by Brent Eades
While looking through Michael Dunn’s collection of historic photos he shares with me on Almonte.com, I came across this shot of the scene after a derailment in June 1974 of a CPR freight train as it passed through Almonte.
According to an Ottawa Citizen account of the crash, “The end of the 73-car northbound train swung off the track at 3:35 am, walloping a warehouse adjacent to the Almonte Flour Company mill… The wayward train uprooted more than 800 feet of track and blocked Highway 44, the town’s main traffic artery.”
Happily no one was injured, either on the train or in the surrounding area.
