Rough Ride on the Rattlers
On February 12, 1899, a Grand Trunk Railway train containing an Ottawa hockey club and a large number of their supporters came into a violent smash-up with a portion of a freight train abandoned on the main line near Montreal. The early morning collision sent nearly all the passengers into the aisles, but miraculously no one sustained serious injury. The special train consisting of an engine and 4 coaches had been out of Bonaventure depot for about an hour when the engineer noticed a number of boxcars on the track. He immediately reversed the engine, but in an instant the locomotive struck the caboose, completely demolishing it. Wedged in beside the loco were the mangled boxcars, which were loaded with paint and whiskey and they quickly caught fire. When it became apparent that the passenger cars were in danger, members of the hockey team uncoupled the first car from the tender and pushed the train to a place of safety. Another train was sent from nearby Coteau and after waiting over 2 hours the passengers continued their trip. Most likely it was the Ottawa Seniors hockey involved in the collision however 4 teams from Ottawa had travelled to Montreal to compete in games at The Arena on February 11th. The Ashbury House School defeated Montreal Abingdon School 2 goals to 0 and the Ottawa Bakers took on the Montreal flour-mixers. Next up, the Ottawa Intermediates beat the Quebec Cresents 5 to 4 in overtime and in the evening game Ottawa Seniors were rattled by the Montreal Victorias 16 to 0.
On December 23, 1902, Jack Marshall, the center man of the Stanley Cup champion Montreal AAA hockey team, was injured in a street car accident. He was struck by the car and badly cut. Jack was taken to the hospital where he had his wounds dressed and later he was sent home. It was undecided at the time whether his injuries would keep him from playing in the first game of the season. For the 1912-13 season Marshall signed on as player-coach for Bruce Ridpath's Toronto Blueshirts. Ridpath's playing career was ended as a result of an incident involving a streetcar. On November 3, 1911, Bruce disembarked from a Young St. streetcar in Toronto and was struck by an automobile, suffering severe head injuries.
On January 14, 1909, Grand Trunk Railway train No. 44 derailed as it was passing Gourock, Ont. The rear end of the train jumped the track and overturned into the bank, injuring about 25 passengers and trainmen. It was supposed that a broken flange was responsible for the accident. Among the passengers were members of the Brantford Indians hockey team, which had played the Guelph Royals the previous night in an Ontario Professional Hockey League game and the Hamilton Thistle Curling team, going home from the Fergus bonspiel. Jack Marks suffered a broken forearm and broken ribs and Walter Miller had a hand injury. After an examination the following day Dr. Pearson said he did not think the injuries were serious although it was too early to say definitely. If they were not, both players may be in the game again the next season. The newspaper header's read, "Mere Railway Collision Not Enough to Damage Professional Players". Marks, Miller and Tommy Smith received damages from the GTR for their injuries, $800, $500 and $50 respectively. Walter Mercer replaced Marks at right wing and Jack Ward of the Montreal Shamrocks played at center position formerly held by Miller. No worse for wear, on January 16th, Brantford hosted the Galt Professionals and steamed over them 16 to 6. Jack Marks later went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1911-12 and 1912-13 with NHA Quebec Bulldogs. Walter Miller went on to play in the NHA with the Montreal Wanderers and Ottawa Senators. His right leg was injured in 1918 during the First World War and he was unable to skate again.
On May 4, 1911, a dispatch from the Renfrew Journal reported that Donald Smith, the well known Cornwall lacrosse and Renfrew Creamery Kings hockey player, and Walter Smyth, bailiff, had an exciting experience at Harrisons Corners. Donald Smith accompanied the bailiff on official business to Bonville and when they reached Harrisons Corners the breeching broke and the horse they were driving became unmanageable and kicked furiously. The dashboard was broken and Walter Smyth received a severe kick on the right arm which broke it between the wrist and elbow and tore open the side of his hand. Donald Smith was thrown out of the rig and was badly shaken up. The horse then ran towards the Ottawa and New York railway track and collided with a passing freight train and this stopped him. The animal was injured about the shoulder. Donald Smith commented, “Hockey and lacrosse are not half as exiting as being behind a kicking horse.”
On December 27, 1917 the Montreal Canadiens were involved in a couple of railroad wrecks. They arrived home at 10 pm from Toronto, just about 15 hours late. The “Flying Frenchmen” left Toronto at 11 pm on December 26th and had all kinds of hard luck, which some blamed on the number of the special car they were in – No.13. Just below Brockville the Canadiens were delayed 8 hours by a collision between 2 freight trains. When the tracks had been cleared it was thought all would be well, but a few miles outside of Cornwall their engine left the tracks and the train was delayed for another long stretch.
On February 27, 1925 an open switch caused a head on collision between a CPR Chicago-Montreal express and a stationary freight train at the Glen Tay siding near Pearth, Ont. Members of the Ottawa Senators hockey team were passengers on board the express. President Frank Ahearn suffered a broken rib. Coach Pete Green, Alex Smith, Frank Nighbor and George Boucher all were severely bruised and suffered minor injuries. The Ottawa players were in the dining coach when the impact came, coach Green had some food in his mouth when the crash occurred and it stuck in his throat, nearly choking him. He was found underneath an overturned table, almost unconscious. The players estimated that 35 persons were seriously injured in the smash. Mr. Ahearn told a graphic story of the wreck as he remembered it. After the crash he remembered little of what happened except that he was pulled from under a table and that broken glass, dishes and silverware was thrown about everywhere. From talk about the wrecked trains afterwards, Mr. Ahearn learned that the freight train had pulled into Glen Tay siding with the intention of allowing the fast passenger train to pass as usual, One of the men had noticed that the switch was open and when he went into the dispatchers office to report with the others the first question he asked was “Is No. 20 late?” The dispatcher had hardly time to tell him that the Toronto train was on time, when he and an engineer, aware of the grave danger, rushed for the door with the intention of racing to the junction of the main line and the siding and throwing the open switch. They had barely covered half the distance when the crash came.
On December 19, 1925, one person died and nine others were injured when a Pennsylvania Express train derailed between Pittsburgh and New York. The locomotive and all 8 coaches left the rails. Careening down the tracks, most of the train had passed the locomotive, which was now abreast of the private sleeper car holding 13 members of the New York Americans hockey team. The Amerks were on their way to New York’s Madison Square Gardens for a game against the Montreal Maroons. “There was a crash, then a scrapping sound, as if we were ploughing through a forest" said Tom Gorman, manager of the club. “This was followed by another crash. The lights went out, the train was off the tracks and we were thudding along the ties. The car swayed this way and that then heaved over onto its side. We might have been worse scared than we were if we had known it was just a few feet from a 100 foot embankment.” Despite suffering wrenches and contusions when they were thrown from their berths, the hockey players climbed out of the car through broken windows and played a prominent part in the rescue work. The players smashed windows to reach the panic stricken and injured passengers. The engineer and firemen, both scalded and suffering eye injuries, were wandering hand in hand on the edge of a horseshoe curve ravine when Tom Gorman and trainer Jimmie Smith found them and led the men to safety. Amerks players hurt in the wreck were Shorty Green with an injured knee, Ken Randall dislocated his shoulder, Charlie Langlois had bruises and cuts on his legs, Billy Burch suffered a blow to his stomach.
On March 2, 1927, the Boston Tigers hockey club was detained at the Richford, Vermont border point after a large quantity of liquor was found in their special rail car. The Tigers were returning home following their game against the Quebec Beavers. The Collector of Customs of the Vermont district ruled that the hockey players had no knowledge of the 65 bottles of whiskey hidden behind a partition of the Pullman car. However the players were compelled to pay fines of $5 a bottle on the 20 discovered in their suitcases. The special car occupied by the team remained on a siding for the greater part of the day after customs inspectors had ordered it cut off from the CPR passenger train to which it was attached. The porter of the car was held for questioning and later released after paying a fine of $325. He maintained that he knew nothing about the liquor, but was willing to pay the fine to close the case. The customs inspectors found the liquor, which was wrapped in Pullman company pillow cases, when they removed a partition in a closet used by the porter to store linen.
On November 8, 1927, 5 members of the Montreal Maroons Hockey Club narrowly escaped injury when the train on which they were travelling to Montreal after spending Thanksgiving Day in or around Toronto, jumped the track. Fortunately there were no injuries reported. “Hooley” Smith, “Babe” Seibert, “Bill” Touhey, “Happy” Emms and Frank Carson were the parts of the precious hockey bundle that the train was carrying. The train, which was the CNR express coming from Toronto to Montreal, jumped a rail between Lansdowne and Mallorytown at 3 am in the morning. The engine was soon placed back into position again and reached Montreal somewhat later in the morning. The hockey players reported none the worse for their experience.
On February 7, 1935, 10 people died when a truck loaded with relief workers tried to beat a train to the crossing. Twisted bits of steel and splintered woodwork were strewn about a level crossing near Fort William, Ontario – all that remained of the truck that raced in front of a Canadian National Railway train as twilight fell. At Kakabeka Falls, ten miles west of Fort William, two trucks carrying the workers sped along a highway beside a railway track; the engineer allegedly blew his whistle, one truck crossed the tracks just in front of the locomotive and even while brakes screeched the second truck was struck and hurled against a cattle guard. Nine of the twenty one relief workers, returning from a highway construction camp, were instantly killed and four seriously injured; eight escaped unharmed. The next morning 19 year old Roger Rose died in hospital. Rose, a member of the Fort William Maroons junior hockey team, had accepted a lift in the truck on his way to a league game. The men were en route to Fort William to attend a political meeting and the mixed train, travelling about thirty miles an hour, was also en route to Fort William from Sioux Lookout.
In March of 1943 the Ottawa Commandos hockey club was forced to idle away 10 hours on the 70 mile train trip from Cornwall. The Commandos set out for home the morning after a game against Cornwall Army during their QSHL playoff series, but snow drifts held the team up 9 miles out of Cornwall. A train plow arrived from Massena, N.Y. in the afternoon and cleared the way to Ottawa. The general store at Harrisons Corners, situated about 100 yards from where the train was blocked did a rousing business. The Commandos arrived in Ottawa about 6 p.m. and immediately began preparing for their 4th game of the series that night at the Auditorium.
The New York Rangers had a rough time "riding the rattlers" at the beginning of 1945. The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Rangers 7 to 3 on January 18, 1945, in a game that was delayed almost 3 hours. The 7,637 fans were well behaved during the delay resulting from bad weather conditions which made the Rangers train 7 hours late. The game started at 11:13 p.m. and finished at 12:56 a.m. On February 16, 1945, the Rangers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6 to 2, in a game that started 2 hours and 20 minutes late. The delay was caused by the lateness of the train bringing the Rangers from Detroit where they played the night before. A hockey game between 2 local amateur teams entertained the 10,621 fans until the game started at 10:50 p.m.
On December 12, 1945, nine freight cars were piled up into a mass of wreckage on the old belt line in Forest Hill, Ontario. The derailment occurred at the foot of Russell Hill Road, just at the rear of the home of Syl Apps, Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player. Three cars of coal and one of oil were spilled in ditches and back yards of homes along the line and tracks were torn for several hundred feet. No one was injured. “It made a noise just like an explosion.” said Mrs. Apps, who was in her house at the time. “I rushed outside just in time to see one of the coal cars falling into the ditch.” CNR officials stated the derailment was due to a brake beam falling down on a transfer train crossing the old belt line. The line was used as a cut across from the Don Valley to Fairbank, serving coal yards and industrial shops on that line. The residents in the area had been waiting for coal, but this was the first time they had some dumped in their back yards.
On February 5, 1947, 3 people died and 92 were injured when a Southern Pacific steamliner turned into a flaming inferno after striking a gasoline truck at a crossing near Kingsburg, California, 20 miles south of Fresno. The speeding steamliner split the truck’s trailer open, spraying gasoline into the air and within a few minutes the entire 16 car Los Angeles to San Francisco train was engulfed in flames. Among the 500 passengers on the San Joaquin Daylight were 14 members of the San Francisco Shamrocks hockey team. Many passengers escaped the blazing train by kicking out windows and leaping through the jagged panes, only to lie injured in the burning grass. It was reported that several women and children were rescued by the Shamrock players, who were en route to Fresno for a game against the Fresno Falcons. Several members of the Shamrocks were injured while carrying passengers from the train through pools of flaming fuel, leading to the cancellation of their next 2 games by the PCHL. Each team in the league was asked to send one player to San Francisco until the injured players were released from the hospital. The Shamrocks were primarily comprised of players born in Canada, including 5 from the Timmins – South Porcupine area; Roy McKay, Terry Cerenzia, George DeFelice, Boyd Prentice and Billy Adamo. Roy McKay suffered severed tendons in his right hand and Boyd Prentice received treatment for cuts and bruises. The driver of the gasoline truck said that he was driving east and failed to see the northbound streamliner approaching the double track crossing, due to a freight train standing on the west track. Two years following the accident damage claims totaling more than $50,000 were paid to five Shamrock players.
Roland “Rolly” Morrisseau of Granby, Quebec, one of the stars of the Shamrocks filed suit for $176,094 damages on June 23, 1947. He sued for general damages of $150,000; loss of future earnings of $21,000, calculated at $350 a month; and for doctors and hospital care. Morrisseau claimed he was still in an anemic state and required numerous blood transfusions. It was reported Roland was seriously burned from waist to head.
On January 10, 1948, 70 people were injured when a Providence - Boston passenger train derailed while entering Back Bay station. Shaken up but unhurt were members of the Brown University hockey team, en route from Providence to Waterville, Maine to play Colby College. They were transferred, with other uninjured passengers, to another train and taken to nearby South Station. The engine and tender jumped the tracks and ploughed along the ties, sheering 14 girders supporting the station. Fortunately the first coach was driven upwards by the force of the crash instead of ramming into the tender. The Dartmouth St. bridge, which formed part of the ceiling of the station, was immediately closed until temporary supports could replace the pillars knocked down. Superintenent of the New Haven Railroad said "speed wasn't a factor", brushing aside statements by passengers that the train "seemed to be travelling much faster than normal as it approached the station". Amid a shower of hot coals and clouds of steam, the entire station was thrown into turmoil and near hysteria. 60 of the injured passengers were treated at the scene and sent home, 10 were taken to City Hospital. Most seriously hurt was the engineer, who suffered a broken arm and second degree burns from the live steam. He was pinned under the wreckage for over an hour and had to be freed by acetylene torches. Hero's of the wreck were a passenger and an off duty railway fireman for Boston & Albany Railroad. They ran to the locomotive, extinguished the flames and then located the engineer.
On October 30, 1948 the Montreal Royals hockey club battled through flames to save passengers from a fiery death following the head-on collision of two Montreal-Boston trains. The engineers and firemen of both trains were killed. Five mail clerks on the two trains were injured. None of the passengers in the 15 coaches were seriously hurt. Both engines and five non-passenger cars were derailed in the predawn wreck. The Royals were en route to Boston for a game with the Boston Olympics when their train and a north bound train collided. A spokesman for the Boston & Maine Railway said the trains, named the Redwings, had orders to meet at Newbury, Vermont, but the south bound train went through and collide with the other train a mile from the city. All the hockey players were either dozing or sleeping when the crash occurred. They threw on what clothes they could find and immediately pitched into the rescue job, oblivious of the fog and mud. "We heard one man thrown clear, calling for help from the bushes." said Coach Frank Carlin. "It was pitch dark. We could only see a few feet in front of us, so the players lighted newspapers and we finally found the injured man who had a broken back." The Royals arrived in Boston in time for their game, but lost to the Olympics 6-4. They travelled to New York the next day where they beat the Rovers 4-2.
On January 6, 1950 the Trail Smoke Eaters hockey team did much to prevent panic among passengers when an eastbound CPR passenger train collided head-on with a freight train. The freight train was stationary in the siding at Fessiferne, 6 1/2 miles west of Cranbrook, BC, when the passenger train on the main line plunged through an open switch. The engineer and the front end brakeman of the freight train were killed, seven trainmen and two passengers were injured in the crash. The Smoke Eaters trainer Jimmy Decembrina gave first aid to the injured passengers and trainmen. The locomotives were welded together by the force of the collision. The passenger train included six cars, the first two were a baggage and mail car and these were demolished. The baggage car was standing vertically with its rear wheels on the track and its front wheels about 30 feet in the air. The fourth car, which was filled with milk cans, rolled off the track and plunged down a steep ravine. Little damage was reported to the last two cars which held the passengers. Cranbrook ambulance men, doctors, nurses and CPR wrecking crews worked for more than 3 hours in 10 below zero weather in snow that was 4 feet deep to remove the injured to hospital.
On December 21, 1950, disaster was averted when the over-night Toronto to Montreal train derailed while crossing the Dorion Bridge, 35 miles west of Montreal. Reporter W.R. Wheatly was travelling with the Montreal Canadiens hockey team and suffered bumps and bruises. “We were all lucky that the train stayed on the bridge. The tragedy would have been terrible if the cars had gone into the St. Lawrence River.” The 400 passenger train blew for the bridge and had started high-balling across when a cracked bearing caused the baggage car to hop the rails. The next four cars also left the track. One stood upright on the damaged ties, the next was at a 45 degree tilt, part of it seven feet below the tie level in the trough the train carved and part of it about three feet above the ties. The rest of the train hugged the ties. Injuries were confined to a handful of passengers who were taken by taxis and ambulances to Ste. Anne de Bellevue hospital, but they required little attention. Three hours after the 7:30 a.m. wreck all passengers had been brought to their Montreal destination by buses or other trains, some from the Canadian Pacific Railway and some from the Canadian National Railway.
On January 9, 1952, CNR westbound and eastbound transcontinental trains met in a head on collision at Yonker, Saskatchewan, about 20 miles west of Unity at three o'clock in the morning. 50 passengers sustained injuries officially described as mostly head cuts, bruises and sprains. Aboard the westbound train was the Tacoma Rockets hockey team, on their way to play a game against the Edmonton Flyers of the Pacific Coast Hockey League. The Rockets had played the Saskatoon Quakers the previous evening. All injured passengers were treated onboard the train. A doctor and 2 nurses from the hospital at Unity travelled to the wreck scene aboard an auxiliary train dispatched from Biggar. A second auxiliary from Edmonton reached the scene in time to help the Biggar unit clear the track. The collision occurred on a curve and it was believed the curve may have obscured the engineer's vision of the train headlights. The minor injuries resulted from the emergency application of the brakes throwing passengers from their sleeping berths. The slow speed of the trains resulted in only minor damage to the locomotives, but acetylene torches were needed to cut loose the cow catchers and other front end gear.
© Copyright Hockey Players on the Railroad 2024