Carbondale Station

The Carbondale Station documentary accounts the tragic event that occurred on November 10, 1959, at the Northern Alberta Railways Carbondale Station in Carbondale, Alberta.
On November 10, 1959, at around 8:00 am at the Northern Alberta Railways (NAR) Carbondale Station, NAR passenger train No. 2 collided head on with NAR train No. 31 travelling 40 kilometres per hour. As the trains were running late, No. 31 had roughly 10 minutes to side rail at the station so that NO. 2 could pass safely. Due to a brake malfunction, No. 31 could not move and was sitting on the mainline. In a desperate attempt to notify the oncoming passenger train, the brakeman from the freight train ran ahead to deploy an explosive warning device called a torpedo on the track and wave a red flag signalling the steam train to stop. The engineer of the passenger train did not see the signal.
The Carbondale Station, previously located in the hamlet of Carbondale, about 11 km (6 miles) north of Edmonton, was the junction where NAR’s mainline split, sending passengers and freight either west to Grande Prairie and Dawson Creek, or east to Fort McMurray in northern Alberta. The station was not only a stop en route to any number of destinations along the line but, since 1956, was also the home of Station Agent Arthur "Art" Fraser, his wife Alice, and their youngest of three children, son Kelly.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, the station was destroyed by the explosion, and the Fraser family and the steam engine fireman, Albert Villeneuve, lost their lives.