published in Caledon Living, Summer 2007:
     Sept. 3, 2007 marks the 100^th anniversary of the Horseshoe Hill train wreck that left many people dead or injured. The railway’s history is mixed with both good memories and misfortune.
     The Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railways was begun in 1870 and used to run through Caledon, up the escarpment on the west side of what is now called Horseshoe Hill Rd.
     The road was given this name because of the railway. In order to handle the steep grade of the escarpment, the track was built with a horseshoe curve almost directly opposite the MacLeish house, today owned by Phil and Liz Lamoureux.
     According to a report by The Star Weekly of April 1914, the curve was “so abrupt that the engine faces one way and the train another, when a train is half way around it.”
     The report also describes the trains this way: “The flat cars were not mounted on tracks, but on three pairs of single wheels, one at each end and one in the middle. When the train went round a curve, the middle pair of wheels would leave the rails.”
     Yet the railway was not considered particularly dangerous. People would stand where the track crossed the Third Line and wave at the engineer who would stop the train to let them on. The trains went so slowly around the horseshoe curve, that the MacLeish men and their neighbours could easily board the moving train at that point.
     A family dog was just as comfortable with the trains. A MacLeish family history notes that “Alex owned a collie dog named Rover,  who learned to recognize the way an engine driver, George Johnson, blew the whistle for the crossings, and would dash out to the train, seize the daily paper, which Johnson tossed out, and bring it to the home.”
     The morning of Sept. 3, 1907 was routine, except that a special train was taking people to the Canadian National Exhibition. It left Markdate at 7:34 a.m. and arrived at Orangeville at 8:55, whree three coaches were added. It arrived at Caledon at 9:20. Then it headed down the escarpment toward Cardwell Junction.
     A little boy, William Burrell and his father, Robert Henry Cannon, were on the high point of Horseshoe Hill Rd. when the Special started to make the descent from the escarpment.
     “They stayed at the top of the hill in order not to spook the horses with the train,” says Bob Cannon, the son of William Burrell, sharing a family anecdote.
     Down at the MacLeish farmhouse, Alex was watching the train from the front verandah. The train was coming down at a faster speed than usual. Alex called out to a hired hand, “You better hitch up the horses. I think we’re going to need them.”
     From the hill, the Cannons watched the train get to the horseshoe curve, and then “the engine reared up like a horse and rolled over the embankment,” relates Bob.
     Photos taken at the time show a complete train wreck, with wooden cars splintered and iron cars jackknifed or turned on their sides. Seven people were killed. 114 were injured.
     Mrs. MacLeish was asked to give bed sheets so the dead could be covered. They were laid in a row in the shade of an overturned passenger car until relatives could identify the bodies. The MacLeish home sheltered the injured until a hospital train arrived to take them to Toronto. Ambulances met the train and drove the patients to hospitals.
     One old photo shows a train arriving with workers and a crane lifting the damaged cars. Clearing the wreckage went into the night and new tracks had to be laid to let the trains run again. The next day, the wrecked train cars were burned.
     The railway with its infamous horseshoe curve was used until 1933, when the tracks were pulled up. The very day this was being done, a man was killed on the track by a train at Mono Rd.
     Today, traces of the railway can still be seen if you know what to look for. From Horseshoe Hill Road, a scar of the horseshoe curve is visible. Almost overgrown, a bridge over a culvert is carved with the year 1907. A little west on Escarpment Side Road, a dip in the landscape shows the path the railway took. On the north side, a row of stumps remains, bordering the former rail line.
     On The Grange Side Road east of Horseshoe Hill Road, an embankment still rises above the fields and crosses the road, showing where the trains ran. Another culvert cover on the north side gives the year 1914. Phil Lamoureux says this is clearly visible from the road in winter.
     There are long-time residents like Bob Cannon in Caledon who have stories and materials about this vanished railway. A book with the title The Great Horseshoe Wreck, written by Ralph Beaumont and James Filby, was published by The Boston Mills Press in 1974. Phil and Liz, who are fascinated by local history, collect such information about the railway, their house, the former MacLeish home, and its surroundings.
     While the remains of the horseshoe curve across from their house are rapidly disappearing, evidence of a pioneer cemetery that belonged to St. Jude’s Anglican Church is still to be seen just north of their house. Tombstones have been preserved in an upright monument, although a forest has grown up around them.
     They are restoring the home to its original appearance, complete with curved shutters and full-length verandah. Phil has already replicated the picket fence that borders the long row of old lilacs. They are even hoping to get a historical designation for the house from the Town of Caledon.
     “We want the house to be protected,” explains Phil. “We’re trying to preserve a little bit of history.”
     “It’s a real special place,” adds Liz. “We’d like to see it honoured and treasured.”

By Gloria Hildebrandt
With files from Michael Burn, Bob Cannon and Phil and Liz Lamoureux.