Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

 1953, July 9 - Three cars of a CPR passenger train derail near Stittsville, CPR Carleton Place subdivision, minor injuries

Journal Picture From the Ottawa Citizen Thursday  9 July 1953 Engineer Stays Mum about Wreck "All I know is that I do not know anything." So summed up Engineer S. B. Patterson, on his experience this morning when his train, Canadian Pacific No. 10 left three cars in the ditch at Mile 13, east of Stittsville. Mr. Patterson was firm in his resolve not to make a statement. He indicated that he was wheeling along east of Stittsville, on schedule, when suddenly he realized that he had lost three cars. Parted Company Two deadhead day coaches and one private car at the back of the train had parted company with the rest of the seven cars and engine. Mr. Patterson told friends that he "was not going fast" and he had plenty of time to get to Ottawa. He also told fellow railroaders that he had no idea how the wreck happened and would not even guess it was a split rail. While steadfastly refusing to give a statement at his home, 1075 Somerset Street West, this morning, he told friends shat he had gone back to the private car to see if anybody was hurt. "They had them out before I got there," he said. "Anyway," he added, "the radio was wrong; it said the cook was in the baggage car, he was not." Mr. Patterson's family when they heard the news rushed out to the wreck and tried to find him. Meanwhile he had brought his seven cars on to Ottawa Union Station where he was due at 8.00 a.m. standard time. Engine 2825, which escaped unscathed, continued on to Montreal. Meanwhile Fireman Carman Hogan, who lives in Almonte, has gone home to rest for the day. Mr. Patterson has been an engineer for seven years and has lived in Ottawa the past 15. He came originally from Montreal. After Engineer Patterson checked in at the Bayview CPR roundhouse, he went home. There a warm welcome awaited him from his anxious family. He was eating his breakfast alone at mid-morning when the Evening Citizen got there. Then suddenly there poured in the front door his two big burly sons, his attractive blond daughter-in-law. Later came . the distracted wife, her fears soon allayed when she saw her husband in the flesh, calmly sitting in the parlor. --- CPR Official And Wife Only Slightly Hurt CPR vice-president Alexander Lyle and his wife, Florence escaped without grave injury in the train derailment at Stittsville this morning. They were brought to the Civic Hospital by Exclusive Ambulance, which sent two vehicles to the scene. At the hospital, Mrs, Lyle complained of a headache and was X-rayed. It appeared, however, that she had sustained no serious hurt. Mr. Lyle was walking about the hospital corridor and seemed to be completely recovered from his experience. Citizen Broke News Doctors and nurses had had no word of the accident until given the information by an Evening Citizen reporter. Seconds later, the ambulance brought in Paul Shamard of Montreal who had sustained severe head cuts. Shamard said he did not know how the accident had happened. Hehad been sitting in the private car at the end of the train when suddenly he had been hurled to the floor. From the Ottawa Journal  9 July 1953 Train Cars In Wild Plunge Hits Split Rail Near Stittsville Five Injured in CPR Wreck - None Serious Stittsville, July 9th - (staff) - the three rear cars of CPR passenger train No. 10 out of Sudbury and bound for Ottawa were derailed one mile east of Stittsville this morning. The cars jumped the track when they hit a split rail going at high speed down a straight stretch of downgrade track. Five passengers riding in the private business car "Kingsmere" at the rear of the train suffered injuries. None of these were serious. Only one passenger had to be detained in Ottawa Civic Hospital where the injured were rushed. He is Paul Shamard, 49 Stanislas Boulevard, Montreal, who suffered scalp lacerations and injuries to hip and head. His condition is not serious Hospital Authority set A reports that one passenger, a man, was missing after the derailment proved groundless. Railroad investigators made a thorough search of the three cars that left the tracks and were unable to find him. CPR officials at Smiths Falls said this afternoon that if any other passenger has been aboard the train he must have left it before the accident. Two of the cars were empty, being carried dead head. The other passengers taken to Ottawa Civic Hospital  were Alexander Lyle, an assistant vice-president of the CPR, and his wife Florence, of 5603 Queen Mary Road, Montreal. Mr. Lyle suffered from bruises, and his wife was given an X - ray for possible skull injuries. Both were allowed to leave hospital shortly after treatment. Two other men aboard the derailed private car were flung down and bruised by the toppling impact. They were C. C. Baker, secretary to Mr. Lyle, and Carl S. Major, a CPR employe from Vancouver, BC. Neither required hospital treatment. Engineer of the train was Stanley Patterson, of 1075 Somerset Street, Ottawa. Rolled down Gully. The two rear cars rolled 15 feet down the embankment into a gully and lay there on their side, their wheels turn off by the force of the crash. The third car, the first class Pullman, was dragged, bouncing madly over the ties 500 yards down the track before the train came to a halt. The rail lay twisted and tore for a distance of some 200 feet, and the railway was deeply gouged and churned by the screaming steel. Divisional superintendent T. E. Wheeler, of the CPR, on the scene directing clean - up operations, soon after the crash, told The Journal No.10 had only a small number of passengers aboard. He said five were injured. The rear car of the train was a private business car, "Kingsmere". Bell still ringing. Hours after the accident, the bell in the galley of the business car was still ringing wildly, as though some passenger in sudden fear had rung for the attendant as the car looked into the gully. The galley itself was a terrible jumble of spilt crocks and scattered food, and the whole interior of the business car was a mess of jumbled bedding and jagged glass. Albert Spearman, out in the yard of his brother Orrin's farm, which lies just southeast of the track where the crash occurred, was feeding the cow when he heard the crash. He said there was a very loud bang. "It sounded like a lot of tin cans banging together." Mr. Spearman went to investigate and saw the train stopped and a great cloud of steam hissing up from it. Mrs. Orrin Spearman, in the farmhouse, also heard the bang. She thought it was an airplane at first until Mr. Spearman came in and told her what he had seen. Mr Spearman immediately phoned Mr Illingsworth, the station agent at Stittsville who was still unaware of the derailment. CPR investigators checking the cause of the derailment paid particular attention to  a V - shaped gouge in the first section of rail lying in the gulley. It is thought that this was the cause which forced the cars to jump the rails. Auxiliary rigs from Smith Falls and Ottawa West were converging on the scene this morning by 10.30. Gangsof section men were already relaying the track. The locomotive and the remaining cars of No.10 train left the scene one hour after the derailment, headed for Ottawa. Ottawa Citizen 13 July 1953 Injured Chef Has Recovered Paul Chamard of Montreal, 49-year-old Canadian Pacific Railway dining-car chef injured in Thursday's train wreck 20 miles west of here, has been released from hospital. Mr. Chamard suffered shock in the derailment. He was one of five persons injured when three rear cars of a Sudbury-to-Ottawa passenger train jumped the rails near Stittsville. The other four were released immediately after treatment. CPR officials said cause of the wreck was a split rail.

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Updated 19 April 2019