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Smithville is Darkened as Freight Trains Collide on T.H. and B Line
[Welland Tribune January 6, 1947]
Hamilton, Jan. 6- Railway traffic was halted, power cut off and Station road in nearby Smithville blocked Saturday night when a T.H. and B. Railway freight train plowed into the rear of another near the village station.
Two men, Conductor Edward Barlow and Trainman A. LeRoy, both of Hamilton, leaped from the caboose of the first train seconds before the crash. No one was injured.
The collision wrecked four coal cars and the caboose of the first train and two coal cars of the second. The locomotive of the rear train was damaged. Immediately after the crash, the caboose of the leading train caught fire, but the blaze was extinguished by Smithville fire department before serious damage resulted.
Smithville Lights Out
In addition, one of the derailed cars knocked down a hydro line and plunged Smithville into darkness for the night. The community’s power supply had been restored only a few hours before after a 30-hour blackout caused by storm damage to the electric system.
Wreckage strewn along the tracks prevented service from being resumed until yesterday, and a C.P.R.-T.H. and B. Toronto-New York train, had to be rerouted via the Canadian National Railways to the suspension bridge at Niagara Falls station road, near the village depot, was also plugged by debris and was not opened for traffic until yesterday.
Railway officials could offer no explanation for the crash, but it was pointed out that both freights were extras and that recent storm damage had made communications difficult. Many wires in the area were not yet operating when the accident took place.
Both trains were bound for Hamilton. The first had just pulled onto main line from the Dunnville spur when it was struck. The other was en route from Welland to Hamilton.
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