An Interview with Douglas Snair

Douglas Snair shared his memories of the Almonte Train Wreck with fellow survivor of the accident, Ed Muldoon, and volunteer with the North Lanark Historical Society. The interview took place on April 2, 2014 in Douglas Snair’s home as part of the “Paving the Way to Sustainability” project. This project was funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation to build a sustainable relationship between the community of Mississippi Mills and the North Lanark Regional Museum.

Douglas Snair, and older man, sitting in a brown leather reclining chair, with Ed Muldoon sitting to the right, off camera.

Douglas: “I had been to Renfrew to spend Christmas with the girlfriend that I was going with at the time and we were coming back on the train and stopped in the station in Almonte. Then of course the troop train came in and smashed into the back of us.”

Ed: “(off camera) Out of the three, which one were you in?”

Douglas: “We were back towards the engine, we were the lucky ones. The other two were completely demolished.”

Ed: “(off camera) So you were in the third?”

Douglas: “We just started to come into the end of our coach, after we got up off the floor when we were hit, we were of course, (gestures his hand in a sweeping motion) went forward into the seat ahead of us. I got up and I looked through the front and the first thing I saw was (indicates a round shape with his hands, approximately 1ft in diameter) a big yellow headlight of the engine and the front part of the engine just coming into our coach. It stopped right there. We were very fortunate.”

Ed: “Yeah, that’s because it was a bigger engine than the engine that was pulling our train, we were in the third coach too.”

Douglas: “(interrupts Ed Muldoon) Oh yes, it was a big continental big engine type –”

Ed: “2800 yeah, that headlight, I was in that same coach, (camera turns to focus on Ed Muldoon, an older man sitting in a grey reclining chair) we were thrown right up to the other end of the coach and covered up with junk. We were about 5 hours before they got us out of there. But there’s another lady in Renfrew and she remembers the light, and it wasn’t even broken. That part, it was on as if it was never near an accident. The lens wasn’t broken, nothing.”

Douglas: “(camera returns to Douglas Snair) The only thing that happened to us of course was I broke the crystal in my watch, that was all. Then we were cushioned pretty well by the seat ahead. We hit it (gestures his hands thrusting forward) and I think it…if I remember correctly, it broke off but then the people ahead of us were underneath it and so we all got up and checked, no injuries so that was it. Well, then the next thing was to get out of there. I got my girlfriend out on the platform and I went back to see what was going on, to see if I could help other people as well, but…there were some injuries in the car, I could hear people calling so I mainly from, the luggage was in the.. the racks overhead mainly had fallen and hit some people and so on, but I don’t know how badly they were injured. I didn’t attempt to help them because I didn’t know, I might make it worse.”

Ed: “We were stuck under a bunch of seats (camera returns to Ed Muldoon) and stuff and we couldn’t move, and we were afraid to move because you might be bleeding you know, you couldn’t tell. So it was a wait for about 4 hours before they got us out.”

Douglas: “Is that right?”

Ed: “Yeah.”

Douglas: “We were good (camera returns to Douglas Snair) we were both out of there in 15 to 20 minutes so.”

Ed: “Must have been quite a sight to get outside and see all the…wreckage.”

Douglas: “Well I didn’t realize at that time that we had the engine…had gone through three cars before they’d hit us, or two cars rather. And so it wasn’t until I got out on the platform, walked back to see what was happening, that I saw all the debris and stuff there and people lying around and it was an awful sight.”

Ed: “We didn’t see that because we couldn’t get out, so I’m glad I didn’t see it, yeah.”

Douglas: “Oh it was… and the cries of people and screams and that sort of thing. I’ll never forget that.”