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REMEMBER THIS: Fatal mistakes along rail line almost commonplace (4 photos)

In March 1888, five Allandale men were killed instantly when the railway snow plow they were operating collided with another train

It would have been a rare edition of a Barrie newspaper that didn’t contain at least one story of the death or grievous injury of a railway worker. The rail yards at the busy hub of Allandale, with its many lines of track, roundhouse, station and outbuildings, was the scene of constant shuffling of people and rail cars.

Anyone venturing onto railway property, be it as a passenger or employee, had to remain keenly aware of their surroundings at all times as one step in the wrong direction could prove fatal. The ensuing accidents were reported daily by the local newspapers, and often in gruesome detail.

Of course, it was railway workers who bore the brunt of these calamities. Safety rules existed but, in the interests of time and money, the workers often felt pressured to bend regulations to get the job done.

In 1913, the Grand Trunk Railway introduced what it called its Safety First program, an all-new department in its organization. George Bradshaw, the GTR’s first appointed safety organizer, spoke to a room packed with railway families at the Grand Opera house in September of that year.

Mr. Bradshaw shared a sobering statistic. One person is killed or maimed on the railways of North America every 24 seconds.

The Allandale yards were the site of many tragedies but danger lurked at any station, big or small, and also out in the countryside on the rails themselves. The job of a railway worker was tremendously hazardous and there was little room for error.

A particularly sad happening occurred in late March 1888. Five Allandale men were instantly killed when the railway snow plow they were operating collided with another train between Washago and Kilworthy, Ont. The Northern Advance of March 29 produced a gore-filled story, typical of the times.

A 12-man crew had set out from Allandale aboard what was possibly a Russell Plow, or something similar. Earlier plowing was done by attaching a dedicated piece of snow removal equipment, a giant shovel of sorts, to the front of an engine. The Russell Plow, invented in 1885, was something completely different.

This snow plow, which looked something like a caboose, was a wooden rail car with a steel plow at the front. Two of the crewmen would be seated in the cupola above the roofline in order to observe the tracks ahead and operate the wings of the plow on either side.

The 1888 disaster was caused by a fatal mistake made at Washago. Rail conductor William Glassford and engineer George Forster, both in charge of the snow-removal operation, were eventually charged with manslaughter after it was found that they failed to obey an order board directing them to wait at the junction to allow a train from the northwest to pass.

This southbound train was a combination freight and colonist special and it was travelling at 25 miles per hour when it met the snow plow, which was moving at a slightly slower rate of speed. The result was instant and terrible.

The heavy train knocked the smaller plow unit right off the tracks, after which it, too, derailed and landed on the on the plow, crushing it. It is a miracle than anyone in that crew survived at all.

Allandale was well used to the sudden deaths that frequently plunged railway families into mourning. The scale of this tragedy was something new for this neighbourhood though, as never before had five separate households been forced to prepare their front rooms for a funeral at the same time.

Once again, the Northern Advance set the scene with a heartbreaking headline: “Sad Scenes at the Homes of the Bereaved. The Longest Funeral Procession Ever Seen in Barrie. Twenty-Five Minutes Passing a Given Point. Thousands of Spectators Lining the Streets.”

The first funeral was that of crewman Teesdale, a young newlywed man, which was held on the morning of Sunday, March 24. The procession, reportedly a half mile in length, went on foot and by sleigh from the family home in Allandale to St. Paul’s Church Cemetery.

Many of the mourners were back in the neighbourhood for a triple cortege to Barrie Union Cemetery that afternoon. Crew members Wilson, Gilpin and Faulkner were each eulogized and blessed in their own homes before their mutual families and friends gathered for the long, slow march.

The bereaved, along with countless neighbours and railway workers from distant towns, walked with clergymen, and members of the Orange Lodge and Oddfellows, along Bradford Street to Sunnidale Road which was barely passable at the time.

The remains of the fifth victim, Mr. W. Hope, were sent to his hometown of Stouffville for interment.

Both William Glassford and George Forster were found not guilty of manslaughter in May 1888.

The Glassford family moved to Toronto shortly thereafter and William lost his right hand while coupling rail cars the following year. This did not stop his railway career. He was still working for the CPR when he died in 1918.

Engineer Forster also took his railway career elsewhere. It may be that neither man was popular in his community after these events which changed the lives of so many of their neighbours.

Each week, the Barrie Historical Archive provides BarrieToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past. This unique column features photos and stories from years gone by and is sure to appeal to the historian in each of us.


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Mary Harris

About the Author: Mary Harris

Mary Harris is the Director of History and Research at the Barrie Historical Archive. The Barrie Historical Archive is a free, online archive that centralizes Barrie's historical content.
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