Every Train Crew's Nightmare

In a previous blog, I made reference to large rocks that hang above the tracks in treacherous areas of railroad country. The following pictures will give you an idea of just how bad it can get.

The text below is from the initial (unofficial) report I received:

Initially (on Saturday), this slide was reported as being 40 x 80 feet.  Now that they have been able to get a better look at it, here is an update...

Wiped out the slide shed, 500 feet of track, 1/2 a bridge and almost made the Fraser River a lake.   30,000 cubic meters of debris, not counting 3 blasts needed to knock off overhanging nubs.

 If you look closely, you will see a large, rubber-tired loader working on the scree at the edge of the slide.  Also, there is a large excavator on the right of way at the right hand edge of the photo.

You can also see the slide detector fence posts and arms (in photo number two) that give warning to approaching trains when a falling rock breaks one or more of the wires that are strung along the face of the cliff beside the track.

Cut from an email, we have Butch Whiteman's comments, below....

I've seen a few slides between Jasper and Vancouver in my time, but this is as big as I've ever seen.  It came down last Saturday and they finally got track passable this morning (Thursday).  I recall my Granddad telling me a story about slides that came down in this area during the winter of 1933 when he was called for a work train west out of Kamloops to clean it up.  Of course, they didn't have the equipment they have today to deal with slides like these, but it must have been a big one too as they were gone from home for 33 days!  While they were ditching, a slide came down on top of them - burying the engine but they were able to dig themselves out of it before suffocating.  The only casualty in that slide was the watchman they had posted on an outcropping who's job it was to warn the others if a slide came down.  He gave a warning and workers were able to dive under cars on the train to escape the rocks, but the slide took him into the river and he was never found.

Jackass Mtn. is the name of Mountain where this occured.  Because of the terrain in this particular area, the road goes up quite high to get over the "prone to slide" area and a Jackass that was used as mule to haul supplies up the canyon finally got tired of hauling heavy loads and just gave up...... he simply committed suicide and stepped off the trail into no-man's land.

And they tell us that 'crab fishing' is a dangerous job!!!

 

Photos submitted by Butch Whiteman, who spent many years of his railroad career working this subdivision, as did his father and his grandfather before him.

 

Photographer not yet known

 

Photo provided by Syl Peplynski

 

This photo was taken looking west, just east of the tunnel and rock slide.  The single aspect CTC signal at the left side of the photo would normally indicate stop, then proceed at restricted speed; however, the presence of the yellow sign with the capital letter R on it allows trains to pass the red signal without stopping, but must proceed at restricted speed. 

 

The 'white' signal below the red one is known as a "T" light, which is activated when one or more of the wires in the slide detector fence (west of the tunnel) is broken by a falling rock.

March 19, 1966 just a few miles west of the big slide we've been following.

 

Thanks to the unknown photographer for his/her photos used in this blog.

 

CN's website says the following about it...

 - On Saturday, November 24th, a rockslide occurred along the Ashcroft subdivision of the CN main line near the station of Falls Creek, BC. The incident, which was reported on November 24th at 1210hrs PDT, caused delays to our mainline trains running between Kamloops, BC and Vancouver
- The site was cleared as of 1020hrs PST on Thursday, November 29th. Customers should expect some delays as service through the area gradually returns to normal.

 

I would like to extend my most earnest gratitude to all those who have allowed Caboose Coffee to publish their photographs in this blog.  Special thanks go to Butch Whiteman for sharing his connection and for having a sincere interest in this blog as a tool to give others an insight into life on the railroad in a time when the technology was evolving from steam to diesel, from train orders to CTC, MBS and OCS.  Train dispatchers came to work to find that they were now RTC's and train masters were no longer respected from above or below.

 



Fraser River Rail Bridge vs. The Swiftsure Prince. Barge 1, Bridge 0

Bill was a hogger for CP when I met him.  He introduced himself as "Scrap Iron".  

Scrap Iron didn't brag about it, but he knew the exact mileage of every drawbar and knuckle that had broken under his throttle hand; the benchmark of a locomotive engineer's prowess being the number of knuckles and drawbars he or she added to their un-official record. The object was, of course, to acquire as few as possible. Yes, even I have a couple to my credit. 

A testament to his unforgettable character is that I still remember working with him in the mid '70's while CN and CP were sharing track during a major traffic disruption.  CN was detouring over CP track for a number of months while the Fraser River Bridge was being re-built after being struck by a runaway barge during a very thick fog on the morning of December 26, 1975.

Do you have a few minutes for a 'short story' about that fateful morning? Yes??!!

OK...here we go then.

In December of 1975, I was an engineer working a midnight yard job in Port Mann (Thornton Yard). Like nearly all assigned jobs in the terminal, the 2400 West Lead had been cancelled for Christmas and Boxing Day. However, CN's westbound speed train, 217 arrived at Port Mann after midnight and CN decided that they wanted it taken to Vancouver before the sun was over the yardarm. The only engineer in the terminal who answered the call was yours truly...(the kids needed new shoes). We were ordered for 0530 with the caboose still on the cab track and engine on the shop track. The property seemed to have been abandoned as there was not a soul to be found. There were written instructions pinned to our orders and clearance outlining the engine numbers, caboose number, track number, pick up and set out, etc. The shop buildings were dark, the control tower was empty and there were no Carmen on duty.

Seemingly to set the tone of the day, our conductor had been pulled from an all-night party and was carried, protesting, aboard the caboose and put to bed on the cot before we were even off the shops.

In the dark, the head-end brakeman and I got the power and the caboose to the yard with the power, found the train and got the switching done. The ever-present marine fog began to thicken as we pulled the train from the yard track and onto switching pullback no. 4 for the air test. There were no Carmen on duty, so the head-end brakeman performed a number two brake test and I called the Fraser River Bridge and the BN dispatcher for permission to leave Port Mann.

Photo Credit  Andy Cassidy

Both said that we could leave and when the brakeman climbed up into the cab, I whistled off and began to pull. We didn’t have much of a train...perhaps 40 cars and two SD40-2's. We called the conductor, but didn't get a response and we hoped that he had stayed where he was when the air test had been completed.

The fog deepened as we climbed up onto the Fraser River Bridge and it was thick enough that I had to extinguish the headlights and ditch lights to see the Interlocking signals on the bridge.

When the train was just past the middle of the span and the engine entering the curve near the old cannery, the bridge tender/operator called us on the radio. There was tenseness to his voice as he told us that he could see the superstructure of a large barge above the fog moving toward the bridge. Thinking that it was under the control of a tug, he called on the marine radio channel, but got no response. Then he told me to "get that train off the bridge" as fast as I could, because it was obvious to him that we were about to get hit by a runaway barge. At that time, there was a permanent 5 mph slow order on the old bridge, but this was an emergent situation and required a controlled response. I began to open the throttle as the head-end brakeman started calling the conductor to ensure that he was aware of what was coming. After all, we knew the engine was going to make it, but because of the heavy fog, we couldn't tell how close the barge might be to the bridge and, if it was really close, the caboose might still be on the span when the collision occurred. There was no response to our calls.

Photo Courtesy Barrie Sanford author of ROYAL METAL Fraser River Rail Bridge

With the head end of the train off the bridge and descending the steep grade off the approach bents, and the train speed now approaching 20 miles per hour, the conductor's shaky voice boomed from the radio speaker and filled the cab with ... "HARVEY....SLOW THIS #@*"&^ TRAIN DOWN OR I'M GONNA PULL THE *&#$%^ AIR!!!!"  If that happened, we'd stop in less than an engine length with the caboose sitting on the swing span.  Not a good end to the conductor's day.

On the head end, we looked at each other and I handed the radio handset to the brakeman. "You'd better talk him down off his windmill, or he's going swimming!", I said. Only when Glen Cadno, the bridge operator intervened, did the conductor get off the radio and climb into the cupola to watch the whole thing take place.

I had a light brake on the train and was pulling in the sixth notch to keep the train stretched and secure on the tight curve coming off the bridge.  With the exception of the sound of the diesels and the chirping of brakes on wheels and squealing flanges on rails, all was hushed in the early morning fog.

 Photo Courtesy Barrie Sanford

 The conductor called to say that the caboose was off the swing span, so I released the train brakes and reduce the throttle by one or two notches.  

The bridge was struck by the barge, Swiftsure Prince and the Fraser River Bridge was wrecked and remained out of service for months.

Photo credit - Barrie Sanford

CN trains were detoured over CP  between Coquitlam, Sapperton and Mission, and many train and engine crews made a lot of 'overtime' money in the process. Young engineer Bruce Harvey made the leap from the junior assigned hogger, working the 2400 West Lead (a really shitty job), to the engineer's spareboard..."the money machine". At the same time, CP experienced shortages of crews as they had to provide 'pilots' for all the CN trains detouring over their track.  And Bill, who was no stranger to high mileage jobs, was one of those pilots handling our trains over his track.  We spent many hours together sitting on CP track waiting for clearance to get through Coquitlam and onward to Sapperton.

And that's how I met "Scrap Iron".

AN ADDENDUM TO THIS STORY  MAY 23, 2012
Photos and notes by Claude Prutton

Note:   Your will read, in almost every account of this disastrous event that the barge, The Swiftsure Prince was blown from its moorings at Pacific Coast Terminals by a strong wind.  I can assure you that while it might be reasonable to assume that 'wind' was the culprit, I can assure you that was an unlikely scenario.

In fact, the air was calm at the time the barge slipped from its moorings and it was the incoming tide that carried the barge into the New Westminster Rail Bridge and not the wind, for there was no wind blowing.

There were only four people on the bridge at the time of the incident; the bridge operator; Benny, the conductor; Cecil, the head end brakeman and myself, the engineer.

At the time, there was a very thick blanket of dense fog lying at a depth of approximately thirty feet.  Above that, the air was clear and and the bridge operator could see the superstructure of the vessel as it was coming upriver, towards the span and he was able to warn us of the approach in time to get the train off the doomed span.

Bruce Harvey


The following is from an email that I recently received from Claude Prutton, via Mark Forseille.

To say the least, I am extremely grateful to Mark, for taking the initiative to forward Claude's email to me, and especially to Claude (for taking the attached photos).

Caboose Coffee and its readers are all the richer for their efforts.

From Claude:

 Here are some Oldies of a different sort. The pictures depict probably the worst disruption of Rail traffic the lower mainland has ever endured.

On Dec. 26th 1975 a log barge broke loose from it's moorings at Pacific Coast Terminals during a strong windstorm & blew up stream smashing out the main fixed span on the New Westminster Railway Bridge. This caused a major disruption .r CN, BN & BC Hydro, Railways.

CN had to divert westbound traffic destined for North Vancouver over the Tete Jaune & Fraser Subs to Prince George & then down the BCR to North Vancouver. Local transfers into Vancouver went East to Mission & then onto the Mission Bridge & then down CP's Cascade sub to the Sapperton Interchange & then from there on to BN's 4th sub into Vancouver.

BN for the most part entered Vancouver by using their Sumas Sub to Huntington & then CP's Mission Bridge & then on to Vancouver from there.

BC Hydro used the same route to get to their New Westminster Yards & Shops. They had a long trip however to service the industries across the river a distance of about half a mile required a trip of about 70 or so miles out to Mission & back on the opposite side of the river..

With in a short time after the accident Plans were drawn up & a new section was constructed on the south side of the Fraser River. By Mid April 1976 the new span was ready for installation. A couple of barges were ;placed under the span at the start of the Flood tide & once the structure was off it's piers the barges were towed over to the bridge & the span lowered on the Ebb tide. 

To me that sounds like incredible precision. It went off without a hitch .

See pictures attached.

Claude Prutton