The Perth & District Historical Society Presents:
Train Wrecks in Our Area
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Based on many media reports, train wrecks were not uncommon in our area’s early days. This page mentions only a few of them.
Eugene Kirkham describes several wrecks in the Sharbot Lake area in his website, ‘The Kick & Push Railway’, linked below.
Amongst the best known of the nearby wreck sites was one at Glen Tay in 1942. The Lanark Era reported that nine passengers and three crew were injued, when an eastbound freight crashed into a standing Montreal to Toronto Express at Glen Tay Station, damaging both engines and derailing several freight cars, killing 18 head of cattle. The Kick & Push website has posted an excellent photo of this crash. On February 26th 1925, at Glen Tay, a westbound passenger train, with freight, was sitting at the station when a an eastbound freight train was directed through an open switch to a head-on collision. One photo below shows Perth Coroner, Dr. A. W. Dwyre, inspecting the site. Five doctors were sent from Perth to treat the injured, one of whom died later (details are available at the Churcher site listed below). More recently was the 1985 wreck at Sucker Lake, five miles (8 kms) west of Maberly, in Tay Valley Township. Details and photos of this wreck are on our website’s ‘Local History, Neighboring Townships’ page, thanks to research by Mitchell Crain, for his entry to the 2008 Perth Region Heritage Fair, at www.perthhs.org/history/train-wreck.html . Eugene Kirkham’s website ‘Kick & Push’ lists Sharbot Lake wrecks at: kickandpushca.wordpress.com/train-wrecks/ Colin Churcher site: churcher.crcml.org/circle/Wreck%20Details/1925GlenTay.html
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