PelhamToday received the following letter from a reader remembering a derailment in Fenwick:
I found your article about the 1961 Tribune newspaper very interesting. May I make a suggestion for a future article in this vein? With the recent catastrophic derailment in Ohio, I consider it may be of current interest.
The old Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway formerly ran diagonally right across Pelham. In 1972 (spring I think, maybe April?) there was a train derailment near the intersection of Poth Rd., Sumbler Rd., and the TH&B railway line. Many tankers of hazardous liquid were spilled (sulphuric acid, if I remember correctly).
I lived on the family farm some miles upstream of this event—the property adjacent to, and on the west side of the golf course. There is a system of drainage that runs all across this part of Pelham, ending finally in Coyle Creek, in the middle of Pelham Hills Golf Course (originally built by my uncle, and called Highland Golf Course).
That summer the creek was full of dead fish, dead frogs, dead crayfish. It took more than two years before the frogs started returning. The field adjacent to this chemical spill was a barren wasteland for many years.
It would be interesting to see what was in the papers about this. I am not in Canada now and can't access libraries to search on my own. There is a reference to the spill in this Voice of Pelham article from 2020, about a different rail incident in Fenwick, citing Brett Rohaly, a schoolmate of the time.
Paul Nicholls
Shaoxing, China
