|
|
|
|
British Columbia Railroad Avalanche
Thu Mar 04, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
Yesterday, we talked about the devastating 1910 railroad avalanche in the Cascade Mountains. But just
4 days later, Canada suffered it's own disaster.
British Columbia's high, rugged mountains greatly hampered building of the Canada's transcontinental
railroad. The best summit crossing, Rogers Pass, was subject to heavy snowfall and avalanches.
|
CP freight passing through Glacier B.C. Sept. 99.
Photo by Gordon Hall. This is just at the
entrance of the 5 mile long Connaught Tunnel completed in 1916 passing under Mount Macdonald.
|
On March 4, 1910, a locomotive-driven, rotary snowplow and two section crews began clearing track
buried by snowslides off Cheops Mountain. Cracks and rumbles of avalanches from surrounding peaks
echoed through the damp night air, but time was short: Train 97, Vancouver-bound with 400 passengers,
had already entered the Rocky Mountain foothills.
Shortly before midnight, locomotive fireman Billy Lachance climbed out to take a stroll. Minutes later, a
sudden gust hurled Lachance, into the brush. Opposite Cheops Mountain, the snowpack on Avalanche
Crest had given way.
The slide buried a quarter mile of track in seconds. The rushing snow dropped into the intervening creek
bed and stopped, literally, at Lachance's feet.
The avalanche lifted the 91-ton locomotive and hurled it 45 feet, where it landed upside-down. Wooden
railcars were crushed like matchsticks, all the workers were instantly buried.
Laborers sent to clear the tracks and recover the bodies found many dead standing upright, frozen in
body expressions like the victims of Pompeii. The toll numbered sixty-two; only Billy Lachance survived.
Despite snowsheds, snowplows, and armies of workers battling to keep tracks clear, Rogers Pass was
never safe. Eventually, the Canadian Pacific Railway accepted defeat. An alternative route would go
under snow and weather . . . literally. Engineers burrowed through Mount Macdonald's granite core,
spending $2.5 million on dynamite to complete the five-mile Connaught Tunnel in 1916.
Thanks to our contributing writer, meteorologist Keith Heidorn. Our show is funded by Subaru and The
National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
The History of the Rogers Pass
http://cdnrail.railfan.net/RogersPass/RogersPasstext.htm
|
|
