CANOE RIVER

2nd Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery
21 November 1950

To those that made the ultimate sacrifice for their country at the Canoe River disaster on route to Korea from Camp Shilo, Manitoba.

There wasn't much in Canoe River on November 21, 1950. The Korean war had just started, and a troop train of gunners from the Second Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (2 RCHA), was on its way to Fort Lewis WA. Their train was a special, with wooden coaches sandwiched between some more modern steel coaches, pulled by a steam engine. The train had just crossed the Canoe River Bridge and was traveling about 40-50 km per hour. Upon rounding a curve, the head-end crew saw another train on the same track heading towards them about 140 metres away. Whistles shrieked, but ten seconds later at about 1040, the two trains collided head-on.

The other train was the regularly-scheduled east bound transcontinental passenger train, steam powered with all steel coaches. Since this train was on a slight downhill grade, there was no coupler slack and the train came to a sudden, solid halt. On the troop train on the uphill grade, however, the main collision caused a series of smaller collisions as each coach smashed into the one ahead, the wooden coaches suffering badly, crushed between the steel ones ahead and behind. Some coaches rolled down an embankment in the snow. The nearest town was miles away, and the telegraph wires were torn out in the accident.

A doctor and nurse on the scheduled passenger train assisted by the soldiers looked after the injured. Other soldiers managed to connect an emergency phone onto the severed wires and call for help. A relief train did not arrive until four hours later. In all, the four members of the two engine crews and 17 soldiers perished in accident.

The accident has never been forgotten by the members of 2 RCHA. They hold a memorial service near the site every year and are responsible for constructing and renewing the cairn there.

THE CANOE RIVER TRAIN WRECK

Train wreck at Canoe River

The Canoe River memorial located at CFB Shilo marks this tragedy.
A wreath is laid on Remembrance Day each year in memory of these soldiers.