Sept. 3, 1907 disaster
Caledon's Horseshoe train wreck revisited

The Canadian Pacific Railway special passenger train to Toronto Exhibition from Markdale and points south as far as Orangeville was running late and trying to make up time when it derailed Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1907 on the "Horseshoe" curve south of Caledon village. Seven passengers were killed and 105 injured in the resulting wreck.

Scheduled to arrive in Shelburne at 7:19 a.m., the train did not reach the station until after 8:25. A large number of passengers boarded the train, and it was said that even standing room was at a premium in the five coaches. Two coaches were added at Orangeville.

It was well known that from Orangeville to Cardwell Junction (near Caledon East) very careful running was necessary because of the downgrade and the curves. Caledon mountain is the bug-bear of the Owen Sound branch, and the Horseshoe curve was looked on as a railwayman's nightmare. The standing joke was that when a train is negotiating the curve the engineer can lean out of the cab and shake hands with the conductor on the steps of the last car.

These photos show the extent of the wreckage Sept. 3, 1907 in the infamous Horseshoe train wreck in Caledon. Photos courtesy of the Dufferin County Museum and Archives

The train was due at Orangeville at 8 o'clock and Toronto junction at 10. According to a Caledon dispatch, it was 9:30 when it passed there. The dispatch said that half an hour later, "a farmer's boy, on the bare back of a galloping horse, tore into the village with the news that the train had been derailed at the Horseshoe curve, three miles below the station, and that five coaches and the engine were in the ditch. 'There are a dozen dead and a great many injured. Send to Orangeville and Toronto for doctors and help,' he said."

The train, by the stories of the passengers, appeared to have approached the Horseshoe at great speed. Instead of taking one turn on the curve, the engine seemed to plough straight on. It was ditched and turned on its side, and five of the cars were jerked from the track into the ditch and smashed. The two last cars remained on the track. The smoking car, which turned completely over, yielded the largest harvest of dead and injured. Telegraph poles were smashed and the wires torn down, and it was some time before telegraph communication was restored.

The train crew and passengers from the last two cars worked like trojans to free those trapped in the wreckage, carrying the injured out upon the hillside and giving them blankets provided by nearby farmers, and inside of an hour doctors were at work staunching the flow of blood from wounds. Orangeville doctors and nurses were on hand two hours after the accident and at 1 p.m. a party of Toronto doctors and nurses arrived on a special train.

Between 35 and 40 of the injured were taken to Toronto by special train Tuesday afternoon. All were taken to Western Hospital. A special train with survivors who refused to go further on their journey reached Shelburne about 3 p.m. en route to Markdale. Others were brought on the steamboat express later in the afternoon.

Among the dead were Robert Carr of Shelburne, James Banks of Perm and Richard Bell of Melancthon.

The troublesome steep grade and sharp horseshoe curve located north of Cardwell was the sight of the worst wreck in the history of the Bruce branches.

From the Shelburne Economist, 1907.