Flin Flon Derailment on the Hudson Bay Railway - April 2000
A work trip took me to northern Manitoba in April - May 2000. At this time the gold mining industry was going through a rough patch, with depressed prices and many companies cutting staff and shutting down mining operations. The project I was running at the time had been shut down and I was at loose ends.
My boss "strongly suggested" that I get out of the office for an extended period as having someone not actively working on a project was likely to get unwelcome attention from the company in the form of a pink slip. So I quickly came up with a trip to review gold projects in the cheapest way possible in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. There was a mining conference in Thunder Bay and I knew people in Flin Flon and Thompson that I could couch surf with. I arranged a few mine tours and meetings with several companies and prospectors to review their gold projects.
Overall I think I budgeted around $2000 for the trip including car rental, gas, airfare and food. The fact that I was couch surfing for much of the trip definitely saved the company quite a bit of money. It also was saving my job...
I flew into Winnipeg and headed north. I stayed at my parent's place over the weekend and saved the company a few bucks in the process. I headed first to Flin Flon. I passed through The Pas and stopped in to see what was up on the Hudson Bay Railway. I'll save that for another post.
I arrived in Flin Flon and crashed on my friends Tim and Kathy's couch. I looked forward to seeing what was happening on the railways around town, particularly the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting operation. I got more than I expected.
Due to the spring thaw the roadbed next to Ross Lake in Flin Flon got very soft, causing the rail to roll over when the southbound Flin Flon turn went over that spot. Several cars loaded with copper derailed. Fortunately everything stayed upright.
A call went out for the big hook based in The Pas to come out to help clean up the derailment and get the line reopened. The locomotives on the derailed train ran light to The Pas, picked up the wrecker train and came back to the derailment site.
The crane switched to the correct location to deal with the derailment. I shot all the cars on the wrecker train, I'll have to dig them up and scan them.
I caught the train being sorted out in the yard in Channing, just to the south of the derailment. Channing was used as a storage yard for cars destined to the smelter in Flin Flon. The crew set up the crane and associated equipment to the correct orientation to deal with the derailment from the south end.
Over the next several days the crews worked to unload the derailed cars, repair the roadbed and get the cars put back on the rail. As I was working I could only sneak out on occasion to see what was happening. There was a decent overview from the road above the derailment so I would pop in at lunch or when I was free to look at what was happening. You could also see the full site across the lake so I looked in from that side as well.
The HBM&S ex CP SW1200RS 8174 came out to pull the portion of the train that was still on the rails back to the smelter. I chased it back to the smelter as it wasn't moving very quickly. It was interesting to catch this unit outside it's normal home at the smelter. HBM&S actually has access to the yard at Channing to pull empties into the smelter when needed.
Finally everything was cleaned up and the track repaired. The wrecker train headed back to The Pas in the dark so I wasn't able to chase it. The next day I decided to take a drive south to see if I could catch the regular northbound freight to Flin Flon since my morning was open. I didn't have to wait long. South of Cranberry Portage I caught a very short 2 car train led by HBR 3530 and 3548. The yard in Flin Flon was plugged with cars from the derailed train as well as the cars that had come out of the copper smelter and zinc plant so there wasn't much room.
The freight stopped to pick up gondolas at Cranberry Portage that had been dropped by the Lynn Lake Mixed train the prior day. I shot the switching done by the M420 pair, enjoying the sound they worked.
Later that same day the locomotives headed south led by the sole Hudson Bay Railway painted M420 3548. I caught them running under the highway bridge outside of Flin Flon leading a heavy southbound train.
I also visited Thompson and went to Thunder Bay via Winnipeg. I'll cover those stops in another post. Ultimately I kept my job and started work on another project. The best part of this trip was seeing the HBR during its M420 heyday. By 2003 the majority of these locomotives had been scrapped or sold off.
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