Re: march 1909 at Windson Station
- From: "Derek Boles" <derekboles@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:52:22 -0000
--- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Paul Trudel" <gumpaul@...> wrote:
Does anyone have details about a major wreck in Montreal's Windsor
Station? The steam engine ( Boston Express) crash into the concourse
lobby (waiting room ) ....
Omer Lavallee wrote about it in the February 1964 issue of Canadian Rail (No.
152).
There's also a chapter on the wreck on the book "Tales of the CPR" by David
Laurence
Jones (2002).
Here's what I wrote about it in 2001 for an unpublished book. It was never
really finished
so it hasn't been thoroughly fact checked and there may be errors.
There was only one serious train accident that occurred within the precincts of
Windsor
Station. Readers may recall the popular 1976 movie Silver Streak, starring Gene
Wilder and
Richard Pryor. At the end of the film, an out-of-control luxury
transcontinental train
crashes through the walls of Chicago's Union Station and skids along the
concourse
causing much damage.
A similar accident occurred at Windsor Station on March 17, 1909. Train #12, the
overnight from Boston had stopped at Montreal West and was heading east towards
Windsor Station when a spring on the left side of the locomotive broke and the
boiler
assembly lurched to the left onto one of the rapidly spinning driving wheels.
The resulting
damage to the boiler immediately allowed superheated steam and scalding water
to fill the
cab. The fireman, Louis Craig jumped off the train while Mark Cunningham, the
engineer
attempted to reduce the speed of the locomotive. After another quarter of a
mile, the
engineer, unable to regain control of the locomotive, either jumped or was
thrown from
the cab and died the next day, never having regained consciousness.
The Boston Express was now out of control, with no one at the throttle and
heading
towards Windsor Station at over 40 MPH. When the train failed to stop at
Westmount, the
conductor and brakeman riding the cars realized that something was seriously
amiss. The
train picked up even more speed on the downgrade towards the terminal and the
quick-
witted brakeman was able to release the brake valve in one of the cars and slow
the train
down somewhat before it entered the terminal, lined up for the southernmost
track
paralleling Donegani Street.
As the train came into view at Windsor Station, a gatemen, Thomas Phelan, and
CPR
Constable Richards saw that it was out of control and desperately tried to
clear away
people who had gathered at the end of the track to greet passengers from the
train. The
train was estimated to be traveling between 20 and 25 mph when it roared into
the train
shed, crashed through the bumper post and wall, tearing down pillars and arches
as it
plowed across the concourse, smashed through the wall separating the concourse
from
the ladies' waiting room and finally came to rest just short of the wall facing
Windsor
Street. The engine and tender sank part way through the floor and the first two
cars
jackknifed, forcing the baggage car through the steel and glass wall
overlooking Donegani
Street, where it hung precariously above the debris. The remaining cars of the
train
remained on the track and miraculously, no one on the train was seriously
injured.
People waiting in the station were not so fortunate. Constable Richards was
knocked
unconscious by falling debris as he had tried to reach a petrified 12-year old
girl who was
standing in the ladies' waiting room directly in the path of the oncoming
locomotive. Little
Elsie Villieres was waiting in the station with her grandmother and was killed
by falling
debris. Mr. W.J. Nixon, a CPR train dispatcher travelling from Medicine Hat,
Alberta on the
Atlantic Express arrived shortly after the wreck. He went home to Verdun and
discovered
that his family had gone to the station to meet him. When Nixon returned, he
found that
his wife and two children, Marjorie and Ross, had perished in the wreck.
Altogether, four
people in the station were killed and 23 others were injured. The clock in the
ladies'
waiting room, damaged in the wreck, had stopped at 8:36 am. Without the quick
thinking
of CPR employees Phelan and Richards, the death toll would have been far
higher. Also the
escaping steam from the engine had dissipated or the boiler could have exploded.
Ironically, directly below the wreck was the office of the CPR police.
Secretary William Bock
was buried in rubble and it took two hours to extract him.
It took several days to dismantle and remove the engine, tender and baggage
car. CPR
architect, W.S. Painter supervised the cleaning up of the wreck and temporary
wooden
pillars were constructed to maintain the structural integrity of the building.
Painter was
amazed that the damage to the building was not greater. Had the floor collapsed
under
the engine, the death toll would have been much more tragic. The timing of the
wreck was
also fortunate in that the morning commuters had dispersed and there weren't
that many
people in the station. The heroic gateman, Thomas Phelan later became a Windsor
stationmaster and decades later his son Lawrence Phelan became the Catholic
auxiliary
archbishop of Montreal. Repairs to the station were completed by June, 1909 and
the
company had enlarged the waiting room, extended the concourse to Donegani
Street and
rebuilt the ladies' waiting room.
Derek Boles
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