Memories of Ottawa to Sarnia in the late 1990s (Part I)

I wasn't in the habit of taking rail photos in the late 1990s when I began my post-secondary education in Ottawa at Carleton University in September 1996. In retrospect, it would have been a fun time to take shots. That's because every one of my trips home to see family at that time meant spending the better part of a day on the train. It was a time when you could still buy your student-discounted ticket at a Travelcuts travel agency on campus and the ticket you got might still have the red carbon copy. That quickly changed to those thick cardstock paper, one-fold tickets with the perforated lines to separate each leg of your journey. For me, taking the train regularly over those four years (1996-2000) was an eye opener, as someone who had seen almost no part of Ontario beyond Toronto for the first 18 years of his life. So, let's take a journey down memory lane and across the province back in the glory days of the late 90s.

A quick note about the equipment. As far as I can recall, every one of the trains I took were pretty much the same consist. I don't recall ever riding behind a P42. It was always an F40PH-2. The cars were almost exclusively LRC coaches. I don't recall riding in an old silver HEP car once during my university years. I don't know if that's a coincidence, but I'm almost positive of these facts. 

Ottawa

It's important to mention this off the top. In all my time taking the train in university, there was no Fallowfield Station. The train would roar through Barrhaven in Ottawa's south end and throttle up for the short leg to Smiths Falls. That meant all trips started at Ottawa's train station on Tremblay Road. Despite the fact that Ottawa doesn't have an historic train station as in Toronto, the east end station in Ottawa is a fascinating building, which is an award-winning architectural work from the 1960s. Given what many buildings of a similar vintage look like in Ottawa, the central train station is downright beautiful. Its main hall, with an endless wall of windows facing the tracks, is a bright, welcoming space. The circular ticket office in the middle of the hall is a creative way to create separate areas. The underground tunnel from the outside platforms is quite beautiful as well, especially the circular ramp to take you back up to the main station. The Via Panorama Lounge is well appointed as well, although I have only been there once. That was when I accompanied my friend, a person with a disability, who was accommodated in the Business Class (formerly Via1) car. All in all, the building hasn't changed much since I frequented it in my university years. The biggest change might be that there is no Harvey's at the station anymore. The food options are not great. Also, the rail yard is much smaller and the old Governor General's cars are no longer there. A small complaint.

Smiths Falls

Heading southwest, the first stop was (and is) always Smiths Falls, which had a classic railway town feel the moment you eased into the old platform at the former Canadian Pacific station on the edge of the CP yard. Of course, in those days, that old building still functioned as the Via station, which has since changed. The new Via station is more of an enlarged kiosk on Union Street, on the edge of the town.

The old station is now a centre for the arts and seems to be well used. Depending on which way I was travelling, Smiths Falls was either the stop where I was getting restless or the stop where I would be settling in with a book, magazine or my walkman (yes, I still listened to cassette tapes then). It was a town I didn't know much about until I learned of its history. It was the longtime home of the Hershey's chocolate factory and was once a very busy division point on the CPR, the dividing point between the Brockville, Winchester and Belleville subdivisions. It still is, but the Brockville Sub is now exclusively Via controlled while the Winchester and Belleville subs continue on as the eastern leg of the CP system to Montreal (and now beyond, once again). But the activity here is not what it was in the 1990s.

Brockville

Brockville is another town that I must confess that I still don't know a lot about, other than it is still sees plenty of rail action each day, as the CN and CP eastern main lines converge here. There's plenty of history in Brockville, including its famous old railway tunnel, not to mention its name, which pays tribute to Sir Isaac Brock. Brock was a British military leader who many credit with preventing a successful American invasion of the Canadian colonies in the War of 1812. The red coat that he was shot and killed in on the Queenston Heights in the Niagara Region can be found at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. A gruesome relic, but a fascinating story.

Gananoque

This town was probably the most surprising stop in my early years taking the train to and from Ottawa. I didn't know the town existed, to be honest, and was absolutely shocked when I saw its railway station for the first time. I wondered what kind of one-horse town Gananoque was. I didn't understand at the time that the town's train station was actually not in the town at all, but in a rural area named Cheeseborough to the north. This station remains a vital link where Gananoque is connected to the main line. A short branch line south into the town itself served Gananoque as a passenger link until 1962 and as a freight spur until 1995, when the last freight service ended and the rails were pulled up. However, the first time my train stopped there and I looked around the station area through the window, it was hard to comprehend how a station could be placed in the middle of nowhere. That's what it appeared like to me, anyway. You can read about the town, its famous engine the Susan Push (below), and its heritage in this post, where I explored some of the town's railway history.

Kingston

Prior to my university years, I had only been to Kingston one time. Over the years, I have made some visits and I really do love the city. It's an eclectic mix of historic charm, academia, Upper Canada Loyalist, blue collar ethos and innovation. The city's history, of course, is what underpins much of Kingston and its beautiful downtown and waterfront.

From a rail traveller's perspective, there isn't much to be gleaned when you stop at Kingston station. The Via Rail schedule here is packed, as Kingston sits arguably about half way between Toronto and Montreal and also hosts a number of corridor trains to and from Ottawa. I suppose my memories of Kingston in the 1990s are closely tied to my high school friend Chris, who went to Queen's University to study engineering. Chris and I often found ourselves on the same train between Sarnia and Ottawa, although rarely on the return trip west. Chris was (likely still is) a real card back in high school and university. He had a gregarious personality and didn't mind making fun of himself in a crowd if it meant drawing laughter.

My clearest memory of our rides together on the train happened when we somehow got onto the topic of Stompin' Tom Connors and his famous ditty, The Hockey Song. I'm not sure how it came about, but I remember Chris singing the entire song word-for-word on the train, just loud enough that the people around us could hear him, but not too loud that he would annoy them. I think he left a few people befuddled, to be honest. 

Chris made many a train trip a little more bearable, although I should point out that I had no problem sitting by myself, reading, writing or listening to my cassette tapes. I do recall that, in the days before everything was available online, my brother would sometimes tape a cassette's worth of my favourite radio morning show from back home, which I used to listen to over and over. 

I should also mention that Kingston to me is closely tied to nearby Ernestown, a railway ghost town if ever there was one! The old stone station still stands trackside and it was on my rides between Ottawa and Sarnia that I first saw that old abandoned station. Back in the days before everything was online (man, I'm sounding old now), the story of that station remained a mystery to me, which I think was part of its appeal. Later on, I was filled in on the Ernestown story by Trackside Treasure's Eric Gagnon, but back in the 1990s that old station was the stuff of my imagination. 

These rides featured many other memories and lessons for me, but these are the ones that stick out as part of the Eastern Ontario portion of my journeys. I'm grateful for that education.

History and Impressions of Gananoque

My first impression of Gananoque was not good. It might have been 1996 or 1997 when I was on a Via Rail corridor train, when it pulled into Gananoque station. I remember being intrigued by the town's name, as it was unknown to me, a relative newcomer to Eastern Ontario at the time. I remember looking around and wondering, "Where the hell am I?" as the station's immediate surroundings suggested One Horse Town. It wasn't until years later that I learned that Gananoque's train station is actually several kilometres north of the actual town, separated not only by geography but also by Highway 401. Look on any map and it's situated in what is known as Cheeseborough.

Last summer, I learned about much of the the town's railway story, as my family visited the town to see a play at the 1000 Islands Playhouse, nestled on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Gananoque has a lively theatre scene and bustling downtown all catering to a tourist crowd. The town is situated in an ideal spot, as it is a launch point for people wanting to tour the 1000 Islands along the St. Lawrence Seaway. Geographically, it draws equally from two large cities, Ottawa and Toronto, judging by the license plates I noticed on the day I visited. That's in addition to the many others cities that feed the town's tourist trade, including Kingston, Cornwall, Belleville and other fairly close cities in Eastern and Central Ontario.

Sadly, I was not able to make it out to Cheeseborough to do some railfanning while my family was in town. However, I was happy to see the town's railway history celebrated in the downtown, as a very strange looking switcher is nestled in Sculpture Park, with nearby signage telling visitors about the story of the Thousand Islands Railway. 

The park is easily accessible via King Street, where the road crosses the Gananoque River. In peak tourist season, you would be well advised to find a parking spot on a nearby residential street and leave it there. This town gets awfully busy in the summer.

Known as Engine 500 or the "Susan Push," this 35-tonne locomotive was built by General Motors in Oshawa in 1931 with a gasoline powered engine. The original engine was replaced by a 250-horsepower diesel engine in 1935. This unit replaced steam locomotives on the Thousand Islands Railway, which was simply a small feeder line connecting the riverside town to the CN main line in Cheeseborough. This oddball unit made its last run on local rails in 1960 when it was moved to Cardinal and then Brockville for work as an industrial switcher. The locomotive was retired in 1966 and donated back to Gananoque for use as a historic display. As you can see, local historians have done an excellent job keeping this quirky engine in good shape.

As I have mentioned in regards to the towns of Petrolia and Oil Springs in Southwestern Ontario, Gananoque was served by a short connection to the main line. The Thousand Islands Railway was opened for business in 1884, and it was eventually used as an 8-km connection to the then-Grand Trunk Railway, to ensure Gananoque was not left behind from the progress that rails brought. The feeder railway, which was taken over by CN in 1958, saw small passenger service in the form of connecting trains, to the station north of town until 1962. 

The images you see were the best I could do, given the outdoor lighting and the shiny plastic covering, which made for terrible glare on the day I visited the outdoor historic display. But you can still see Engine 500 towing a solitary clerestory roof heavyweight passenger car into the town's downtown station. The date is not given, but it appears that the 1950s is a good guess, judging by the cars in the photo. 

After local freight service was ended in 1995, the rails were pulled up and the town lost its connection to the main line north of town. Of course, Via Rail still serves the Gananoque Station with regular service, although newcomers to Eastern Ontario will be well advised not to judge the town by its station's surroundings.

As for what's left of the line, there is a clear line-of-sight from the park where you can see the old right-of-way. I can't say whether it's easy to spot elsewhere, as I did not venture too far from the park. I did like the stonework mimicking tracks, which was a nice touch.

The outdoor historic display gives you other details about the Thousand Islands Railway's importance to the local economy, especially when it was used to haul materials to the town's port on the St. Lawrence River and its connection to the main line, where goods could be shipped anywhere or imported from anywhere. It should also be noted that the Grand Trunk's president Charles Melville Hays promoted the town as a tourists destination. The railways have clearly been good to this town, judging by the obvious vestiges of affluence that you can see in the architecture of old homes, churches, the town's massive clock tower near its downtown.

One other detail to note. The Thousand Islands Railway sported an interesting and somewhat familiar logo. The slanted wafer logo is reminiscent of the Grand Trunk, Canadian National and Newfoundland Railway's wafer logos of yore.

I was quite impressed with Gananoque on my first real visit to the town last summer. Our family greatly enjoyed the 1000 Islands Playhouse's rendition of the Music Man, a play that begins with a scene on a train where the dialogue is written almost to mimic the clickety-clack sound of an old train on jointed rails. That scene, which opens the story, was told with such rhythmic dialogue and subtle physical movement by the actors, you would be hard-pressed to think they weren't swaying on a train. It was extremely well done.

I also was fascinated by the fact that you could bring your boat up to the playhouse's docks and park it there while taking in the show. What a way to go.

Gananoque is blessed with natural beauty but it's clear to me that the town also has a rich trove of civic minded citizens who do a good job ensuring that its history is celebrated properly. I am happy for these efforts, because it allowed me to learn a little bit about a tiny railway I didn't even know existed until last summer.