Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

Scene of the Accident.

 A Fearful Fall.

The Engineer.

An Inquest.

Late last night Coroner Graham of Hull received a message from Farrellton on the Gatineau Valley railway informing him of an accident by which four lives are said to have been lost and requesting him to come up and hold an inquest.
The accident spoken of occurred to a construction train which was engaged in ballasting the newly constructed portion of line north of Farrellton.
Either from a cave in or from some other cause then unknown, the train plunged over the iron bridge which spans Stagg creek, falling a distance of 30 feet and carrying to death the engineer, Soloman Wilson, fireman, R. Meagher, brakeman, W, Blakey, and a boy whose name would not be ascertained at the time of writing.
Stagg creek is about six miles from Farrellton and is a small sluggish stream emptying into the Gatineau river.  A good iron bridge spans the creek.
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Engine and thirteen cars, another engine was employed in shoving the loaded train and the engineer of this engine did not perceive anything was wrong until rounding the curve.
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Entire train was wrecked - piled up on top of the locomotive.

Ottawa Journal of Friday 18 November 1892:

The Gatineau Valley railway officials stated to the Journal today that the road at the scene of the accident Wednesday will be immediately repaired and construction trains will be running again by Tuesday.  The engine will not be raised until the water has dried up.  There would not be sufficient hold for raising machinery to work and further deaths might be caused.  The trucks of the flatcars and the good iron will be taken out and the rest of the wreck burned.  Section men are busy all along the road strengthening parts that might have been weakened by the recent rains.
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Inquest on the bodies of the four victims.
It was an appalling sight that met the gaze yesterday at the scene of the smash up at Stag Creek on the Gatineau Valley railway, when the special car with coroner Graham, railway officials and newspaper men drew up about one o'clock yesterday afternoon.  In the chaotic mess lay piled up the ruins of what had once been an engine and tender and 13 flat cars.  On one of the cars less demolished than the others were laid out the bodies of the four victims, who had been recovered a short time before.  The faces were covered by handkerchiefs and the clothes besmeared with the soft sticky clay from which they had been dug.  All presented a ghastly sight.  Driver Sol Wilson was found in the cab of the ill fated engine which had been literally embedded in the mud.  His hand was on the lever.  The poor fellow, as shown by the story of the rear engine, had neither time to stop the train or jump for his life.
The face and chest presented a pitiable sight.  They were parboiled by the escaping steam.  His watch when opened by his brother-in-law, Mr. Ab. Hudson, was seen to have stopped at just 10 minutes past four.  Robert Meagher, the fireman, and John Hammond, the oiler, were dug out near the engine.  Both were close together.  Hammond's body was the worst spectacle of the four of them.  It was terribly scalded and swollen. The trip on which the unfortunate young fellow met his death was the first he had made.  For several weeks he had been working as a section hand on the upper end of the road, and the night before had been taken on the engine as an oiler and cleaner.  The morning of the accident he came down with the gravel train which passed the ill-fated spot without apparent danger and on the return trip met his death.  No one around knew anything of him or his parents but it was rumored that he had deserted from one of the batteries.  If friends don't claim his body today it will be buried in Beechwood.  Meagher, the fireman, belonged to St. Catharines, N.B., and the remains will be sent home.
William Blakely, the brakeman, whose home was in Aylmer, was found between the upper end of the tender and the rails, between which his head had been jammed.  Death must have been instantaneous.  One side of his head had been badly gashed.  John Blakely, a younger brother of the deceased, went up on the special.  He wept bitterly when he saw the bodies.
Hugh McCann, one of the brakemen, had a most miraculous escape.  He was hurled into the middle of the debris yet came out without a scratch.  At the time he was on the seventh car back from the engine.  According to his own statement, he was looking back towards the rear engine, when he saw the driver jump out of the cab.  But before he could think of anything, much less jump himself, he was hurled forward.  There was a crashing noise, and that was all he knew.  When he came to, he was on the top of one car with the bottom of another just above, but not close enough to crush him.  Half unconscious, he worked his way out from the ruins. 
Sam Douglas, the conductor of the train, who was on one of the rear cars, jumped when he heard the first crash, but, in falling, broke his left arm and got badly shaken up.  He is now at one of the hotels at Farrelton.  Alex White, a brakeman, also jumped but was unhurt.
The wreck presented a picture of desolation.  The land had slipped completely from under the rails a distance of 150 feet leaving them suspended in the air.  Twenty feet or more below, in a bed of thick mud, thrown on its side, lay the engine, considerably smashed, with the tender partly on top and also turned over.  In sliding, the land had carried half a dozen or more trees with it and these lay uprooted, adding to the uncanny look of the wreck.  Only three flat cars and the rear engine remained on the track.  Everywhere around the wreck it was mud, mud, mud.  Where the debris lay had been shallow water, and when the thirteen car loads of ballast were dumped into it a vast bed of liquid mud was formed.  When the engine with three of the victims went down the slope it was completely buried in the yielding gravel.  Only one of the driving wheels was left uncovered to show its whereabouts.  As one of the road hands said, the occupants of the cab had just enough time to know they were done for and that was all.
Where the accident occurred there was a sharp curve leading to the bridge, which was about 100 feet further on, and approaching it there was a down grade to always have the engine shut off steam.  But just at the point of the slide the road was level.
Fully two hundred persons, sectionmen, special hands and farmers from the surrounding district were on the spot when the special arrived.  The coroner had a jury picked from among the farmers and the following were empanelled; Wm. Farrell (foreman), Wm. Moore, Patrick Rice, Henry Beckford, David Brown, John Skillen, Wm. Maxwell, Robt. Reed, J. Cahill and S. Brooks.  The jury viewed the bodies at the bottom of the slope and the inquest was then opened in the car.  The coroner had to use as a desk the lid of one of the coffin shells which had been taken up by Mr. Maynard Rogers, the undertaker.  Sergeant Moylan of the Ottawa police force acted as special constable.
Hugh McCann, the brakeman who had the wonderful escape, as narrated above, told of it.  In addition, he said the road at that point seemed solid and good before the accident.  That day he had made two other trips.  He believed the accident was caused by a landslide, but he had not seen any washouts anywhere along the line.  It had been raining heavily off and on for two or three days.  He had only been on the road for about a month, but believed the track had been laid for several months.
He did not think any means could have been taken to prevent the accident.  That part of the road was not considered any more dangerous than any other part.
To Mr. Hudson, representing Wilson's family. - The train was running about 15 miles an hour.  If a flagman had been placed at that point the accident might not have happened, but they had no reason to suspect this part.
John Brennan, roadmaster, said that he had walked over this point at 10 in the morning and all seemed right.  The section hands were also over it about 10 minutes before the smash.  To his knowledge there had not been any slides around there before.  Trains had passed every day for two months past.  They were only construction trains, as the road at that point had not yet been accepted by government for passenger traffic.  The accident, he believed, was caused by the heavy rains though above the track no water had gathered.  A good drain carried it away to a culvert some 100 feet north of where the earth gave way.  The road there looked just as solid as anywhere else.  He thought the land had started to slide before the engine went on to it.
To Mr. Hudson. - Fifteen miles was the limit of speed allowed.  The second engine was on to push up the grade north of the bridge.  That day they had three cars less than usual.  Where the cars slid was solid earth, there was no filling. 
Mr. Rowley, superintendent of construction, stated he had not considered that point of the line any more dangerous than anywhere else.
Thos. Roy, civil engineer in charge of the section, said that part had been graded since May.  It had always been quite dry along there.  There was no springs around to douse the earth.  The roadbed was cut out of the side of a hill.  He believed the smash to be purely accidental.
Mr. Hudson asked if the accident might not have been averted if the roadbed was built 30 feet deeper into the side of the hill, as it would not then have slipped from under the tracks.  The witness said he could not answer for what might be.
Conductor McGinnis, in charge of the rear engine, had not heard any whistle for down brakes.  Steam was off at the time, and the rear engine stopped of herself just near the edge of the slip.  He had been over the ground twice that day and saw nothing to indicate danger.
John Cleary, engineer of the rear engine, owned by the C.P.R. swore positively he heard a whistle for down brakes.  The next second he saw the front engine go down.  He said to his mate "- were down on the dump" and as he did so he reversed.
Mr. Hudson - From this testimony it is plain to be seen that the slide was there before the engine came to it.
Witness - When the front engine began to go he saw the track rise up in front, Driver Wilson was too close to keep his engine from going in.  He would not have had even time to jump.
Mr. W.D. Harris, chief engineer of the road, stated the location of the section had been approved by government and built according to government specifications.  The accident was caused by a landslide which might have occurred anywhere.
This was all the evidence taken and, after some five minutes consideration, the jury brought in a verdict that the accident and death of the four men was "caused by the landslide under the railway in the township of Lowe on the 16th inst.  No blame be attached to anyone."
As soon as the bodies had been viewed the coroner gave permission for burial and they were then taken to the special car and embalmed by Undertaker Rogers of Ottawa and Undertaker York of Wakefield, the latter looking after Blakely's remains.  All of the bodies were considerably composed, the result of exposure to water and air. 
The casket for Driver Wilson bore the Masonic symbol.
At Union depot, Blakely's friends were present.

Ottawa Citizen 18 November 1892

THE GATINEAU  VALLEY WRECK
RECOVERY OF THE BODIES OF THE FOUR VICTIMS.

The Coroners Jury Find a Verdict of Accidental Death Imputing no Blame to the Company.

The story told by the survivors of the Gatineau Valley at Stag Creek, Wednesday evening, adds little in the way of details to the accident of the disaster published in yesterday morning's Citizen. It was all so sudden, so terrifying that even to those who saw the fatal plunge only the impression remains of a faint warning whistle from the leading engine, as she drove headlong into the abyss. the crashing of the cars as they piled in after the locomotive, and a sudden stop, leaving the rear engine and the last one of thirteen cars on the verv brink of the destuction that swallowed the rest.
Far more of the dreadful nature of the occurrence and of the awful crash amidst which four men's lives were lost, is the sight presented by the ruins themselves.
The accident occurred on the bank of Stag Creek about one hundred yards before the iron bridge is reached by north bound trains. At that point the bottom of the creek is sixty feet from the brow of the hill, and the railway runs along a cutting in the face of the steep clay bank, about midway between the top and bottom of the slope. The road bed is not more than the ordinary width, close to the high clay bank on one hand and on the other a steep slope of thirty feet, washed at the bottom by the waters of the creek. About one hundred feet in length of the roadbed had apparently slipped outwards, broken away as it were and shot down into the creek, carrying along even some large trees that stood at the marshy edge of the waters, and blocking up the stream for half its course. In this treacherous cavity lies the wreck. At the very bottom, and stretching towards the farther end of the chasm is the engine, lying on its side and buried so deeply in the soft ooze that only the rear driving wheel is visible. One battered car is stretched behind it, and in the rear of these two are ten flat-cars, piled and pounded one on top of the other till the chasm is filled to the very top. The cavity left by the land slide was literally choked up to the very level of the roadbed by the engine and these eleven cars as they piled one after another into the opening. There was no room in the chasm for more wreckage, and so the rear engine aud a couple of cars were brought to a standstill on the very brink of destruction.
Such was the outlook that confronted the view of those who reached the wreck by the special train that left the C.P.R. station at 11 o'clock yesterday morning carrying the coroner, the undertaker and the railway officials. A nearer approach revealed even ghasthier sights. On the wrecked platform of one of the flat cars that had been pulled on to the fallen mass of earth at the bottom of the creek lay the mud-bespattered bodies of three of the victims their bruised and swollen faces covered with the workmen's handkerchiefs, their hands crossed above their battered breasts in a rude semblance of composure most painfully belied by the rough lashings that bound the poor broken bodies to the earth and restrained uplifted hands and up-drawn knees to the more seemly attitude of easier death.
The three were side by side; the engineer in the centre of the ghastly row. Brawny hands had dug away the clay and sand in which the engine cab lay embedded, and the corpses of all three had been found there close together, the outstretched arm of the driver betokening a death grip upon the throttle. Into that little cavern of death the muddy water had oozed, hiding from view the scene of tho death struggle. The nature of their several sufferings during the seconds that elapsed between the crash aud the coming of unconsciousness, was all too plainly stamped upon their corpses. The face of Driver Wilson was swollen and purple. He had been scalded to death by the escaping steam. The body of Richard Meagher, the fireman, showed that he too had been close to the rush of steam and hot water from the boiler. Johnny Hammond was crushed and broken in every limb, and like his companions in death his features were badly swollen. They had placed the recovered body of Brakeman Wm. Blakely on the railway track ; and in pity upon those who might come to reclaim their dead, the boy's jacket had been bound about his head, mercifully concealing his mangled face.
Coroner Graham almost immediately upon arrival at the wreck had a jury empanelled from amongst the bystanders, thus composed: William Farrel, foreman, Wm. Moore, P. Rice. H. Bigeford, John Skillen, Wm. Maxwell, R. Reid, John Cahill, S. Brooks, Martin Gleeson, M. O'Malley and D. Brown and R. Earl. Then the bodies were duly viewed and adjourning to the special car where a coffin cover upturned upon the seats served for the coroner's desk, the inquisition was proceeded with. A connected story of the disaster gleaned from the fragmentary information furnished by the several witnesses summoned indicates the totally unforseen nature of the causalty. It would appear from this source that less than half than hour before the disaster the roadbed had been examined by those in charge and to all appearance was in sound condition. In that short interval, however, the down ward movement of the bank must have commenced, for engineer John Cleary of C. P. R. engine no 4 the locomotive in the rear of the train says that just as the head engine reached the fatal spot Driver Wilson whistled for brakes. "Almost at the same time looking ahead I saw his engine going down." said Cleary "and I said to my mates: 'My God boys, we're over the dump!
"Then the cars piled down one on top of the other all but the last two, they and my engine stopped on the edge of the landslide". The appearance of the wreck described as the engineer's words could not, the awful danger which he and those on his engine had so miraculously escaped.
But more marvellous even then theirs was the escape of Brakeman Hugh McCann. Seated on the seventh car from the front engine he had been hurled down in the thick of the wreck. Trucks and timbers and carloads of gravel crashed downwards upon him, yet from the almost solid mass of splintered wood and twisted iron of half a dozen flat-cars piled fifteen feet above him, he had crawled out into the daylight, dazed and terrified, yet all unhurt. His was the first evidence taken at the inquest. and as he gave it his burly frame shook with a nervous tremor, the effect of his terrible experience. He was breaking on the train which was loaded with gravel when looking back from his car he saw the brakeman of the rear end jump. He rose to jump, too, but that was all he remembered. When he came to he crawled out from under the wreck somewhere. The road appeared to him to be solid and in good condition when they went over it the previous trip. The same train had crossed that spot four times on Wednesday. He believed the disaster was due to a landslide caused by heavy rains.
He said in answer to a question by Mr. Hudson, brother-in-law of the deceased driver. that the train was running about 15 miles an hour.
The evidence of another train hand whose release was equally unaccountable, was not forthcoming at the inquest. McCann had escaped from the midst of tho wreck having been seated on the seventh car from the engine when the train. went down. Conductor Douglas was in the cab of the illfated engine with driver Wilson When the latter saw the danger he gave a quick word of warning to the conductor, accompanying it, Douglas says, with a push, as if determined that one life at least should be saved although death appeared to be his own inevitable portion. The engineer and fireman of the rear locomotive running forward after the crash found Douglas unconscious at the bottom of the bank with his arm broken and his face cut and bleeding. He was taken to Farrelton and subsequently to the Peche for surgical treatment, and on the way up yesterday morning Dr. Graham called to see him at Mrs. Johnson's hotel. The coroner found him too weak to attend the inquest.
Roadmaster John Brennan was examined at length. He was in charge of that section and had been over the very spot where the slide occurred at 10 a.m. Everythmg was then allright.
"Is it considered a dangerous piece of road" enquired Mr. Hudson.
"Not more so than any other part of a new line" was the reply.
He went on to say that the track had been laid in July since when many trains have passed over it. There was a drain on the upper side and a culvert sufficient to carry off any flow of water. There were four inches of rain in the ditch when he passed in the morning. Undoubtedly the disaster was due to a landslide, and was unforseen. The slope of the bank above and of the embankment below- was 1 1-2 inches to the foot, the exact slope required by the government engineer.
Sec. foreman Rowley corroborated this evidence, as did also Mr. Thos. Roy C. E. the engineer in charge of the section. These witnesses showed that it was not the filling, but "the original solid earth along the bank," hwich[sic] had given way.
Conductor McGinnis gave corroborative evidence, and Mr. Harris, the chief engineer of the road, testified that the location of the road had been approved by the government, and that the roadbed had been built according to government specifications. The landslide, he showed, occurred on solid ground, and a like slip might have happened had there been no railroad there at all.
The jury returned a verdict to the effect that the four men, Sol Wilson, Richard Meagher, John Hammond, and Wm. Blakely met their death by unforseen accidental causes; imputing blame therefor to nobody.
The inquest lasted from one o'clock till half past three. During its progress Mr. Rogers had embalmed and coffined the bodies of Engineer Wilson, and Fireman Meagher. The remains of Hammond were cared for by the company, as nobody seemed to know anything of the poor lads' antecedents, beyond that he had been on the train a day or two as engine cleaner. John Blakely was there to take charge of his elder brother's body and convey it to the house of their widowed mother in Aylmer.
"They will take it awful hard at home," was all the poor fellow was heard to say during the trip to the wreck and back. His grief and solicitude were well expressed in those few words.
The remains of Engineer Wilson, enclosed in a rosewood casket, were sent direct from the union depot here by the 7.30 p.m. train, to Carleton Place whither his widow and two children had been sent during the day, and where the funeral will take place this afternoon. His brother and brother-in-law acccompanied the remains.
Meagher belonged to St. Catharines', Que., and a brother arrived last evening to take the body home.
The special in charge of Conductor Van Camp, with its ghastly freight ou board, left the scene ot the wreck about three o'clock and reached the union depot about 5 p.m. There were on board besides those mentioned, Mr. Prince, general superintendent of the G.V.R., Mr. H. B. Spencer, superintendent C.P.R., and Sergeant Moylan, of the City Police.
Mr. Harris, the engineer in chief of the Gatineau Valley, sorrowed greatly over the loss of life that attended the casualty. He aided Coroner Graham in every way to conduct the investigation thoroughly. Mr. Harris also afforded every opportunity to the friends of the deceased, represented by Mr. Hudson, to elicit to the utmost any information that could be of service or consolation to the family. To Mr. Hudson also the contents of his deceased brother-in-law's pockets were handed over.
The engineer's watch had stopped at ten minutes past four.

Ottawa Citizen 22 November 1892

THE STAG CREEK DISASTER,
Hundreds Visit the Scene of tho Land Slide on Sunday.

"The whole country side turned out to witness the scene of the wreck," said Mr. Van Camp the popular passenger conductor of the Gatineau Valley Railway yesterday, in speaking of the appalling accident that happened near Stag Creek last week. "Old and young alike came from miles around and formed such a gathering of the populace of the Gatineau district as has probably never been seen before. Of course," continued the conductor, "they were all astonished at the scene. The heap of broken cars on top of one another in the abyss afforded food for wonderment until evening.
Several old timers among the gathering occupied the attention of many of the younger peasantry by relating an incident that happened about twenty years ago on Stag Creek very near the present line ot railway At that time, they said, a heavy land slide from the embankment of the creek occurred and a "bee" was held by the surrounding inhabitants to clear away the earth and open up the course of the creek so as to avoid the flooding of a few of their neighbors' lands a little distance above."
"Even on Sunday," said the conductor, the wreck presented almost as gloomy an appearance as immediately after the accident. About twenty men were engaged during the day in clearing the wreck, and the cars and trucks were nearly all hauled out of the ditch by the time darkness set in. The clay was dug away from the engine and now more than half of it is visible. The fixtures, as expected, were smashed and destroyed, but the boiler and wheels can be used again. It is still pretty wll submerged in the soft clay and an attempt will not likely be made to raise it for several days until the frost will harden the ground below it.The slide will be crossed on a temporary trestle which will be constructed in the course of four or live days.
"The cars were taken out with a derrick and engine and a wire cable. Most ot the trucks escaped fairly welL the only damage being a few axles bent and a couple of journals broken. These trucks will be sent to Deseronto to be repaired. The bodies of the cars were smashed to pieces and it is doubtful if any of the wood work can be utilized again."

Almonte Gazette 25 November 1892

FOUR LIVES LOST
The Track Gave Way and the Car Rolls Over the Embankment - An Accident on the Gatineau Valley Railway.

Farrelton, Que., Nov. 16 - the construction train on the Gatineau Valley Railway ran off the track this afternoon at Stag creek, about six miles from here. The track gave way just before the engine got on the bridge. The engine and thirteen cars were hurled down into the creek. Four men were killed : Sol Wilson, engineer; R. Meagher, fireman; Wm. Blakely, brakeman; and a boy named Hammond. Conductor Douglas also went down with the train. His left arm was broken near the shoulder, his lips terribly cut, and there was an awful gash on the back of his head. S. Wilson, the unfortunate engineer, was for many years employed on the C.P.R., and three years ago he left that company as the result of an accident which occurred to Conductor Cadigan's train between Calendar and Thorncliffe in which one of the express train hands met his death. Later on he started business at Carleton Place for himself, but gave it up to take a situation with the Gatineau Valley Company, where he had been for nearly eighteen months. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, member of the Masonic Lodge at North bay, and a Forester in good standing. His wife with two children reside in Ottawa.