A Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive has been found 106 years after plunging into the depths of Lake Superior.
On June 9th, 1910 a Canadian Pacific Railway Locomotive No. 694 collided with a rock-slide that had covered the railway tracks just outside of Marathon, Ontario. The collision caused the D10 steam locomotive, a tender car and several boxcars to fall off a 65-foot cliff, hitting the water and plunging an additional 230 feet into Lake Superior’s depths. Sadly, three men from Schreiber, Ontario, engineer Frank Wheatley, fireman E. Clark, and brakeman J. McMillan were on-board the train all perished.
If you’d like to know more about the Canadian Pacific Railway, you can check out Van Horne’s Road, an informative pictorial history about the construction and first years of operation of the Canadian Pacific Transcontinental Railway.
You might also want to check out Tales of the CPR, full of strange and wonderful stories that rarely make it into traditional history books. Colorful characters, ingenuity, tragedy, humor, and rare archival photographs combine to make this a fascinating read for rail and history enthusiasts.
Our section on Trains & Railroads has loads of other great books on the CPR, CNR, and much more!
For full stories on the tragedy of Locomotive No. 694 and its recent discovery, check out articles by The Bemidji Pioneer, The CBC, and mLive’s Garret Ellison.
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