Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1934, April 24 - Locomotive Failure Cornwall

Ottawa Citizen 25 April 1934 TRAIN IS DELAYED. Narrow escape for engine crew Blowout of boiler bolt sends steam hissing into cab. Cornwall April 24.  When a bolt blew out of the boiler of the huge locomotive pulling the fast Maple Leaf Canadian National Railway passenger train here today members of the engine crew miraculously escaped serious injury or probable death,  The cab of the engine was filled with live steam and the men were forced to make their escape by standing on an outside platform of the locomotive.  The engine ran wild for a short distance, but the engineer succeeded in reaching the throttle through the cab window and the train coasted into the yards of this city. No definite reason for the cause of the blowout has been arrived at and it will be a difficult matter to determine.  According to railwaymen here, the accident is a very rare one and is considered to be quite dangerous.  Fortunately the bolt which blew out on the locomotive of the Maple Leaf was near the floor of the cab. At a point about a mile east of this city, members of the engine crew heard a dull pop and steam hissed out of the bolt hole, backed by a pressure of 275 pounds.  Except for being drenched by water and blackened by smoke, Engineer Paul Lalonde and the fireman were uninjured.  J. Hamilton, a spare fireman, was slightly burned on the legs. The train was delayed for about an hour after its arrival here at 11 o'clock this morning and then was taken to Iroquois by the engine of a way freight.  There it was met by a passenger locomotive from Brockville.

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Updated 5 March 2021