Quote:
Originally Posted by cirelaw
|
Although sheepherders post has brought a flood of pleasant childhood memories revolving around trains and trestles cirelaws post has brought the dark side of rail travel to light and awoken within me a rail tragedy in my own family.
My brothers wife lost her father, Bill Brownlee, in the 1986 Hinton Alberta train wreck.
A CN freight train traveling at 96 km/h at the time of impact, ran head-on with a VIA Rail passenger train, leaving 23 dead and 95 people injured. It was the most lethal rail disaster in Canada to that date.
The value of property destroyed or damaged in the mishap was in excess of $30 million 1986 dollars.
The YouTube video below shows the magnitude of equipment involved in this 'head on' collision.
One of the trains involved, the run-away train, was 6,124 feet long or 1.16 miles and consisted of 118 cars including 3 Locomotives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX5p3yjM8L0
The investigation and witnesses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9FKSNF--Mc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLNu6WRl6hM
Bill Brownlee's death was an incredibly sad day for us all ... Bill's was an empty casket funeral.
Many of the dead were never found such was the horrific nature of the collision.
For miles around this incident people were alerted by the 'Sonic Boom' created by the impact.
Bill was in the lead engine at time of impact.
Rest in Peace Bill ... the family misses you every day.
https://www.jonroma.net/media/rail/a...1986-1-eng.pdf