Photos of the Locomotive That Sunk to the Bottom of Lake Superior

Back on June 9, 1910 a freight train – the CPR 694 - became derailed and plunged into Lake Superior. It sank to the bottom and still sits there, approximately 200 feet below the surface.

The train was cruisin' down along when it hit a boulder that had rolled onto the track; the train derailed and plunged sixty-five feet into the water, and another 200 feet to the bottom. Three men ended up perishing in that wreck, with only two of the bodies found. The third was considered lost for good, and over the last 100+ years, not even the bones were found – more than likely eaten away by underwater micro-organisms.

Almost 106 years later in 2016, an underwater recovery expert, Tom Crossman, found the wreck of the old CPR 694 locomotive sitting near Mink Harbour.

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Two years earlier, in 2014, diver Terry Irvine had discovered two of the train boxcars; he gave the coordinates to Crossman who used them to locate the old locomotive. When Crossman found it, it wasn't resting far from the boxcars, having been squeezed between a few boulders. Can you imagine the thrill of scuba diving and seeing something like this?

For now the locomotive and train car scraps will stay underwater, as they're too damaged to pull out. They may recover some artifacts from it, like the bell, and put it in a museum. But so far, the train is staying untouched.

The gallery below shows the location as well as a good handful of underwater photos of the old CPR 694 locomotive.