Cabooses of Ottawa (2003-2022)

Since I began blogging in 2013, I have had a few moments where I was able to take in CN operations at Walkley Yard in the city. This is a tricky task, as the yard is largely inaccessible. At the end of Albion Road, there is a gravel access road where a few businesses retain civic addresses, which makes the road a grey area. I do not go down the gravel access road, as it seems to me to be trespassing. However, I have had occasions in the past to see that CN has made use of several cabooses, which provide for a little bit of interest in an otherwise dull railfanning city. 

The cabooses CN has made use of have varied in quality and origin. Given that CN largely stopped using cabooses by 1990-91, it makes the stories of the cabooses in use in Ottawa over the years that much more interesting. Mostly, the cabooses have been used for backwards movements or shoving movements, where the train's conductor needs a safe platform to observe what's ahead on the tracks as visibility from the engine is restricted at the rear.

CN 9106 (ex OCR 9106, ex Devco 9106)

In 2013, it was hard not to see this caboose from the end of Albion Road. It was parked in plain view, not far from the old maintenance building in the yard. It did not appear to be in active service.

By the time I started taking photos near Walkley, like this shot in 2015, the old caboose was a mess of graffiti and broken windows. You can just make out the marking of CN 9106 below the Devco Railway script above. But, upon closer inspection, the 9106 number was once followed by OCR, which is blacked out in this image. That means this caboose predated CN's operations and was used prior to 2008 by the former Ottawa Central Railway. I found this image online from 2003, which gives you an idea of how long it was used in the area.The Devco part had been painted over long ago, but the car retained its green and yellow Devco colours, if you don't count the abundance of graffiti.

This caboose is an AAR M930 class wide vision cupola caboose, which was a common van used by many Class I and regional railroads right up until the industry discontinued the use of these cars. This common caboose was built by International Car Co. from the early 1960s until the mid-1970s. They were in service until the end of the caboose era. CN also made a number of these cabooses at its shops in Montreal.

This caboose saw service on OCR and CN until it was taken out of service at some point in the early 2010s, at which point it sat in Walkley Yard and was left to the vandals. It's a shame that it was not preserved, as it probably saw a lot of service on the Devco Railway, the Cape Breton coal carrier that served the island's remaining coal mines and Sydney's interantional shipping piers between the late 19060s before that railway ended operations officially in 2001.

CN 79834 (ex Ottawa-L'Orignal 2000, ex OCR)

This caboose was in active service as late as 2013 in the city. It was a curiosity by any stretch, mostly because of its odd paint job and the even more curious inscription "Millennium" that was once stencilled onto the left side of the van. It disappeared from Walkley Yard years ago, but was used for shoving moves on the Vankleek Spur as recently as 2020, as per this webpage. The car was built at the CN Point-St-Charles shops under the same number it bore through its later years of service with CN.

The car was sold to the Ottawa-L'Orignal Railway in 1996. The railway, which operated between Glen Robertson on the Alexandria Sub and Hawkesbury, was then bought out by the Ottawa Central, which continued to use the van until 2008 when CN bought OCR and a host of other assets, which meant this old caboose was back with its original owner.

Here's a 2013 shot of an Ottawa crew assembling a train on a Sunday morning, with the old Millennium caboose behind the engine.

These days, the old warhorse is back where it started, used for shoving moves in the Montreal area. It's interesting to speculate what happened to this van. When was it repainted from its original CN colours to blue? How did that paint scheme disintegrate? To be honest, it looks like the paint on this car was applied with roller brushes. I would love to know the story behind its unique appearance.

The only mystery I managed to solve was that the caboose was numbered OLOR 2000 when it was owned by the Ottawa-L'Orignal Railway, which would explain why it was called the Millennium caboose. Maybe someone on the railway had a sense of humour? 

DAWX 79872 (Ex CN 472000 boxcar)

This caboose, which was a former CN caboose, was in storage in Walkley Yard for years. The company that owns it is D.A. Walmsley and Company. It was attached to an RDC9 unit, also owned by DAWX. Sadly, both of these cars were subjected to arson, the RDC unit just recently. There isn't a lot of information about DAWX online, although a picture from locomotive and railway car rebuilding company IRSI in Moncton, New Brunswick provides a clue. This photo shows an old CP RDC, owned by DAWX, being rebuilt at the facility. The company clearly has railway holdings. I have not been back to Walkley Yard in a number of years, so I'm not sure what is to become of its torched RDC unit here or what happened to its previously torched ex-CN caboose. The only information I could find about this caboose is from the Bytown Railway Society, which lists some of its history in this document. From this document, I learned this old caboose was actually a converted boxcar. That's about all I could find. How these cars came to be stored in Walkley Yard is a mystery. I can imagine there would be better places to store cars where the security was better.

GTW 79047

The most recent caboose to ply the rails here is this relatively fit looking Grand Trunk caboose, which has been used on the Arnprior Turn of late. You don't have to look too hard online to find photos of this van in various CN yards across its system in Michigan (ex-GTW territory), Ontario and Winnipeg. It has seen a lot of yard duty, judging by the photos I have seen in various rail photo forums.

Since crews here have to do a fair bit of backward moves on the Smiths Falls Sub to Federal, not to mention on the Vankleek and former OLOR, it's not surprising that CN would want to have one of these old warhorses around to make things easier for the local crew. It certainly has provided a fair bit of excitement among railfans in the area who are making the weekly run to Arnprior a regular spectator sport of late.

Many of us bemoan the lack of variety on today's modern railways. CN's continued use of cabooses in this region certainly gives local railfans one tiny thing to brag about that those along the mainlines cannot claim.

Track work in Ottawa

This summer has been spent trying to keep up with my two daughters, one of whom is now nearly five months old. The end result of our recent addition is that my train watching has basically ground to a halt for the most part, minus a trip to Smiths Falls in July. On Labour Day, I made my first trip to Walkley Yard just to see if there was anything to see. I ended up with a few tidbits I thought I'd pass along.

The shot below was my favourite from my quick trip. In the distance, you see CN 4771 parked in front of the local CN facilities, framed by a few bulkhead flatcars and a string of gondolas. Those flatcars, gondolas and that pile of wood next to 4771 lead me to my first bit of news.

 

First off, gondolas and these types of flatcars are usually a sign of two things in railways. Either a railway is transporting scrap metal, pipes or some other similar commodity or the railway is doing track work. I took a shot of this car, below, because the colours, including the yellow stripe, intrigued me. The reporting mark was for American Metal and Iron LP.

 

A close-up of GP38-2W 4771 shows that there is a load of ties next to the engine. Also, get a load of the paint. The red cab paint is bleeding through the black and white safety scheme on the long hood. I've seen a lot of shabby units in Ottawa over the years, but this one might be the worst (or best, depending on your point-of-view).

A little further down the road alongside the yard revealed more wood and other supplies in the vicinity of a ballast car (below). This looks to be wood that might be used at a level crossing or as decking on a trestle. I wouldn't have thought much of this if I hadn't found out earlier that track work is being done on the Renfrew Spur in Carp. I appreciate Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure for passing along the news.

It's great news to know that, despite the final removal of the Beachburg Subdivision northwest of Nepean Junction, there is some work being done to maintain train service in western Ottawa. This is also a great opportunity for me to pass along some pictures that local rail watcher Patrick Stever sent to me from the siding in Carp. He spotted this equipment in the spring, including this brush cutter.

The below shot, also courtesy of Patrick Stever, shows that the groundwork for track improvements was being done months ago. Look at the piles of ballast to the left of the main line. I'm glad Patrick sent me these photos. I was trying to fit them into a post and now I am able to pass them along.

For those who don't know, this spur is owned by the City of Ottawa and maintained by Nylene Canada, a customer in Arnprior that requires rail service once a week. CN continues to operate a weekly train, usually consisting of three to four tank cars, to and from the plant. The spur has seen pretty restrictive speed limits for years, due to the condition of the track. I don't expect this work to change things. But, it's good to see that there is work being done to keep trains operating in the west end of the city for years to come.

A few days later, I was trying to catch the Arnprior local and noticed bundles of ties along the Beachburg Sub, just northwest of Bells Corners, where the line turns toward the Queensway. Here is what I noticed trackside. When I blew up the photo, I noticed that bundles of ties have been placed trackside all along this straightaway, meaning CN is investing in a bit of maintenance on this line. You can see the ties below. The case was the same on the trackage in Bells Corners near the junction between Beachburg the old CP Carleton Place Subdivision spur. New ties are all trackside, awaiting work crews.

Getting back to Walkley Yard, I noticed when I first arrived that the former Devco caboose, still in its Devco green black and yellow colours, was not at its usual place close to the CN offices and maintenance facility. I also noticed that the hideous Millennium caboose was missing.

As I drove east down the access road next to the yard, I noticed an addition to DAWX caboose and RDC on a storage track. It turns out, the old Devco caboose has reached the end of the line.

It's sad to see this caboose is being left prey to looters and vandals. Here's a shot of this caboose in (slightly) better days. I guess it's no longer being used for shoving maneuvers in the region anymore. I'm not sure if the Millennium caboose is still around either. It makes me wonder what's being used for shoving these days.

 

Also sad to see that vandals have continued to have their way with this old CN caboose. A fire was clearly set in the cupola at one point. As I have mentioned before, the security at this yard is a joke outside of operating hours.

 

One final note to pass along. Via Rail had completed work on a new passing siding at Wass, east of Federal, to allow corridor trains to operate more efficiently. The siding is part of Via's investment in its local network. As I have pointed out before, Ottawa's main train station is Via's third busiest station in Canada, behind Toronto and Montreal. Thanks again to Eric at Trackside Treasure for passing along that news via another local rail watcher.

 

So there a few tidbits from my trip and from my readers. Not bad considering I have only railfanned a handful of times this summer.

Two forgotten whistlestops

I heard the ghosts calling me. After visiting the old fortress of Louisbourg, I saw something in a tourism brochure promoting the Sydney & Louisburg rail museum. I knew I had to check it out. In the middle of a windswept, drizzly grey September afternoon, I wandered into the 1895 railway station, which was silent except for the smiling museum volunteer, who welcomed me before letting me wander the place.

The station, still stately looking despite years of being maintained on a limited budget, had obviously seen busier times. At one point, Louisburg, as the railway called it, was a key terminus on a railway that connected the tiny coastal town on the Atlantic to the bustling coal hub of Sydney. I could imagine the town's inhabitants waiting on the old platform, waiting to board the old 1881 passenger coach, ready for their big day in the city. Or little boys watching as locomotives trundled away with dozens of coal cars in tow, ready to do battle with the challenging contours of Cape Breton.

Okay, I'm romanticizing a little bit, but I couldn't help but feel the loneliness of this old station, one of a countless number across this country that were once part of the lifeblood of their communities, now relegated to visitor information centres or quant museums. Highways and a centralized railway network have ensured that many small towns like Louisbourg are no longer railway towns.

The above picture, taken in 2008, was the only picture that survived a horrific computer crash that eliminated a number of photos I took of the old 1881 coach and an adjoining freight car. But this photos still speaks volumes. The rails from the old S&L railway remain, from their days as part of the Devco Railway, which operated on the tracks until 2001, when all of Cape Breton's coal mines had closed, leaving the railway in the hands of several operators who weren't able to keep it as a going concern. You can see the remnants of the old semaphore signal on the platform and the effects of salty air on the rusted rails.

I liked the photo but didn't think much about it until I stumbled across an old Devco Railway caboose in CN's Walkley Yard in Ottawa last summer. The caboose, although heavily defaced by graffiti, still bears its green and gold Devco colours, although CN had hastily painted over the Devco lettering at some point (it's a good bet that the caboose was actually repainted by the Ottawa Central Railway before it was reacquired by CN).

When I looked at this photo the other day, it made me think of the Louisbourg photo and of busier times in Cape Breton Island, when the economy was not solely dependent on tourists like me. There was something about being in that old Louisburg railway station on that grey September day that left a strong impression on me.

I had the same feeling on Dec. 22 last year when I took a quick photo of the Via Rail station in Wyoming, Ont., just east of Sarnia. This is one of two such kiosk stations in Lambton County (the other being in Watford, just east of Wyoming). This whistle stop station sees very little activity, since Via's service to Sarnia has been trimmed to one train in and out of the city a day.

But there are hints of busier times in this photo as well. You can make out an old right-of-way behind the station, with an old ramp for loading freight cars just behind the station. This stretch of the Strathroy Subdivision was once double tracked, but the second track was taken out years ago and replaced by a number of passing sidings.

Just down from the Wyoming station, the Wanstead Farmer's Co-op, complete with grain elevators, stands trackside, although its rail service has been discontinued, with the loss of the trackage. At one point, this was a busy point on the Strathroy Sub, as farmers used the railway to ship their products, which include soybeans, wheat and corn. Now, the co-op uses trucks while CN double stack trains breeze through the town.

Now compare this with an older view of Wyoming's railway activities below. This undated shot was taken around the early 1920s or earlier, I'm guessing, judging by the vintage of the steam locomotive departing from the two-storey Wyoming station. Also, you can see that someone at some point printed "GTR" on the photo, which would make it a pre-1923 shot, when the Grand Trunk officially became part of the CNR.

I like observing trackside ghosts. These two are among my favourites.

Winter railroading in Ottawa

Winter has unquestionably arrived in Ottawa, which has allowed me to correct a longstanding gap in my railway photograph collection. Searching through my images the other day, I realized that I had but one winter railroading photograph. With that in mind, I lugged my camera into the arctic air to get some shots of the most Canadian of scenes: trains trudging through the snow.

The first shot, which I grabbed this past week, was Via Rail No. 33 arriving at Ottawa Station from Montreal, with P42 910 leading an all-Renaissance consist. The long shadows in the morning light, combined with the restricted vantage points around the station, made this shot tricky. I wasn't thrilled with it, but I do like seeing the exhaust from the locomotive in the crisp winter air. There wasn't much activity at the station at this point, so I didn't stick around.

On Dec. 7, I made one of my periodic visits to Walkley Yard to see if there was anything interesting to shoot. My daughter accompanied me for the first time, although she was busy watching Barney in the back seat. I did find several of these tank cars in the yard, which were a nice surprise. This tank car, Procor 50265, upon closer inspection, has a marking reading "Fluid Recycling Services" painted over on the left side. As to what fluids it carried, I'm not sure. I dug around a bit online but didn't find anything conclusive. Maybe a reader knows more than I do.

I also spotted CN's two local cabooses side by side near CN's local offices. I've shared photos of these two cabooses before, but never together. From what I've noticed, the former Devco Railway caboose never seems to move from this spot in the yard, which makes me wonder if it's operational at all. The old millennium caboose seems to be the unit of choice. The graffiti on the Devco caboose makes me shake my head. How bad is security in this rail yard?

I've shared photos of this old RDC unit before. I'm lucky that there is a service road running the length of the east end of the rail yard, which allows an excellent vantage point of this old gem. I noticed some interesting light and the cloud movement as I drove by, so I took a quick photo and was quite happy with the result. I wanted to capture a shot of this old unit, hooked to a former CN caboose, in a way that makes it look as though it's moving.

The best thing about shooting in the winter is the overgrown weeds in the yard are gone, which allows me to get a full shot of the RDC, complete with the old trucks and undercarriage. One of the small perks of this arctic weather.