Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1959, December 20 - 27 cars derail at Lancaster, Canadian National, Kingston subdivision.

From Ottawa Journal Monday 21 December 1959 27 Cars Leave Tracks LANCASTER Dec. 21. (Special) Salvage crews today were trying to untangle the mass of twisted steel and wood that blocks the CNR main line between Montreal and Toronto. The line was blocked last night when a westbound 88-car freight train was derailed here, at the crossing of High way 34. No one was injured. 27 Off Track. Twenty-seven cars, of  the highballing freight jumped the track when an axle on a gondola car carrying steel ingots broke. CNR officials had hoped to clear the line by noon today, but it was doubtful whether It would be cleared by nightfall. An unidentified CNR official last night surveyed the mounds of shattered wreckage, shook his. head and muttered, "It may be three or four days before we get this mess cleared up". Deafening Roar. Villagers were startled last night about 7 p.m. by the grinding crash and deafening roar. The derailment took place about 100 yards west of the crossing. The heavy steel rails of the rnairt line were twisted like spaghetti as car after car, some loaded with pulp wood, others with sugar and flour, plunged off the track and splintered, spewing contents along the right-of-way. For several -hundred yards freight car, were scattered in a jumbled mass of splintered steel and wood. Sixty-six of the cars were loaded, 24 empty. The train was being pulled by. three diesel engines which remained on the track. Another deadhead engine was in front of the caboose. Cars Upended Steel railway trucks, torn from their mountings were scattered along the rails and broken cars were upended, some with their wheels turning alowly in the icy breeze. It was three hours before the engine and caboose could be moved. Ontario Provincial Police from here and Cornwall rerouted the heavy motor traffic traffic on the main Lancaster-Hawkesbury highway link. Auxilliary. crews sped to the scene from  Montreal and  Brockville, and the mopping up operation began immediately. From Montreal Gazette 21 December 1959 27 Freights Leave Rails, No One Hurt A 27-car derailment at 7:03 last night blocked both east and west-bound tracks on the. CNR line between Montreal and Cornwall.  No one was injured in this freight train mishap. A Canadian National Railroads spokesman said the train, classified a manifest freight, consisting of three diesel units and 88 cars, was travelling from the Maritimes to Hamilton, Ont. The derailment occurred just west of Lancaster, Ont., when an axle on the 27th car broke. The car, a fully-loaded gondola carrying steel ingots from Sydney, N.S., to Hamilton steel mills, toppled off the west-bound track, pulling 26 other cars off with it. CNR dispatchers sent auxiliary emergency crews to the scene from Montreal and Belleville, Ont., to aid in clearing the tracks. Traffic between Quebec and Ontario was not discontinued, the spokesman said. All regular CNR trains were detoured over Canadian Pacific lines, between Dorval, Que., and Brockville, Ont. Officials expected the lines cleared and regular service over the Montreal-Hamilton line resumed by early today.

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Updated 1 March 2019