May 29, 2024
D. Rollings

      It was 7:45 PM on Tuesday, May 19th, 1891 at the Brampton Canadian Pacific Railway on Queen Street. The weather that day had been just shy of 14° Celsius with clear skies. Train No. 68 was preparing for departure. The freight train ran daily, but this was a particularly large one with 33 cars and a caboose. It had completed most of its journey already, hauling Credit Valley stone down from Orangeville but had been held up for six hours at the Brampton station. The crew was eager to get moving again, down to their destination at Toronto West Junction.  

     The crew on a train this size consisted of five men: Robert E. “Bob” Johnson (28 years old) was the driver. Hailing from Orangeville, he was regarded as being one of the best engineers on the line. He came by it honestly: Johnson began working for the line when he was fourteen. His father had also been a CPR engineer, but had been killed eight years before in a collision at the foot of Yonge Street. Working up front in the cab with Bob was James Galt “Jim” Ferguson, the fireman. Like Bob, Jim was from Orangeville. He was a year younger than Bob, at 27 years of age. 

      Two brakemen were in position on the train. William P. Little, 21 years old, and William P. White, 25 years old, were aware of some of the unique features of the track that lay between Brampton and Churchville, and had set their brakes carefully. The train would be traveling between homes along Elliott Street, a blind curve above Eldorado Mills and a steep grade approaching the Churchville flagstop. Little had only just started to work for the CPR two weeks prior and was positioned near the front of the train. White was rear brakeman. Being a brakeman on a freight train in 1891 was a terribly dangerous job. Their job involved traveling from car to car, turning a wheel on each to slow the momentum of the train. Injuries and death were common in this line of work, as bad weather and unexpected jolts could cause a brakeman to lose his balance and fall between the cars. As this particular train was carrying so much stone on flatbeds, in addition to a handful of boxcars, the brakemen needed to be prepared to handle difficult situations. 

      The train’s conductor on the train, William Brooks, was positioned in the caboose at the rear of the train. During their six hour delay at the Brampton station, Brooks noticed a strange man lurking around the train. As CPR freight trains were strictly banned from taking on passengers, Brooks kept a lookout for the man, prepared to remove him from the train if he caught him attempting to hitch a ride on one of the cars. By the time that they departed, the conductor felt sure that the man had gone his own way.

      Engineer Bob Johnson knew that the train was now operating on a tight schedule, given the lengthy delay. A nightly passenger train traveled the line at 9:00 PM and he needed to make sure that the track was clear. With everything in order, he pulled the train out of the station, crept south across Queen Street and began the journey through the residential area, then turned west across McMurchy Avenue. At that point, the track travels straight for a good distance, and Johnson accelerated to the train’s normal traveling speed of between 15 and 20 MPH.

        Train #68 rounded the blind curve to the north and Bob Johnson immediately saw Maggie’s cows in the distance, near the track at the crossing. A cow on the track could spell disaster for a train and he acted fast, sounding first the cow-warning whistle (a long series of short blasts) and then the brake whistle (one blast). The brakemen flew into action, but the loud staccato whistles echoing across the valley caused one of the cows to panic and start to run home, leading it straight into the path of the locomotive. 12-year old Maggie watched in horror as the cow was knocked down and pushed along briefly by the cattle guard at the front. It then became lodged under the front truck and the two front wheels derailed. With the engine derailed and the full weight of the stone pushing, the train traveled down the steep grade another 400 yards before the track broke and split apart. The locomotive then drove straight into a ditch and was buried up to the boiler. The tender and stone-laden cars smashed over the locomotive and almost completely buried it in the wreckage. 

        Over at Eldorado Mills, Betsy heard the whistles from the unexpected train and flew into a panic. She had no idea where her sister was and feared for her safety. She ran out onto the road. She didn’t make it far before she was overwhelmed and fell unconscious. 

       Conductor William Brooks was the first on the scene and attempted to save Johnson and Ferguson, but the billowing steam from the locomotive prevented him from getting near them. He reported that Johnson had been killed immediately, though he could still hear Ferguson moaning from inside the wrecked cab. Ferguson didn’t last much longer and both driver and fireman were killed. Almost all 33 cars were destroyed. The two brakemen managed to escape with their lives, though they were seriously injured. Little had his right foot amputated soon afterward.