The Budd cars return to Windsor after dark

This is part II of my Windsor history series. You can read the first entry by clicking here.

In August 2022, when I was taking photos of the interesting pieces of rolling stock at the Waterloo Central Railway's St. Jacobs yard, I spotted an RDC unit tucked away in the yard, far enough away from my vantage point on a nearby street that I couldn't get a clean photograph of it. But I got a reasonable shot. I give the volunteers running this operation credit. They painted the unit in the Canadian Pacific maroon and gold scheme, albeit lettered for the Waterloo Central. This maroon scheme predated the ubiquitous CP multimark scheme that was adopted in 1968. It got me to thinking.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was clear that highways had supplanted passenger rail services as the dominant form of short-distance travel in much of Canada. Despite various attempts to modernize their service or innovate after the Second World War, both CP and CN were hemorrhaging money on their passenger services. In CN's case, it was a government owned corporation, which tended to soften the blow, but also force its hand to stick with its passenger services. CP was a different story, as it was not a government owned entity, although it was still subject to the same regulation that mandated passenger service standards at the time. So, in a sense, CP had the worst of all worlds.

That said, CP and CN were going in different directions as the 1970s approached. One was investing and another was actively bailing out.

At this time, my Dad had moved with his family to Windsor, Ont., as my grandfather was transferred from CP's facilities in Chapleau, in Northern Ontario, to the Windsor shops. In my Dad's case, this meant, as a teenager, he found himself with his first job at the CP yards in Windsor alongside my grandfather, who was a rolling stock mechanic.

My grandfather usually worked the RIP track, which is short for the repair-in-place track. He sometimes would work in the shed near the roundtable as well. There were times that he would be dispatched to wrecks around southern Ontario to ensure that the main line would be clear as quickly and safely as possible following an accident. In short, my grandfather did a little bit of everything. By contrast, my Italian grandfather (Nonno in Italian) was also living in Windsor at this time, but he had long since moved on from his work as a general track labourer with CP, which he did in the Crowsnest Pass district of B.C.

My Dad often worked nights at the CP yard alongside my grandpa. At the time, CP was still maintaining a national passenger network. A peak at the CP schedule from 1968 shows that there were two daily trains between Toronto and Windsor in both directions. This image below was taken from Steve Boyko's collection. Steve is the author of the traingeek.ca blog. He graciously allowed me to use this image for this post. 

The timetable gives you clues as to CP's state of mind regarding regional passenger rail at the time. The four trips were all made with Dayliners, which is a fancy term for RDCs. The schedule shows two RDCs made morning runs, one from Toronto heading west at 8:30 a.m. and one from Windsor heading east at 7:15 a.m. The eastbound to Toronto arrived at 11:20 while the westbound to Windsor arrived at 12:40 p.m. That means a four-hour trip. A bit slow, but not bad considering the stops made en route. 

The evening trains followed similar schedules. The evening train out of Toronto heading west left Union Station at 6:30 p.m. and arrived in Windsor at 10:40 p.m. The eastbound out of Windsor left at 5:05 p.m. and arrived in Toronto at 9:15 p.m. 

So what are the clues that CP was not prioritizing the passenger service, other than the fact that the Budds were doing the hauling? Look closely at the left of the image and you see that the schedule advises that there are "Meal Stations" en route where food can be purchased at city prices. In other words, there appears to be no service on the train. It's also worth noting that CP has a bus service to Kitchener from its Galt passenger station, since Galt (part of Cambridge now) is quite a way from Kitchener and Waterloo.

The final clue as to what CP was thinking at the time can be found on the notation at the bottom of the schedule which lists Windsor's passenger terminal as "Tecumseh Road and Crawford Avenue." This is what my Windsor rail friend and blog contributor Kevin O'Neil said of the CP passenger terminal.

"CP’s Budd Cars stopped at Tecumseh W and Crawford. The whole intersection was realigned a few years ago so the two distinct wings of Tecumseh were connected with a sweeping curve, covering part of the Crawford right-of-way. The building that held the CP Express transfer docks is still there, although it hasn’t belonged to CP in the years of my conscious memory. It belonged to a private cartage company for many years, and now it’s a warehouse for a restaurant equipment supplier. I’ve never been able to pinpoint the location of the Budd waiting room."

 

So, in other words, CP had some sort of makeshift waiting room for passengers in a freight facility. Not uncommon in the days where railways were actively trying to discourage passenger travel. Now compare that image in your head to the Canadian Pacific's terminal near the Detroit River, which served from 1880 into the 1930s. I don't know that I have ever seen anything like this.

 

Image and the one that follows beneath are from the Southwestern Ontario Digital Archives at the University of Windsor and are used for informational purposes only, as per the disclaimer stated on the SWODA website. 

 

After this station was demolished, CP moved its passenger operations into the Michigan Central station on Pelletier Street until it improvised a waiting room at the former corner of Tecumseh and Crawford in the 1960s. The MCR station was used by the New York Central's Canadian operations (legally the Canada Southern Railway, a subsidiary of MCR, which was owned by NYC) before its operations were merged into Penn Central and eventually Conrail. At this point, there were no passenger services offered by this successor railway, as Conrail's birth came after the establishment of Amtrak.

 

Sadly, this station is no longer around, as it was a victim of arson some years back. I do recall reading about this, but my thanks to Kevin for reminding me. 

 

So back to my Dad. I do recall him telling me about his two most vivid memories of working in CP's yard during his early years. He told me he recalled walking alongside freight trains that had just arrived and filling the journal boxes with oil. This was, of course, at a time when there was still rolling stock around that used journals instead of roller bearings. Essentially, the axles were kept in running condition by fabric that was coated in oil. When these boxes containing this fabric and oil leaked and the oil spilled out, the axles would get hot. This is the origin of the term "hot box" I am told. 

 

My Dad's other memory? He told me one of his jobs was to clean out the Budd cars that had arrived from Toronto. This is where his job got interesting. He often found that the cars were quite a mess when they arrived in the yard for servicing. He said it was quite common to find beer and liquor bottles on the cars, as well as a surprising amount of money. His suggestion was that there was usually an unsavoury element that rode these trains into Windsor at night. 

 

Luckily for my Dad, Ontario Hydro offered him a better job with benefits and hours at the J. Clark Keith thermal generating station in Windsor (long since closed). His life on the railway and cleaning out the Budd cars was mercifully short.

It these silent walls could talk: Montreal's Windsor Station

This summer, my daughter and I visited Montreal to go on a tour of the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens. My daughter has developed a love of hockey and chose to support Dad's team, so we went on a small train trip to the city. While there, I kept an eye out for anything railway related, as Montreal has some interesting railway relics and infrastructure in its downtown. 

One of the jewels is the former downtown passenger station that housed the Canadian Pacific Railway, Windsor Station.

Getting a photograph of this beautiful old station is a challenge, as the city has encroached on many of the sightlines surrounding the old stone building. To get this shot, I had to climb the stairs leading up to an office building across the street. Even on the top step, almost with my back against the glass of the office tower, I could barely squeeze all of Windsor Station into my frame. 

The station, located at the corner of avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal and rue Peel, has proudly stood as a mammoth Romanesque Revival stone chateau-style monument since it was completed in 1889 and expanded in the ensuing years. It took its name from the fact that it was built on Windsor Street, which is now Peel Street. Among the major downtown railway stations built in North America during the railway boom years, Windsor Station is the oldest that is still largely intact.

Of course, Windsor Station belongs to another time, when railways were much more prominent in the day-to-day affairs of Montreal. This station's prominence cannot be understated. Think about how important railways were to Montreal, as one of Canada's most important eastern ports on the St. Lawrence, not to mention its position as Canada's once largest city and financial hub. 

The Canadian Pacific built three stations in Montreal in the late 1800s. The first was the Dalhousie Station, completed in 1884, which was the railway's original eastern terminus in Old Montreal. The site was originally a Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway concern, but the station was built by CP when it took over the QMO&O in 1882. Windsor Station was completed in 1889. The Viger Hotel and Station were completed in 1898, as a replacement for Dalhousie Station. The Viger Station and Hotel were where CP passenger trains from the north and east came into the city. Windsor Station was where trains from the south and west came into the city.

There's an interesting history of these two stations. Windsor Station, near the old Windsor Hotel, was seen as the English station. The Viger, located closer to the French Canadian part of the city, was seen as the French station. But look at any historic railway photo from Montreal, and it's a good bet that it was taken at Windsor Station. It has figured into many historic images of the city. And, I must admit, its name has always confused me, as a railway fan from southern Ontario, who spent a lot of time in Windsor, Ont.

Photo of a CP passenger train awaiting departure from the train sheds at the old Windsor Station. Photo from the Library and Archives Canada online database

A railway with multiple stations in a city is not as uncommon as you would think. In Ottawa, CP operated out of the Union Station on Rideau Street as well as at the Ottawa West station, on the edge of the Lebreton Flats, for overlapping years. At one point, it even had a station in Westboro and small platform station in Bells Corners.

Today, much of the old Windsor Hotel is but a memory, replaced by an office tower, built in the 1950s. A piece of the old hotel remains, as an office building for Desjardins. Parts of the old hotel's interior were retained, as a way to preserve its heritage.

As for Windsor Station, it operated as a passenger station well into the 1980s, as Via Rail briefly kept its former CP passenger routes operating from the building until it integrated its operations at the nearby CN Central Station, located beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. Still, a few RDC routes between Montreal and Quebec continued to use Windsor Station, as they used the CP trackage north of the St. Lawrence. Amtrak also used Windsor Station until 1986. 

After Via Rail and Amtrak focused their operations at Central Station, Windsor Station still hosted suburban commuter trains into the 1990s. It should be noted that the Canadian Pacific housed its headquarters in this station until 1996, when it relocated its administration to Calgary and sold off its trackage east of Montreal in order to focus on its western operations. Some of that trackage is back in CP's fold, as it purchased the Central Maine and Quebec Railway in 2020, to reestablish a route into Maine and New Brunswick, ensuring it had an Atlantic port. 

With the construction of the Bell Centre next to the old station in the early 1990s, the tracks were removed. Today, Windsor Station still connects through some tunnels to the Montreal Metro commuter services, although those operations are better connected to the Bell Centre (Lucien-Allier Metro Station).

The old station today is an office building, but its main concourse, which is richly lit by natural light on white floors, is open to the public. When my daughter and I briefly stepped into the building on our adventures, I was amazed by how quiet it was in the old station. It made me think of all the people who once used to walk through the main concourse every day. It's a nationally recognized historic structure, thankfully preserved after once being threatened with demolition. It nearly ended up like New York City's Penn Station, which was replaced by a soulless office tower. That was the plan for this Montreal station at one point.

Library and Archives Canada photograph of travellers about to head to their awaiting train.

The station's main concourse can be rented by the public for special events. That concourse also opens onto a courtyard near the Bell Centre, making for a pretty memorable site for weddings or other gala receptions. The next time you find yourself in downtown Montreal, take a stroll through this wonderful old building and let yourself imagine the history that once unfolded within its walls.

A little railway history in Toronto

As I mentioned in my previous post, a June family trip to Toronto turned out to be a gold mine of railfanning fun for me, as I watched a fair bit of downtown commuter trains in action. Then there was the railfanning I did en route to the city. It was a fun weekend, which included a chance to visit the Toronto Railway Historical Society's Roundhouse Park museum in the old roundhouse across Bremner Boulevard from the Rogers Centre and CN Tower. 

This facility, known more commonly to railfans as the old John Street roundhouse, still has a working roundtable, which the museum uses to shuttle its cars to different positions throughout Roundhouse Park. There are old vintage station buildings (the former Don station), maintenance structures and a few places to grab a bite to eat in the actual roundhouse. It's a great place to visit on a summer day. I always make it a point to visit this park when I'm in the area.

Of course, it shouldn't be a surprise to any knowledgeable railfan that there's a roundhouse near the stadium, as this part of Toronto's core was once almost exclusively railway land. You can read about the history of the area in numerous posts Eric Gagnon has shared over the years in his Trackside Treasure blog. At one point, CN, CP, Via and Ontario Northland trains all shared trackage in this area. The roundhouse is the last vestige of this industrial past.

This early piece of GO Transit equipment was new to me. The last time I was at the park, this was in the roundhouse. People who know about GO's history know that its early days were a cobbled collection of cast-offs from other railways (sound familiar? Via? Amtrak?). This cab car, an exception to this rule, was built for GO in 1967 by Hawker-Siddeley in Thunder Bay (later Bombardier). The car, RTC-85 SP/D numbered 104, allowed trains to be used in push-pull mode, with full engineer controls in the car. This car was officially retired in 1994, when it was sold to the Montreal commuter agency before ending up being used in the Gaspé region for passenger operations. Metrolinx reacquired 104 to mark GO's 50th anniversary in 2016.

 

This old Baldwin switcher was parked behind a fence near the old coaling tower. Its numbering had not been stencilled onto the cab. I checked the TRHA website, which only lists CP 7020 on its roster, an S2 dating back from 1944, when it was at the forefront of dieselization efforts across the system. That old switcher bore the mulitmark scheme for years until it was repainted in its original CP switcher scheme, as delivered from the manufacturer. 

 

Here's a shot of 7020 when it was decked out in the action scheme, from my visit to the old John Street roundhouse in 2016. There are many differences between 7020 and the unnumbered maroon unit. The side grills and the trucks are both quite different, as is the front headlight. So the identity of the engine near the old coaling tower is a bit of a mystery. Anyone out there know more?

I found it interesting that the car hitched onto the old maroon switcher was stencilled for cider purposes. A real throwback to when railways carried more perishables.

Beside the old Baldwin was Canadian National 4-8-4 U-2g class Northern steam locomotive 6213. Built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in 1942, it served in both freight and passenger operations between Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. The engine would have been serviced at the old Spadina Street roundhouse, which is now where the baseball stadium sits. This would have been among one of the last steam locomotives built for CN, as dieselization was already well underway in the mid-1940s.

These old wooden cabooses were particularly popular with people roaming through the park, as they are anomalies for people not old enough to remember them in use. I am pleased to say that I am in fact old enough to at least remember the old steel cabooses in use, although I can't say I ever saw one of these old ones in use. The orange caboose dates back to 1920 and is clad in the classic CNR maple leaf scheme while the other, built in 1921, is in the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo maroon scheme.

I like this old olive green clad CN GP7 high hood unit. I had to wait quite a long time for two teenagers to get off the walkways so I could get a clean shot of this unit. This locomotive was delivered to CN from GM Diesel in London. The museum says this unit is significant in that it is one of the few GP7s that is still largely intact with its original parts. The only thing missing is its traction motors. The unit was one of the few, the museum says, that was not cosmetically altered. It still has its high hood and most of its original controls. I tried to get a shot of it with the old CNR caboose in the background.

The museum's old 50-tonne Whitcomb switcher was hiding in the roundhouse. It was built in Kingston by the Canadian Locomotive Company and was used for an aggregates company for years before making its way to a heritage operation and finally to the Toronto musueum. This unit is clad in the old TH&B scheme. It is fully operational and is often used for switching the museum's rolling stock around.

Here's the switcher on the turntable from 2016.

 I didn't stay at the roundhouse park long, as we had a lot of other things to do and a baseball game to get ready for, but I did make sure to snap a quick shot of this old heavyweight Canadian Pacific passenger car. The museum had a few such cars, one of which was later used as a work train crew car. The old maroon CP passenger cars are such a classy sight. Love to see them so lovingly preserved in their original colours. It makes me think of my grandfather, a rolling stock mechanic, who might have worked on this coach at some point in his years working for CP.

 

I did get some shots of the other pieces of the museum's collection in my previous visit in 2016. You can see those shots in this post and in this post. 

I was disappointed, after my visit, to learn that the museum had ex-Via Bombardier locomotive 6917 that was not yet on display. Having been a kid when those modern looking units prowled around the corridor, it would have been a real treat to see one again, but alas, it was not anywhere visible, as it remains at Via's Toronto maintenance centre, awaiting more cosmetic work. Next time, hopefully. I read that it is one of only two LRC locomotives that have been preserved. The other is at Exporail in Quebec.

All in all, it was a fun trip to the roundhouse. I even made sure my wife got a shot of me on one of the old GP7. It was fun to share my passion with my family for a few minutes.

Summer Observations in Eastern Ontario

These last few weeks have epitomized the line from a Tom Petty song: "The waiting is the hardest part." My family is trying to sell our home, which is a difficult task. Until we do sell it, we can't move on to next steps that will prepare us for a new life in our new home. Even though I was unsure that I would have much time for blogging, I am making an effort to do the things I love, which helps me deal with the stress of this time of transition.

I decided it would be fun to share some odds and ends that I have collected over the last little while and put together an observations piece. 

I'll start with a recent observation of Via Rail Train 59 in a new place. As you might have read in this blog recently, I am trying to find new places around Ottawa to capture some railway photos. I captured some nice shots of Train 59 on the Rideau River bridge, just north of Hunt Club Road. A few weeks ago, I decided to get a shot of the same train crossing on the Riverside Drive flyover. I have never attempted a shot from this spot before, so I figured it was worth a shot. Here P42 916 leads the train west toward the Rideau River bridge and Federal Junction.

A few weeks later, I was at the Hunt Club Road overpass, as my time was limited while waiting for my daughter's dance class to wrap up. I waited for Via Rail Train 43 making its way east to Ottawa Station. I haven't been to this spot in a while. While there, I noticed that the remnants of the old industrial spur to Bentley Avenue were still not cleaned up trackside. The tracks beyond the fencing are still in place, but the rails removed from the Smiths Falls Sub are still lying to the west of the tracks, along with the old switch stand. You can see the remnants of the rails in the weeds as Train 43 passes by.

My family recently spent the weekend in Toronto, which allowed me to get months worth of railfanning in, which I will share in a series of future posts. I will share a few shots, however, closer to Ottawa. On our way home from Toronto as part of a J-train, I took a quick shot of the CP offices in Smiths Falls, or should I say CPKC. As someone whose family has a long history with the Canadian Pacific, I had mixed feelings seeing this new logo. I understand the nature of modern railways. There's no room for sentimentality. Still, I can't help but think we lose a little bit of our heritage when an iconic name becomes part of some corporate alphabet soup. I have similar issues with BNSF.

On our way to Toronto, I noticed that there was a long line of empty intermodal cars parked on a track near where the Smiths Falls Sub gives way to CP territory. Possibly someone with more knowledge can tell me if this might be the last remnant of the old CP Chalk River Sub? I know that railways often keep short stretches of old subdivisions for car storage purposes. I don't know if this is the case here. It seemed odd that these cars would be here rather than the CP yard, unless they were here so they could be kept out of the way.

While we're on the subject of the Smiths Falls Sub, there was chatter online about the spur at SynAgri in Twin Elm being disconnected. I can confirm from my trip to Toronto that this spur has indeed been lifted. There isn't much freight trackage still connected to the Smiths Falls Sub, save for the Kott Lumber facility on Moodie Drive. Here's a shot of some hoppers at SynAgri from 2015. I'm glad I have these shots now.

In the west end of Ottawa, rails have begun to appear alongside the Queensway, where the end of the second phase of the Confederation Line is taking shape. The project is behind schedule, which is no surprise, given that the pandemic pushed most projects back quite a ways. I have seen some MoW equipment on the rails lately near the Corkstown Road station, but haven't been able to get any shots.

This shot was taken from the passenger seat of our car, as my wife drove toward the Tanger Outlets further west. The next part of the O-Train system that will come online will be the long-delayed north-south Trillium Line (former CP Ellwood/Prescott Sub right-of-way). When it is complete, it will operate from Bayview Station, near the Ottawa River, all the way south to the Riverside South community. The spur to the Ottawa International Airport is also nearing a point where it will come online as well, which will give travellers another option for getting to the airport. 

One final bit to share. My girls are on a break from their evening dance classes, which means my Wednesday evenings trackside have taken a hiatus. Here is a recent shot of Via Train 59 at the Merivale Road level crossing. I didn't have any plan in mind. I just happened to be there so I took a few shots as the train sped by. You can see the symmetry of the Via wraps on the P42 and the first three cars.

 The end of the train was a bit different, as this was a double-ender.

So those were a few observations from Ottawa and Smiths Falls from the last few months. I have quite a bit to share from my trip to Toronto recently, but that will have to wait until life settles down a little. I am also going on a day trip to Montreal on the train, so I am hoping to have more to share. It's always nice to have too much material. A rare challenge for me.

Déjà vu in St. Jacobs

Last summer, my family was in Waterloo for a music camp at Wilfrid Laurier University (here's the post about KW rail sightings). It was in close proximity to St Jacobs, which is the home of the Waterloo Central Railway tourist line. Longtime readers might recall my first visit to this railway's yard, which is located along the CN Elmira Subdivision. The first time I shot this operation in 2018, it was a cold wet November day, when the rails were silent. My daughters and I took a few photos from public property and had to take shelter before a downpour spoiled our fun a bit (or, my fun, to be fair).

This past summer, in a break during our music camp activities, I managed to break away and head north to St. Jacobs to see if there were any other old antiques in the yard that I didn't catch on my previous visit. Luckily for me, there were some great old antiques on display, although their position in the yard made it difficult for me to get some decent shots. And despite the fact that we visited the area in the midst of a prolonged dry spell, we had to duck into our car again to avoid a sudden downpour. Eerie déjà vu.

A quick bit of history. The Waterloo Central is a tourist line that has operated on the CN Elmira Sub for a number of years and is the latest incarnation of a tourist operation that has operated on this line on and off over the years. Up until the Region of Waterloo repurposed much of CN's tracks in Waterloo for its Ion light rail operation, the WCR began its runs from Waterloo. Now, the short line starts its runs from a retail area just south of St. Jacobs, near the border with the City of Waterloo.

When my daughter and I arrived last August, there was a collection of old locomotives huddled next to the short line's engine house. My daughter and I both took some shots of this scene. I wish I could have gotten some clean shots of these engines, but I did like how this one turned out. It really fits with my new approach to rail photography, where I am trying to get creative with my images.

You can see former BC Rail MLW S13 locomotive 1002 clad in the old Canadian Pacific-inspired maroon, grey and yellow scheme. This unit was built in 1959 for BC Rail predecessor Pacific Great Eastern. After its life at BC Rail, it was sold to the Ontario Southland Railway in 1997. The Waterloo Central took ownership in 2018.

At the back is what I assume is former Canadian National SW switch engine 1012 in the old CN yellow and olive green scheme. In consulting the Southwestern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society's (organization behind the Waterloo Central) fleet of engines, this one is not listed. The photo I took does not capture the full unit number, so its story remains a mystery for now.

In the foreground is a Waterloo Central heavyweight baggage car painted again in the CP maroon and grew scheme. The WCR has made great strides in recent years in painting much of its fleet or repainting it in a CP maroon and grey scheme. I recall during previous visits that some of its cars were still sporting the original Via Rail blue and yellow scheme, albeit with the WCR logo in place of the Via logo. Here's a better shot of the old baggage car.

If you are looking for old RDCs, the WCR has several of them in its St Jacobs yard, including this one, which was parked next to a heavyweight coach with a rear facing porch. Two different eras of passenger rail side by side. It was cool to get an image of these two together.

Here's another shot of more RDCs, a little to the south of the Via Rail painted unit. These ones have seen better days, as their faded blue and yellow liveries attests. You can just see a bit of a heavyweight coach in the foreground. These photos were taken from the edge of a nearby school yard. It was a challenge to shot through the brush at the edge of the tracks.

At this point, the rain had begun to fall. I took this shot from the end of a suburban street, which abuts the tracks. You can see a former Essex Terminal Rail caboose linked to a maroon-clad caboose and another WCR maroon and yellow baggage car. This society has an extensive collection of passenger equipment and cabooses, including a Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo caboose. I was not able to get a clear shot of that car, as the rain turned into a downpour shortly after I took this shot.

This was the best I could do to get a shot of the TH&B caboose, which was tucked in behind another passenger coach near the engine house. The engine house, it should be noted, is where the group keeps its steam engine. I have never seen that machine out of the engine house. I find it interesting that the WCR paints its passenger cars with both the "Waterloo Central" and "Waterloo Central Railway" lettering, as you can see from this car. You can also see the Waterloo Central lettering on an RDC to the right. That RDC sports the CPR maroon and yellow scheme.

Here's one final image from my visit. It's strange how that clear blue sky turned into a downpour in a matter of 10 minutes. I wish I could have taken a better shot of this old coach, but railway employees were clearly somewhere on the property when we visited and their cars were parked right in my shot. Oh well.

I made sure to return to the yard the next day as well, to see if anything had moved or anything was operational. Sadly, all was quiet when I visited both days. Still, getting to see these antiques up close from public property was a real treat. It's like paying a visit to a railway museum for free.

The Ghosts of Bedell, Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, Bedell is an interesting spot on the Canadian Pacific Winchester Sub. It's an area that has rich history. Now, as much of its old infrastructure has been removed, it's also a testament to how railways have evolved. Small towns are rarely much more than a passing landmark to freight trains these days and Bedell is no exception. There are no diamonds here, the interlocking is long gone, the station is only visible in old photos and much of the former Prescott Sub connection has been removed.

So what is there to see in Bedell these days? Well, in the last few years at least, there was a fair amount to see, to be honest. The Canadian Pacific has been very busy reshaping the Winchester Sub, which connects Montreal with Smiths Falls. The double tracks have been slowly merged into a single track governed by modern signalization. Bedell retains some extra trackage, as the railway still makes use of passing sidings, but most of the old remnants of the Bedell rail yard have disappeared. 

The image above is a shot I took in February last year as maintenance of way crews continued their work in the area. Much of the consist was parked on the South Prescott Spur. The caboose, which had the modern CPR letting on it, seemed to be the crew breakroom, where they could escape to a warm place and get out of the howling winter winds. You can see the smoke rising the smokestack, indicating that there is something cooking or running inside the old car. The earliest photo of this caboose I could find was from 2004, meaning it's been assigned to engineering services for nearly two decades.

This shot above shows you a hint of the gondolas on the South Prescott Spur. The entire consist was being marshalled around by a flatbed truck equipped with flanged wheels for use on the rails. I was disappointed to see this. It would have been cool to see one of CP's old MoW locomotives on point, possibly with some old multimarks on the long hood, but it was not to be.

What's also striking about this image is the fact that so many old ties were piled up in the area. In the several times I have been to Bedell in 2020 and 2021, the amount of rail ties was pretty impressive. It seemed like this was the spot where many of the old ties were dumped. The shot below was taken in July 2020. This pile was just the tip of the iceberg.

I haven't been to Bedell in more than a year to see what it's like these days, but seeing those cabooses when I did was incredibly gratifying, especially for someone who is old enough to remember when trains still had cabooses. I remember the debate when railways unions pressed their cases about the issue. I still have a pin somewhere that says "Trains are safer with a caboose." It was given to me by a Teamsters union representative that was pleading its case at a Sarnia mall in the 1980s.

When you drive through Kemptville these days, you wouldn't know you were in a railway town. The last remnants of the old Prescott Sub were lifted shortly after I took this photo in 2014. In fact, you won't find that old industrial building anymore either. It's all been razed. Nothing but a flat expanse of development land for sale. 

Despite the removal of much of the infrastructure at Bedell, it still remains one of my favourite spots to sit trackside. Go there in the summer and listen to the sound of the wind swishing through the trees. It's a very peaceful spot. Catching a train there is tough, given the decreased frequency of traffic, but the newly installed modern signals will give you some clues. You can see these signals safely from the Bedell Road crossing, which might be able to let you know if you will be waiting an entire afternoon or whether you might be in luck. 

You see? Progess isn't so bad.

The Ghosts of Bedell, Part I

This post was supposed to be the first stop on my blog's reunion tour, as I called it when I restarted things in August 2021. Since then, I have accumulated much more material, which has pushed back this post for months and now more than a year. It's not a bad problem to have.

Bedell, Ontario, a spot along the Canadian Pacific Railway's Winchester Subdivision. Bedell once housed a station and an active rail yard. Over the course of my extended hiatus from blogging, I did manage to visit this spot a few times. Truthfully, I wouldn't have been able to visit this spot were it not for the fact that I had surgery on my knee at the Kemptville District Hospital and subsequent follow-ups with my surgeon a few times. That meant a few free passes to railfan at a time when I would usually not be able to get away from Ottawa.

Those who know their history know that Bedell once boasted a station, a tower, an interlocking crossing between the Canadian Pacific and the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Railway and later a diamond that connected the CP Winchester Sub to the railway's Prescott Sub. Read about the history of Bedell's rail operations here.

The Prescott Sub lasted until the late 1990s, when it was finally deactivated and the rail removed south of Ottawa. The rail in Ottawa was spared, some of which became part of the O-Train Trillium Line while the remainder was used by Ottawa Central and then CN in its local operations. A small portion of the Prescott Sub still ventured into Kemptville as the North Prescott Spur. That spur was lifted several years ago. The South Prescott Spur is still hanging on, as a turnout for eastbound locals on the Winchester Sub. That spur serves CP customers in Oxford Station.

So, what's left in Bedell these days? Not much but memories and a few ghosts no doubt. I've been here a number of times and detailed the ongoing process of rails being lifted and area being cleared of anything resembling a rail yard. 

This shot above was the scene on November 30, 2020 when I was in Kemptville for an appointment, which led me to Bedell, of course. Throughout 2020, CP maintenance of way crews were quite active in Bedell as the Winchester Sub was single tracked in many places, due to modern signalization improvements that do not require two tracks. For my purposes, I was interested to see the two old yard tracks removed on the north side of the area (left on the photo). One of the tracks was once clearly labelled as a bad order track. You could see the sign from the side of Bedell Road. The south track with gondolas marked the first time I have ever seen cars parked in this area.

The North Prescott Spur was being used that day as a staging ground for this maintenance of way consist, including a genuine caboose. I was quite surprised to see the last vestiges of the CP multimark on this car. The white scheme with no identifying marks or numbers was quite odd, although it might have been a case of a car being repainted after being heavily marked by graffiti. 

Here's a closer look at the caboose. You can see from the ends that its original yellow paint scheme is clearly visible. As if a caboose on a main line wasn't odd enough, this one had two paint schemes. I was disappointed that I didn't see any freight trains pass by, but this was a great consolation prize, to be sure. 

Still, I couldn't help but feel a little sad for the ghosts of Bedell. At one point, this was a real community gathering spot, where families embarked on long journeys or reunited. It once saw upwards up 30 trains a day. By most counts, it now sees anywhere from five to seven, based on what I hear from various railfans. Occasionally, there will be a seasonal extra, such as a semi-regular ethanol unit train, but the frequency is not really conducive to regular railfanning.

This Soo Line gondola has definitely seen better days.

 

Progress or is this the end of an era? Depends on your perspective.

 

Despite the fact that very little is left in Bedell from the area's heyday, it's important to understand today's reality. Canadian Pacific is definitely a railway in growth mode, even if it isn't evident in this area. The railway's purchase of the Central Maine & Quebec Railway (formerly Montreal Maine & Atlantic) gave CP its transcontinental connection to the East Coast once again. The railway has been promoting its new eastern terminus as a competitive advantage for shippers (read: intermodal and containers). The railway also clearly sought to establish a link to Mexico with its prolonged struggled to acquire Kansas City Southern.

 

So what does this have to do with Bedell? Well, if the minds running CP have their way, the railway is clearly going to be busier as a true transcontinental transportation concern once again. That could mean a few more trains passing through Bedell. They might not stop there anymore, but the ghosts would likely notice the increase and smile.

Guest Post: More GP9 memories from across Canada

I seemed to have hit a sweet spot in my previous post about the history of the venerable GP9 locomotive. As I mentioned in that post, this old relic is fast disappearing from most major railways, given its age. The last GP9s produced in Canada came off the line at the old GM Diesel in London, Ont. in 1963. CN and CP have used them for decades, although there are none left on CP and only a few dozen left on CN rails.

I shared a few photos of my meets with these engines over the years, including on the CP, CN and even the Goderich Exeter Railway. After I published that post, I received interesting feedback from a few fellow bloggers in appreciation of these geeps.

It occurred to me that perhaps my generation of railfan will wax poetic over these first-generation diesels the way previous generations bemoan the loss the steam locomotives after the late 1950s and early 1960s. I have to admit I don’t understand the fascination with steam locomotives at all, given my age and my lack of experience with them trackside. However, given my fond memories of old GP9s and even SW1200s, maybe I’m not all that different from steam fans after all.

One of those who seemed enthused about my GP9 retrospective is Steve Boyko, author, poet and prominent rail blogger extraordinaire. Most people who come to this blog will know Steve from his long-running railway and photography blog, traingeek.ca. It was one blog that directly influenced my decision to start The Beachburg Sub. Steve was kind enough to share a few of his own shots of GP9s from his time trackside, which I am pleased to share below.

I’ll start with a shot Steve took in Winnipeg, where he lives. The descriptions below the photos are Steve’s, not mine. Read on:

CP operated many GP7s and GP9s in Winnipeg in the first decade of the 21^st century, in local switcher service and local yard service. They frequently operated in pairs, like these two about to cross Plinguet Street, south of Whittier Junction.

An overhead view of CP 1540 in yard service, October 29, 2011.

Many CP switchers met their end here in late 2009. A scrapper used a siding in Fort Garry to scrap quite a few locomotives over a few months. I documented many from a distance, including this massacre of four CP GP9s – 1558 and 1556, bracketing two SOO GP9s, 4202 and 4204.

You might wonder why a CN GP9 is at the famous McAdam, New Brunswick train station – a former bastion of CP power. This line has been owned by shortline NB Southern Railway for quite a while, and they leased a few CN GP9s for local switching in Saint John. Occasionally, one would be put on the Saint John-Brownville Junction freight for extra power. However, they are not permitted to cross into the U.S., so they would be dropped in McAdam. When I visited McAdam on July 19, 2008, 7038 was being used to switch the yard.

This is a very pedestrian shot of CN 7059 passing the Staples store near Island Yard in Saint John, coming back from perhaps switching the Irving refinery. I include it because I have one of the number boards that used to grace this locomotive, which has since donned Cando colours and a new number.

CN often used a pairing of GP9s and a slug for local switching in the Winnipeg area. Here are two pairings, with 7213 at Transcona (with modern CN.ca paint scheme) above and 7254 in Winnipeg below.

Here's an oddity below. Read Steve's caption of this scene below the image.

I’m not sure why this GP9 was on top of the hump in Symington Yard in Winnipeg. Typically, hump locomotives were GP38-2 locomotives at this time, but for whatever reason, 7258 and slug 268 were up high.

For a long time, CP 8251 was one of the very few active locomotives around Winnipeg still bearing a multimark. Here a rainbow graces the scene after a summer storm. CP 8251 was retired in 2013 but has been leased to Viterra to serve a grain elevator.

My thanks to Steve for sharing these photos. It’s a real treat to feature photographs and information outside my usual haunts here in Ottawa and southern Ontario. In keeping with this post’s theme of GP9 photos, I’d like to share three additional GP9 photos that didn’t make the cut in the previous post. 

The first is an old shot my Dad took at the GEXR yard in Startford in the early 1990s. Note the faded Shakespearan name "Falstaff" on the lead engine, in appreciation of the railway's hometown.

A few years ago, Eric Gagnon, author of the equally acclaimed Trackside Treasure blog and several railway books, shared this photo print with me of GEXR GP9 177 leading a string of old EMD power in switching the salt mine on the Lake Huron habourfront in Goderich. Date unknown, but it appears to be a 1990s shot. 

Finally, I'll add one last shot of my own that I did not manage to squeeze into my original post on these engines. Here's a great shot of GP9 720 and slug 223 leading 4761 in Sarnia Yard in August 2014.

So that just about wraps up my tribute to the venerable GP9. I am also working on a similar post about the equally venerable SW1200 and its family of switchers. Stay tuned for that one a little down the road. My thanks to Steve Boyko, the original Train Geek, for sharing his photos this week and his contribution to the cause on this blog. And thanks to Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure. It's been years since he shared a bunch of prints with me. I finally have the chance to share one of them.