The Wreck on Sucker Lake Shore

           by John E. Bedore 

That big freight train came up the track,     
With no brakes on and the throttle back,
With twelve big engines in a row
And ninety cars in tow,
All was well so it would seem,
At Bolingbrook she got the green,
But just ahead a mile or so
What happened there we do not know
It left the rails on Sucker Lake Shore
That train piled up with a bang and a roar,
That  New Year's Eve, in the cold and snow
It shook the sky, and the ground below.
If that is the way on the C.P.R.
To bring  New Year's in, it's going too far.
It twisted the rails for a mile or more,
That wreck piled up on Sucker Lake  Shore.
Though we may have pollution from all that was spilled,
We thank the good Lord that no one was killed.
A tip of the hat to all the good men
Who worked 'round the clock,  with no time to rest,
To clean up that wreck they all did their best.
That place is a jinx, or so it would seem,
There, three men were killed in  days of steam.
I remember quite clearly a long time ago
Some rocks came down on the track below.
Let's hope it's the last, and there will be no more
Of bad wrecks on Sucker Lake Shore.

NOTE:

This wreck occurred December 31,1985 at MP 32 of the
Bellville Sub. near Sharbot Lake. 
It took more than two weeks to clean it up,
using both the Toronto and Montreal Auxiliaries, plus
the Sudbury crane, due to its remote location.
The mainline was closed for six days during which time
trains were detoured over the CNR.

The train was 505,  and it had been combined with
another train  which accounted for the extraordinary
12 units.
5538-5982-5945-5551- made it, then
5743-6047-5537-6011-5918-5546-5736-6008, derailed
along with 36 of its 90 cars. 6008 was wrecked so badly
it had to be retired.

Cause of the wreck was finally determined to be as a
result of wide gauge and thus it was blamed on the
Engineering Department whose budget was charged
with the multi-million dollar cost of the wreck.