A story by Brenda Shaw

For years and years a story has been floating around about a missing locomotive. I have talked to many old timers and done extensive research into this story and have come to the conclusion that it is simply an urban myth.

The definition of an urban myth is as follows: “a modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has the elements of humour, moralizing or horror.” Our little urban myth borders on the very funny..ha ha type of story.

I talked at length to my Mom and Dad and my Uncle Bill Shaw who was Cold Storage Manager at the Oliver Co-Op and would have had this train come by the Packing Storage loading dock. The three of them had heard the story but could not offer any further information as to whether it was true or not.

According to the urban myth, the locomotive left Oliver and was heading south to Osoyoos when it suddenly jumped the tracks and ended up in Deadman’s Lake. It quickly sank out of sight, never to be seen again.

Again according to the locals who believed this story, the CPR brought in heavy equipment to search for the locomotive. The lake was dredged as this was a good size locomotive but nothing was ever found.

It has been many years since this incident was supposed to have happened. Nothing has ever been discovered and no one really knows who was responsible for starting this urban myth.

If there was a locomotive, what happened to the Engineer? Were there other cars attached and if so, where did they end up…in Deadman’s Lake too?

I look forward to hearing from some of you whose parents were old timers in Oliver and maybe have more information than I do.

It is always interesting to hear these local or urban myths and if anyone reading this knows more about the story I would appreciate your comments.

After I posted this story on Facebook, Don Devine posted the following account and I have included it with my story.

A Remembrance of the Locomotive by Donald Devine:

The case of the missing locomotive and caboose with the loss of the engineer and brakeman. We were young and had occasion to play near the train tracks almost every day. At school one day someone showed me and a couple of friends a coin that had been stretched and flattened out into a curve. A penny as I recall. The story was that this kid had put the penny on the train track and the train came along and crushed the penny.. Holy moly that was sure neat we thought. It wasn’t long before we saved up $2 worth of coins. Mostly pennies but one or two quarters and a lot of nickels.

I was visiting Calvin Ball when they moved to the area near the Deadman’s Lake and it was a cooker hot one. We went to the train tracks and were putting the coins onto the track. Pennies then nickels, dimes and the two quarters. The tracks were so hot I burned my hand and it blistered. So we hid in the sagebrush near the tracks and waited and waited and waited. No train came and we went back to the house for supper.

We told Don Ball, Calvin’s dad, what we had done and he got this very serious look on his face and said ‘Don’t you two know what will happen when the train comes along? We shook our heads no and he proceeds to tell us that years ago in that very same place some kids put a line of coins on the tracks and the train came through and because of all those coins it lifted the wheels up and the locomotive slipped off the tracks and into the lake where the two men working the train surely drowned and there was so much mud an duck crap on the bottom of that lake they couldn’t find the men or the locomotive and caboose.

We were stunned and I could feel the heat from hell coming up through the floor to burn me more. Don says and it was those nickels because they were so much harder. Both of us ran down to those coins and froze when we saw some scattered on the ground. We raced the short way to the north end of the lake and watched until dark for bubbles. Last time it ever tried that I can tell you.