Beachburg Sub 500: How I got here

As I alluded to a short while ago, this blog is now on Post 500. I began this blog innocently enough in April 2013 with the goal of sharing my passion for railways with like-minded people. I had a small trove of photos from the 1990s that I felt would allow this blog to operate comfortably for months. In the meantime, I would take photos around Ottawa and maintain an ongoing discussion that way. Simple right?

Well, no, but the ride since 2013 has been fun for the most part. Everyone I have encountered both online and the few I've met in person have been very friendly and supportive. In a world where decency sometimes seems in short supply, it's heartening to know there are good people out there.

Truthfully, this blog began in my childhood, possibly in my mind's eye, as blogs or the internet didn't exist when I was younger (wrap your head around that, for those too young to remember!). By this time, regular readers know I have a long history of railways in my family. My grandfathers worked for the CPR and my uncles and father did as well, albeit for short periods of time. There are still those in my family that work for the railways.

In my case, I have been fascinated with trains since before I can remember. Some of my earliest recollections of trains involve watching CN trains traverse rails that no longer exist today. I also recall seeing a Chessie System passenger special when I was incredibly young. Even then, I wondered why there was a passenger train on a freight-only line!

1980s

I didn't take photos of trains when I was little, but my dad occasionally did. My love of railways grew from watching the local railway go by in my hometown (Chessie System/CSX) and enjoying my model train and toy trains. At grade school and in my spare time, I often drew train pictures or looked at train picture books. Whenever I was in the car, the sight of a train coming to a crossing excited me. There are scattered family photos of trains from this time, but most of these prints have been lost to time, moves etc. This shot below, taken at the Windsor waterfront, is me (bottom left), my brother, my sister (back right) and a family friend posed in front of an old steam engine. The cars being loaded onto the ferry were likely a source of interest to me. I see a N&W hopper, Chessie high-cube boxcar and a RailBox pool boxcar. Note the lack of graffiti. This is probably the earliest rail photo involving me, likely taken in the early 1980s. 

 

1990s

When I was in grade school, I received a portable camera as a gift from my uncle (around 1986). A few years after getting it, in 1991, I decided it would be fun to take photos of trains. It was an incredibly simple point-and-shoot camera with no focus and almost zero tolerance for anything indoors. My first photo taken with this camera might have been this shot. I remember seeing this train parked on what was then the southern limits of my hometown and asking my mom if I could take shots of it. Thankfully, she said yes. 

I took many shots of CN operations in Sarnia, which I've chronicled in this blog many times. I also took my camera to Alberta to get shots of a grain train and the Rocky Mountaineer in Banff. Those are among my favourite railway photos. But in high school, I lost my love for railway photography, as I became more interested in other things. I still tinkered with my model trains in the basement and read about trains, but I kept quiet about this part of me, likely not wanting to face the mockery of others. 

2000s

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I went away to university in Ottawa and pretty much forgot about my love of trains, although it never really went away. I recall, after graduation, working in Peterborough and setting up a very small train display in my apartment. In Kitchener, where I worked for the newspaper, I remember watching the GEXR trains go by my gym, which was next to the tracks. As I mentioned, my love of trains never went away. I loved taking the train when I was in university and loved the sight of a train wherever I found myself in later years.

This is the only railway photo I took in the 2000s. I was wandering around a quiet city park in Kitchener in 2008 and took a shot of the train trestle that spanned the Grand River, on the city's eastern edge. 

2010s 

After getting married in 2010, I dusted off my old trains and set up my train set in a spare room in my first house. It was fun for a few years, but the extra room was needed when my first daughter arrived in 2012, which meant the train set had to come down. This was when my hobby changed to railway photography. My first real attempts at taking photos happened when I went to pick up family at Fallowfield Station. 

This is Via Rail Train 55 westbound approaching Fallowfield Station, led by P42 908, still in Via's blue, yellow and silver livery. This was my first attempt at taking railway photos again in 2012, around the time I began my blog. I knew I had only so many older photos and would soon run out of things to share if I didn't start feeding the beast. So began my leap back into railway photography, blogging, sharing stories, meeting many of you fellow fans, and enjoying a conversation that has now spanned 500 posts and 13 years.

Today

There have been some hiccups in the 13 years. I took a sabbatical, which was originally a full-on resignation, only to return when the pandemic began to wane. I am glad I kept on in my endeavors, as it really does bring some joy to my life. It's something I do just for myself. Much of my life is dedicated to my family, my job and my work in the community. These are all important parts of who I am.

But so is this. I love what I love and I am constantly in search of my next challenge or next bit of information to share.

This post was not intended to be a victory lap or a long drawn-out speech thanking innumerable people. I've done that already. They know who they are. This was just a simple explanation of how I got to this point. Railways will always be a part of who I am. 

Thanks to everyone who has played a role, large or small, in this ongoing chat. Let's keep talking.

Michael

hammond DOT michael77 AT gmail  

Updated: The CP transcontinentals stir up young dreams in the 1950s

After hearing so many stories of life in rural Northern Ontario from my father, you'd think I'd get sick of them. But I don't. 

(Note: There was some confusion and errors on my part about what power pulled the transcons for CP in the 1950s and 1960s. Thanks to Eric Gagnon for setting me straight! That's why I ask the experts.) 

He told me a story the other day of growing up in Chapleau, Ont., where his father (my grandfather) worked as a rolling stock mechanic for the Canadian Pacific. My dad recently took the Canadian across Canada, allowing him to fulfill a childhood dream. He relayed to me a story after his trip, saying he used to enjoy watching the passenger trains go through his town when he was young, including the transcontinentals.

He recalls my grandmother telling him: "Those trains are for rich people." I think it might have been her gentle way of tempering his young dreams a bit, as my father was one of six children who grew up in a modest working-class household. Even though my grandfather had an employee's rail pass for the Canadian Pacific system, I doubt it would have been accepted for the premier transcontinental trains.

Above is a scanned image of a postcard I have in my collection of CP's early Canadian advertisements. I have this poster on the wall of my home office, where I spend my workday and where the Beachburg Sub takes shape. 

But I was curious about my dad's recollection. What train was it that he saw that ignited his imagination? The Canadian was launched in 1955 by the Canadian Pacific as the only streamlined transcontinental train across Canada with dome observation cars. CN's Super Continental could not boast the streamlined coaches or domes when it launched at the same time. 

Checking the CP Public Timetable from 1956, the westbound Canadian didn't arrive in Chapleau until 4:25 a.m., which means this was not the train my dad saw. However, the eastbound Canadian arrived in Chapleau at 7:21 a.m.*, which makes it possible that this is what my dad saw. 

(* - The timetable lists two separate arrival times for this train, the other arrival time being 7:06 a.m.) 

It should be noted that CP operated the Canadian from two starting points on its eastern flank at this time. One section operated from Montreal's Windsor Station, where it would make its way west via Ottawa, Carleton Place, Pembroke, Chalk River and through to Sudbury, where it would then be combined with the separate Toronto section of the train, which originated from Union Station in downtown Toronto. The Montreal section of the Canadian was Train 1 westbound while the Toronto section was Train 11. The eastbound return sections of the train, which were split at Sudbury, were Train 2 to Montreal and Train 12 to Toronto.

Postcard image of both CN's Super Continental and CP's Canadian at Ottawa's railway station in 1971. Both launched in the mid-1950s, these two transcontinental trains originated in Montreal, although CP also had another section of its Canadian that originated in Toronto (postcard courtesy of Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure). 

This image, above, is of the Canadian circa 1968 at Carleton Place, Ont., west of Ottawa. By this time, the train could have been fully transitioned to its CP Rail action red scheme, from its original maroon and yellow trim. However, I am reasonably sure that this was likely the style of Canadian that my dad would have seen in the late 1950s and early 1960s going through Chapleau. Photo is courtesy of the Canada Science and Technology Museum online archives.

There's another layer to this story from my dad. Was it really the Canadian that had him dreaming as  young boy? After all, the Canadian Pacific also had another transcontinental train, the Dominion, that made its way through Chapleau at the same time. 

Unlike the Canadian in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Dominion was not a fully equipped streamliner. It was CP's second premier cross-Canada train, having begun operations in 1931 as a summer special before becoming a regular fixture in the timetable. This train itself was the successor to CP's first transcontinental train, the Imperial. 

Like its sister transcon, the Dominion also operated in two sections east of Sudbury, one originating in Montreal and the other from Toronto's Union Station. The Montreal section was added shortly after the train first began operations from Toronto.

Looking at CP's 1956 schedule, this train was clearly the forgotten stepchild once the Canadian was introduced. Its slower schedule meant it was significantly shortened after 1955, as its express mail business was shifted to fast freight trains and the speedier Canadian. The concept for the Dominion changed from a true transcontinental train to a train that provided local service across the continent. It seems as though its mission switched to being a local train that people would take to various points all along its run from the east to Vancouver. It soldiered on until 1966, when it was officially discontinued. In 1967, a version of the train was retained to take people to and from Montreal for the Centennial Expo.

But for my purposes, I am interested in when it made its way through Chapleau. Looking at the same CP timetable from 1956, the westbound Dominion arrived in town at 11:55 a.m while the eastbound arrived at 5 p.m.

This, to me, is proof that my dad likely saw the Dominion coming through town, and not the Canadian. Still, to a young boy, I would imagine either train would have been fairly impressive in the late 1950s and early 1960s. At a time when both CP and CN were seeing the last of steam, the steamlined transcons, likely pulled by sleek diesel units, would have been a modern marvel.

I'm assuming that, since the Canadian was all sleek and modern when introduced in 1955, the Dominion was still very much a product of earlier passenger rail cars, like this.

An example of Canadian Pacific's older passenger equipment that would have seen use on its transcontinental train, the Dominon, when the Canadian was introduced in 1955. This car was part of CP's Holiday Train in 2017, here making a stop in Finch, Ont.

The other question that comes to mind when considering my dad's story is what pulled the Dominion in the mid- to late-1950s? Thanks to Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure, I can confirm that this train was usually pulled by General Motors FP units in an A-B-A arrangement. The same was true for the Canadian. Here's an explanation from Eric:

The FPs (ordered by CP as dual service Freight/Passenger) were needed for the steam generators on the Canadian. They were four feet longer than Fs, due to the steam generator in the carbody. CP ordered eleven new FP9As, 1405-1415, and eight F9Bs, 1900-1907, for the Canadian. It also renumbered five FP7As (4099-4103) to 1400-1404. These FP7s had been purchased in early 1953 and had served on passenger and freight trains in southern Ontario. In dual service, they were geared for 77 mph. When dedicated to the Canadian, they were re-geared to 89 mph, the same as the FP9As.

 

 

This is an example of the type of locomotive that sometimes pulled the Dominion in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Photos of the Canadian show it being pulled by FP units almost exclusively. Photo is courtesy of the Canada Science and Technology Museum online archives.

What's interesting is that, in my searches, I found several images of PA units like this one above pulling the Dominion. This was clearly not the norm, judging by the images available of CP's transcons at the time.  

In sifting through some images from the 1950s in books, which I cannot not reproduce here, I did find one image of the Dominion making its way along the Lake Superior route in 1951. That train, pulled by a steam engine, had six coaches of some sort (possibly a sleeper or dining car, although there's no way to tell from the image), two baggage cars and four mail express cars. 

In the same book, I found another image of a passenger train with both streamlined silver and older red passenger cars intermixed. The shot shows the tail end of the train, with a curved observation car with the Dominion markers attached to the back of the train. This image looks like it was taken much later, but there is no way of knowing what train it is from the information in the book. It seems to me it is not the Dominion, which by all accounts was a short train after 1955. Maybe it was an expanded version of the train that served the demand for people going to Montreal's Expo 67.

But, in seeing this photo of the mix of older and newer CP passenger cars together, once again my research jived with information provided by Eric. Even in the 1960s, when the Dominion's status was very much in limbo, the consist of this train was very much a regular mix of older and newer passenger equipment, depending on when you caught the train. The train would look different depending on where it was at in its journey, with cars added on, depending on the needs of where it was geographically. 

All this to say, would a train like the Dominion, which was far removed from its peak, be enough to capture the imagination of a young boy in Chapleau in the 1950s? Maybe. 

Before I forget

It's always a nice feeling when I remember I have a bunch of railway photos from last year that I still haven't shared yet. This week, I recalled a batch of photos I had taken in Sarnia and elsewhere that had not yet made it into a post. So here are some lost photos from my wanderings in the past year, as well as from this past spring.

Resting on an early November morning under a big Southwestern Ontario blue sky, a host of CN road power points east at the east end of the Sarnia Yard, likely awaiting the next train to pull toward Toronto. I would venture a guess that the power here is usually substituted onto trains that originated in Chicago and make their way east under the St. Clair River tunnel. I do know that significant cuts of cars from the Chemical Valley are put together here, so it is possible this power is for Sarnia-originated trains. I do see a CN 100 unit partially hidden behind a railway maintenance truck. 

I was aboard Via Rail Train 84 eastbound when I captured a few images in the yard. To be honest, one of the Via Rail service managers insisted on instructing me on the the safety features of the car, as I was one of the few people aboard. Being a good citizen, I listened patiently, even though I wanted only to capture a few photos before I left my hometown. 

 I like this shot as well, as it is a showcase of three different CN paint schemes from the side.

One final image from Sarnia Yard of a former leased unit, now stencilled as CN on the cab. This unit was sitting on its own, far from the area where the rest of the power was arranged. I would imagine this unit was between switching assignments. Usually in the yard, the switching is done by the older, smaller geeps without the wide nose at the front of the cab, but it's also not uncommon to find a larger unit like this one assigned to switching duties. 

This next shot was taken at Fallowfield Station in May. I don't generally take a lot of shots at this station anymore, because I think I've exhausted most of the photo possibilities there. However, I did see an opportunity to get low at the extreme east end of the platform. At this point, there is a shallow drainage ditch. I got down in the ditch a bit and took a shot from way down low, trying to see if it met my criteria as something different. 

As you know, Fallowfield is a place where you can get up close with trains, but the shots almost inevitably end up being very tight wedge shots. I like that we can see the gravel laneway to the tracks and the bundle of rubber strips that were used to refurbish the station platform between the main line and the passing siding. You can even faintly see the signals closer to Woodroffe Avenue. The clouds in the sky also lend this image a bit of interest.

 

Here's something from Stratford that I'll get into a little later in another post. I am lucky that I get to visit this town once a year to take in theatre, visit with family and make my way trackside to see both CN and GEXR in the city. Here's a shot taken against the harsh summer sun of a CN local heading into the city from Kitchener. 

 

 

As I was going through my photos from last year, I knew I had a few items from both Stratford and Sarnia to share. I'll share more of this meet in another post, but I thought I'd include one of my favourite shots, even if it's tainted by the harsh morning shadows. Even in touching it up, the shadows are still pretty profound. But how cool is it to see two GP9s (one GP9 actually, I didn't look closely at the second unit, which is a GP38...thanks to a reader for pointing this out) in the safety stripes scheme still soldiering on in 2025? This photo is timeless in certain respects. It could have been taken 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference to the scene today.