Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1955, July 18 - Locomotive and 25 freight cars derail at Maxville, Canadian National Alexandria subdivision.

From the Ottawa Citizen 18 July 1955 Engine and boxcars tossed like toys. (with aerial photo) This was the scene from above near Maxville after a CNR freight train smashed through an open switch. Twenty-nine of the 32 cars wpre derailed and tossed like toys atop each other in a scene of awesome damage. Miraculously, no members of the crew were injured in the spectacular wreck. The 250-ton locomotive rammed through 125 feet of earth smashing through a coal shed before it came to a shuddering stop at a grotesque angle, half-buried, as shown here. Adding to the damage were casualties among livestock in cars on a nearby spur line. The hurtling freight smashed them to bits.

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Updated January 2014