The monument is in Pinecrest Cemetery, section E, lot 343-1.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
TRAVERS A. SHORT
C.P.R. ENGINEER
KILLED AT ASHTON STN.
MAR. 18th, 1950
AGED 59 YRS
HIS WIFE
HAZEL ELIZABETH AYOTTE
DIED DEC. 6th, 1959
AGED 60 YRS
The text below is taken from The Ottawa Evening Journal newspaper, 18 March 1950, front page.
TWO OTTAWA MEN DIE IN ASHTON WRECK
Two Others Hurt When Trains Crash In Blinding Storm
West-Bound Freight Slices Into East-Bound
ASHTON, March 18 - (Staff) - Two Ottawa railway men were killed and two others were injured when a West-bound Canadian Pacific freight sliced into an East-bound freight here at 1:15 a.m. today.
Ashton is 20 miles south-west of Ottawa.
The dead:
Travers A. Short, CPR engineer of 460 Kensington avenue;
George H. Hannan, CPR fireman of 23 Adelaide street.
Both men were on the west-bound train, Local No. 89, running from Ottawa to Smiths Falls.
The injured:
Thomas C. Gilmer, head-end brakeman, of 307 Riverdale avenue;
A. O. Renaud, trainman of 303 St. Andrew street.
Gilmer, on the west-bound train is in Ottawa Civic Hospital with severe scalds and burns, sustained when live steam from bursting engine pipes enveloped him.
Renaud, on the east-bound train sustained a fracture of the nose.
Ties Up Traffic.
The wreck tied up traffic on the main Canadian Pacific line between Ottawa and Toronto, but early morning trains were being re-routed, and wrecking crews hoped to have tracks cleared within a few hours.
The trains met in a blinding, driving snowstorm. Lack of visibility was believed to have been a contributing factor in the wreck, into which Canadian Pacific authorities already have opened their investigation.
How It Happened.
At the moment before impact, this was the picture:
The East-bound train was pulling into the passing track siding at Ashton. The engine, tender and several cars had pulled over from the main line to the siding, but the tail-end of the freight train still remained on the main track.
The West-bound train, running between Ottawa and Smiths Falls, was rolling down the main line and sliced into the last eight cars of the freight pulling on to the siding.
How it happened that the West-bound train piled into the other freight, or why it was the East-bound train hadn't cleared the main line, Canadian Pacific officials would not say.
However, there was some reason to believe there had been a misreading of signals between the crews of both trains.
Head-end Brakeman Gilmer of the West-bound train was heard to say "He gave us the high sign with his headlight".
It was possible the crew of the West-bound train saw a head-light signal through the driving snow, read it to mean the track was clear, and so continued rolling to cut into the other freight.
The West-bound engine threw two East-bound freight cars against the Ashton flag-stop station, smashing it, and then itself toppled end over end.
The right-of-way was torn up for some 200 yards, littered with splintered ties and twisted steel rails.
First rescuers to reach the scene found the body of Engineer Short lying on the ground near his engine, a crumpled figure covered with blood-spotted snow.
The body of his fireman, George Hannan, was found locked in the wreckage of the cab, unseeing eyes staring ahead while the orange glow from the firebox played grotesquely over his features.
The scene was one of death and desolation, the small flagstop station a crazy mass of splintered boards, rail ends jerked upward as high as 20 feet, the wreckage of box cars which had been crushed like match boxes strewn about the area, and railway ties like toothpicks studding the ground.
The eerie bright red and yellow railway flares played over the macabre spectacle as a wrecking crew of 30 men from Ottawa, Stittsville and Carleton Place methodically set about clearing the main line.
Engine Flips End Over End.
The engine of the West-bound freight had flipped end over end and crashed over on its left side near the rails, scalding steam pouring from its burst boilers.
Near by the tender stood tilted on its nose.
CPR officials said the East-bound train had gone to Smiths Falls as Local No. 83 and was heading back to Ottawa as an extra freight. The West-bound freight, No. 89, left Ottawa at 11.55 p.m.
Doctors from Carleton Place and Smiths Falls drove through the storm over drifted roads to reach the wreck to give aid to the injured. Engineer Short and Fireman Hannan were beyond help.
The Department of Highways rushed a snowplow in from Carleton Place minutes after the wreck was reported to keep the road open for police, ambulances, doctors and rescue workers.
Scene of the wreck was some 200 yards from Highway No. 15 linking Carleton Place and Ottawa.
