© 2013, Christian Cassidy
This is one in a series about Manitoba's worst train disasters.
On Thursday, November 29, 1906, a bizarre series of events ended in the death of four people in the CNR's East Yards, now known as The Forks.
At 3:50 p.m. an eastbound Canadian Northern Railway passenger train was just kilometres away from the Winnipeg CNR passenger depot behind the Manitoba Hotel at Main Street and Water Avenue, (it would be another six years before Union Station was built.) At the same time, a lone freight engine was reversing out of the CNR East Yards en route to the West Yards (in Fort Rouge) to pick up cars.
As
both trains neared the foot of Spadina Avenue, (now Stradbrook Avenue),
their crews realized that they were on a collision course, but it was
too late.
The crew of the freight engine were also spared as they had pulled the emergency brake and jumped to safety into the snow drifts along side the tracks. The freight engine sustained damage to its coal tender.
That should have been the end of the incident, but it wasn't.
The heavy jolt popped the freight engine's transmission into "forward" and it began travelling back toward the East Yards. Due to the snow, the crew could not jump back on board to stop it.
A switchman in the yards saw the engine return and switched it onto a side track. He gave the signal for it to slow down and come to a stop, not realizing that there was no crew on board.
Ahead on that same track there was a crew of nine men were loading an industrial cement mixer onto a freight train. The runaway engine struck the end of the train at a speed of about 10 kph. The cement mixer shifted and train cars buckled, some spilling onto Water Avenue.
One worker, Michael Mudlow, was killed instantly. The crew supervisor, William Neal, died a few minutes later as he was about to be rushed to hospital.
A number of men were seriously injured, some of them crushed between rail cars. Two of them, John Suttice and Tony Oleson, died over the next 48 hours from extensive internal injuries. All of the dead were employees of the construction company that was loading the mixer.
As bad as the accident was, it could have been much worse.
If the switch had not been thrown as the engine re-entered the yards, it would have continued on to the dead-end at the passenger station behind the hotel where hundreds of people were awaiting the arrival of the passenger train now stuck back at Stradbrook Avenue.
The jury was told by the supervisor who dispatched the freight engine from the East Yards down the single track to the West Yards that he felt there was plenty of time for it to get to Fort Rouge before the passenger train, which was just arriving at the city limits, reached the same spot.
The inquest concluded on December 3, 1906. The jury found the accident to be "...the result of the extreme negligence of the Canadian National Railway Company."
It recommended that the railway post an employee at the Portage Junction, (near Jubilee Avenue), with a direct communication link to the yard office to inform them when a train had passed. It also recommended that a double track be laid between the CNR's East and West Yards.
The Dead:
Michael Mudlow, "Polish immigrant", died at the scene. He left a wife back in Poland and is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery.
William Neal, 48, 23 Martha Street. Died en route to hospital. He left a wife and four children.
John Suttice, Pritchard Avenue. Died the following day in hospital surrounded by his wife and mother. He had a small child.
Tony Oleson, 30, 125 Gladsone Street. Died two days later from massive internal injuries.He left a wife and at least two small children, one was less than a month old.
A switchman in the yards saw the engine return and switched it onto a side track. He gave the signal for it to slow down and come to a stop, not realizing that there was no crew on board.
Ahead on that same track there was a crew of nine men were loading an industrial cement mixer onto a freight train. The runaway engine struck the end of the train at a speed of about 10 kph. The cement mixer shifted and train cars buckled, some spilling onto Water Avenue.
A number of men were seriously injured, some of them crushed between rail cars. Two of them, John Suttice and Tony Oleson, died over the next 48 hours from extensive internal injuries. All of the dead were employees of the construction company that was loading the mixer.
As bad as the accident was, it could have been much worse.
If the switch had not been thrown as the engine re-entered the yards, it would have continued on to the dead-end at the passenger station behind the hotel where hundreds of people were awaiting the arrival of the passenger train now stuck back at Stradbrook Avenue.
December 4, 1906, Manitoba Free Press
A coroner's inquest was held into the accident.The jury was told by the supervisor who dispatched the freight engine from the East Yards down the single track to the West Yards that he felt there was plenty of time for it to get to Fort Rouge before the passenger train, which was just arriving at the city limits, reached the same spot.
The inquest concluded on December 3, 1906. The jury found the accident to be "...the result of the extreme negligence of the Canadian National Railway Company."
It recommended that the railway post an employee at the Portage Junction, (near Jubilee Avenue), with a direct communication link to the yard office to inform them when a train had passed. It also recommended that a double track be laid between the CNR's East and West Yards.
Michael Mudlow, "Polish immigrant", died at the scene. He left a wife back in Poland and is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery.
William Neal, 48, 23 Martha Street. Died en route to hospital. He left a wife and four children.
John Suttice, Pritchard Avenue. Died the following day in hospital surrounded by his wife and mother. He had a small child.
Tony Oleson, 30, 125 Gladsone Street. Died two days later from massive internal injuries.He left a wife and at least two small children, one was less than a month old.
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