,

and that night he works through the night to help with the rescue effort. He's in there. He's doing whatever he can. But as the days go by after the accident and the newspaper coverage is extensive, the premier of the province, Gordon Conant, is talking about criminal charges will be laid if they're warranted. And there is a headline in the Ottawa Journal that appears on January 4th, 1943 in the Evening Edition.

And it's very, very bold letters, talks about the reality of this investigation and that there is this pressure that there may be Charges laid and John Howard is feeling the weight of that investigation His son is coming to visit him He has a phone conversation with him on the evening of January 5th His son is going to be in Smith Falls soon by the time his son gets there, John Howard has left a letter. And you can kind of imagine what that letter is, but essentially he's saying, I don't want to be blamed for this crash.

John Howard died by suicide. His body was found the day before the coroner's inquest began in the Rideau River in Smith Falls. It is a tragedy on top of a tragedy. Today, at the corner of Bridge Street and Mill Street, a memorial stands as a visual reminder of the train wreck. This monument was put in here many years after the crash. And it certainly is important as it is a reflection of what happened here on December 27th, 1942.

One is the story of the crash and the other is the memorial stone. Frank White, for example, was a 53-year-old man from Redfrew. He was a father of six, had a grandchild. He was returning to work in Ottawa. He was killed in the crash and became the subject of the coroner's inquest which looked into the cause of this this tragic accident. And there's a little Denise Turcotte, the youngest victim of this crash, only eight months old when she died. Bramberger spent four years researching and interviewing survivors and their descendants for the book, including

Denise Turcotte's brother, Bernie, who was only five years old at the time of the accident. Bernie remembers the accident. The story Bernie tells is he was in the back of the train. He spoke to his mom. It was warm in the coach. There were a lot of people. He said, Mommy, can I look out the balcony at the back of the train? Because they had these balconies, and you could just kind of slide the door open. Did that, figured out pretty quickly it was cold, came back and the last words he said to his mother were, mummy what's that bright light? And of course immediately after that the crash occurred. According to Bramberger the number of living people who were a part of

the Almont train accident is dwindling and while no one from Almonte was severely injured or killed in the crash, the town's response to one of Canada's worst train accidents will be forever remembered. From talking to families who were impacted by this, you can still feel the emotion, the raw emotion. You know, I talked to people who were young children when this happened, to people who weren't even born yet, but knew they lost a parent, lost a grandparent, lost a sister, lost a brother. It's palpable. It's still, you know, the weight of this tragedy is still felt. Thank you.