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Community Forum · Est. 2006
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#1
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03-22-2011, 02:45 PM
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Canaan Train Wreck: Quebec Express and B&M Freight Collide, September 15, 1907
About 25 people were killed when the southbound Quebec-to-Boston express collided head-on with a northbound Boston & Maine freight train near Canaan, New Hampshire, on September 15, 1907. The crash occurred in dense fog at about 4:26 a.m. on the Boston & Maine line roughly four miles north of Canaan station. The express was carrying passengers returning from the Sherbrooke Fair. Both engineers jumped clear before the impact. The wreck was officially blamed on a dispatching error. The freight train received an order naming passenger train No. 34 instead of the approaching No. 30 express. Fatality reports differ between 25 and 26, while reported injury totals also vary. The disaster is regarded as the deadliest train wreck in New Hampshire history. Photographs taken after the collision show a wrecked locomotive, splintered wooden passenger cars, overturned wheelsets and freight cars piled along the embankment as crowds gathered at the scene. Also covered here: Photographic Time Line |