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Caption: Some of the tank cars involved in the November 10th 1979 Mississauga train derailment sit in CP's Toronto (Agincourt) Yard, presumably kept for inspection during the aftermath investigation. As most know, a tank car on an eastbound CP freight had a hox box that caused a large derailment on the Galt Sub at Mavis Road grade crossing in Mississauga, including some chemical tank cars that derailed and caught fire and/or exploded. A load of leaking chlorine gas in one of them caused mass evacuation of much of the city as fire crews tried to contain the blaze and stop the leak.
Two tank cars in particular are shown here. The wrecked one in CP gondola 333360 appears to be chalked UTLX 29327 or 77 on the bottom. A less-manged one is riding on its own, likely on some shop trucks or spares off the wreck auxiliary train that rerailed it.
Keith Hansen photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.
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Interesting photo, I remember that day very well. That night we had to pack up and stay with family friends in Brantford.
Yes sir, thanks to CP and this derailment the speed of trains carrying dangerous good was reduced to 35mph
25mph on CN between Mac Yrd and Doncaster.
LOL, I have cursed CP ever since then
I was working CP’s East Frt Pool as a brakeman when the wreck occurred. I made a trip to Toronto via Hamilton (thence across CN) which took 15 hours. We were tired so took 5 hrs rest. When our rest was up, we were called to relive the crew on the “big hook” that had been called when the wreck occurred a week earlier. We spent another week on the hook including taking those cripples back to Toronto Yard for storage. They were kept there for yrs until CP was sure no more litigation might require their inspection again.
The cripples were held together with a combo of chains, shackle bars and normal couplers. When the wreck was officially cleaned up, the car dept held their “victory dinner” in the kitchen car. My first job was to lift the ‘boom car out of Cooksville siding right behind the hook. The hook had been coupled to a CP gondola with the end door dropped & it was full of wheels & other scrap. Nobody told me to contact the crane operator before uncoupling. I made the cut & when we pulled away the hook dragged a bunch of scrap onto the ROW. I had to go get some carmen from their dinner to clean up my mess. They weren’t amused. After that we headed for Toronto Yard & didn’t get there until 0200, 20hrs after coming on duty at 0600 the day before.
I have Super 8 film of that tank being lifted into that gondola in this photo. I had been full of chlorine if it’s the car I think it is. We also lifted a propane car into a gon that had been dragged by a bulldozer from over a 1,000 ft away. It had gone airborne leaving a truck side frame & wheelset in the iron superstructure of the Alkaril chemical company’s building then under construction. The end blew out that car and it became a rocket for a brief time.
Interesting details Ron! I seem to recall reading a report somewhere that mentioned the chlorine tank car involved was CGTX 90009, although it’s been awhile. Possibly that number was just that tank that originally had the hotbox and caused the whole derailment.