2 men rescued in B.C. canyon after train derailment
Last Updated: Thursday, January 4, 2007 | 8:38 AM PT
CBC News
Two CN crew members have been rescued after spending seven hours trapped on a steep 50-metre embankment after their train derailed early Thursday morning in the Fraser Canyon.
Neither the engineer nor conductor were seriously hurt, suffering only cuts and bruises.
Two crew members escaped serious injury when two locomotives plunged off the tracks in the Fraser Canyon early Thursday morning.
(Chris O'Connor, mayor of village of Lytton)
They managed to scramble out of the locomotive. But they were stuck on the embankment above the Thompson River because it was too steep to climb.
Blankets and hot food and drink were dropped down to them for the night.
At first light, rescuers climbed down on ropes to pull them to safety. They brought the engineer up just before 8 a.m. PT, and the conductor followed a few minutes later.
Train hit rocks
The 105-car train was near Lytton and headed for Vancouver when it hit a rockslide on the tracks at about 1 a.m. PT.
"When the train struck the rocks, the two lead locomotives derailed, and the first car immediately behind the locomotives, that car containing wood products," said company spokesman Jim Feeney.
He added that the locomotives did not appear to be leaking any fuel.
In nearby Lytton, a restaurant had heated a pot of soup, expecting the stranded crew members will need some warming up.
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