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.

Goodbye Goderich

This past summer, my family's presence in the Goderich area ended as my in laws packed up their life and moved to Mitchell, Ontario. The bad news for me is that it means I will no longer be able to take in all the railway heritage and GEXR operations in this Lake Huron port town. The good news is Mitchell is still on the GEXR Goderich Sub, so I hope to catch something different this summer when I visit my in laws in their new home.

This shot, which is a scan of a print, is courtesy of my railway colleague in Kingston, Eric Gagnon. You know him by his blog, Trackside Treasure. This shot above shows GEXR GP9 177 (once named Titania) along with three other geeps working the salt mine yard in Goderich Harbour. GEXR continues to serve the Sifto salt mine and the related mining industry in the Goderich, although its traffic is lighter than it once was since the town has lost other industries over the last few decades (the Volvo heavy equipment plant being a prime example). Despite this, there are possibly better times ahead for Goderich as federal money to establish this town as a deepwater port on the lake (the only such port on the Canadian side of the lake) means better prospects could be ahead for the railway.

As you know, this town has quite a rail history. You can read about in these following posts:

Goderich Railways: Then and Now

Goderich 2014 Part I: GEXR Operations

Goderich 2014 Part II: Echoes of the Past

Notes from Goderich

Rather than get into the history again, I thought I'd share a few quick picks and memories. The first memory I have is being able to see the results of a massive project to move the old Canadian Pacific station from its original spot to its new beachside locale a few hundred metres away. I wrote about this a fair bit and am happy to share that the owner of the building has faithfully restored this building, despite some nervous locals who weren't sold on this project. The town now has a unique restaurant on the town's beach that is a perfect spot on a summer day. The inside of the building really does look sharp, as many of the original design elements were kept.

It's interesting that I've filled so much space on the blog with musings and photos from Goderich. I was actually never lucky enough to catch trains in action in all my time spent trackside in the town. I did catch some cool still lifes though. This shot below shows the local switcher, GP 4001, tied up for the day while a string of covered hoppers await their next move.

I have shown this shot, below, many times, but I always love showing it again. This is one of those shots where everything comes together. Look at the colours of all the hoppers and the grass growing between the rails. This screams small town short line to me. I was really happy when I caught this site.

Here's another view of the silent rail yard, as seen just beyond the East Street Station platform. You can see the GP9, the hoppers, the old CN station and a slowly crumbling trackside shack. Lots going on.

As much as I will miss this railway town, the silver lining is that I will soon be able to discover another trackside opportunity in Mitchell, hometown of Montreal Canadien great, Howie Morenz.

I am really hopeful that I can catch a shot like this one, possibly alongside a great elevator. That would be a fine addition to my GEXR collection.

Small piece of trivia: Do you know why GEXR once named its GP9s, such as the Titania, above?

Notes from Goderich

My family's recent trip to southern Ontario over the Thanksgiving weekend was all about making lemonade. I was excited to catch some railway action as we made our way down the 401. Nothing. I was then excited about catching some railway action in Goderich. Nothing. I won't mention what I saw in Sarnia because it was next to nothing. However, when life sometimes hands you lemons, you make some lemonade, right?

We'll start with Goderich, the western end of the Goderich Exeter Railway's Stratford-Goderich main line, called the Goderich Sub. Usually, when my family visits this area, there is something to see. This time around, I knew there would be nothing to see, since the day's morning train had already left the town (I heard it leaving as we emerged from a restaurant after a morning snack). I still made my way to the old Canadian National East Street Station and took a look at the railway's empty yard. Still, I like this shot below. Check out the lone axle at the end of the line.

I made my way down the street to the railway's shops and even there, I felt as though my luck was nonexistent. Yes, there was a GEXR unit in the house, but there was no getting a shot.

Here's a closer look at the bottom half of the engine. GP9 I think.

I was lucky enough to bump into the owner of the old Canadian Pacific Railway Station, which was moved in recent years from its spot next to a bluff to a spot closer to the town's beach. It now faces Lake Huron. You can check out this post and this post to see this restaurant in various states of development from the past several years. What you see below is pretty close to a finished product. A deck has been added to the station for the warmer months. The day we were there, two massive evergreen trees were being delivered to the site to complete the outside aesthetics. What impressed me about this renovation is how the character of the station has been faithfully preserved. When you look inside the place, you will see many of the original station's touches have been maintained. There's still a men's waiting room and ladies' waiting room, although I'm pretty sure the restaurant doesn't enforce that old rule!

Here's a closer look at part of the restored station's architecture. This station has to be on of my favourite looking stations, simply for the various design elements that went into it and how all these piece somehow fit together into a coherent whole.

Here's a shot of the circular turret (the witch's hat) that now houses a circular eating area.

You may recall from this post that I cam across this rickety old trackside structure before and mentioned that it might be worth modelling to someone. Here's the best shot I could get from the old station platform. I didn't want to venture any closer to railway property. I'm not sure this old building is even used by GEXR anymore, but the doors were open on the day I visited. You can just see a lone hopper behind the shed, no doubt waiting to be loaded or brought down the hill to the Sifto salt mine.

 

I didn't notice a lot of work being done on Goderich's port, which was part of the previous government's plans to build a deep-water commercial port on Lake Huron. You will remember at the time that I mentioned it would be interesting to see if this port initiative would include some sort of rail connection, since GEXR's rails already extend down to the port. Stay tuned on this.

Goderich 2014 Part II: Echoes of the past

I have raved about this town on Lake Huron several times, but I thought I'd revisit Goderich once more, after taking time to visit a number of its historic railway sites last August. You can read my first post about this trip here.

The town has a proud railway legacy that has not only been preserved, but celebrated. The first stop I made was to the city's beach, where the town's former Canadian Pacific Railway station has been relocated. The station was moved a few hundred metres last year, to make way for a new lake-facing restaurant.

The station still appeared to be undergoing extensive repairs over the summer. The developer wants to build a 300-seat restaurant with a 100-seat banquet hall. The opening has been pushed back a few times, due to the structural challenges of bringing this beautiful old building back into shape.

This station, which you first read about it this post, was officially opened in 1907 to serve as a western terminus to a CPR line between Goderich and Guelph. The station last saw passengers in 1956. The line used to host as many as three daily freights, with grain being one of its biggest commodities. The operations were officially discontinued in 1989.

Much of this information I learned simply by reading the numerous historic plaques around the harbour.

One of my other items on the railway to-do list was to visit the Tiger Dunlop Walking Trail on the northern edge of the town. The reason I wanted to check it out was that this trail crosses the Maitland River via the former Canadian Pacific Railway Trestle.

The bridge is an impressive structure, which was built in 1906 for the railway's approach to Goderich harbour. When the original wooden bridge was built, it was 212 metres long (695 feet), making it the longest railway trestle in Ontario. The bridge was not without its challenges, the chief among them the steep drop off between the rail line over the river and the rails at the harbour.

To solve this problem, the railway carted in tonnes of earth to create a gradual grade that would be able to accommodate the needs of steam locomotives approaching the rail line's terminus. It was interesting to walk this old right of way. I can say that, despite the efforts to limit the grade in and out of the low-lying harbour, this grade would likely still pose tough operational challenges for the CPR.

When the CPR discontinued service in Goderich, the fate of this old bridge was very much in doubt until a local preservation effort saved the structure for use as a walking trail. The bridge, now called the Menesetung Walking Bridge, gives you a great idea of what it was like to ride the rails in this area. It also offers great views of the city's harbour.

The shot below gives you an idea of the elevation.

This is what engineers would have seen as they approached the town. Take a moment to consider the elevation and the short distance to the harbour. That's a steep slide down to sea level in a short period of time. It makes you appreciate the skill it takes to work on the railway. You can see the town's grain elevators and parts of the salt mine operations. Can you spot the hopper cars?

The final stop on our history tour was the Huron County Museum, perhaps the best local history museum you will find in Canada. I can't begin to describe how comprehensive this facility is in documenting the history of Huron County. The museum's sister site, the Huron County Gaol, built in 1830, is similarly fascinating and thorough.

The centrepiece of the museum is Canadian Pacific Vaughan class U3e steam locomotive 6275. Built in 1913 at CPR's Angus shops in Montreal, this 0-6-0 locomotive was used as a local switcher in Goderich for years until the diesel era made it obsolete. The shot below is the cab. This gives you an idea of how complex these machines are. It gives me an immense amount of appreciation for my grandfathers, who both worked on the CPR when these brutes plied the rails.

This locomotive's history follows a familiar story. It was in danger of being scrapped when a local effort to save it managed to come up with a deal with the railway in 1958. In the end, the engine was sold for the price of scrap. It was sold for the going rate: $1 for every 5 pounds. How times have changed.

The Huron County Museum was build around this locomotive. To get this engine to the museum's site, it had to be guided down two 60-foot lengths of rail along the town's streets in order to reach its place of honour. No small feat.

This shot below is one of the few shots I took that turned out okay. The museum's lighting was unfortunately not conducive to great photography, particularly the camera I was using that day.

Here's a profile shot below. The locomotive is not resting on rails, but on an angled concrete floor, which looked like the inside of a boat. I imagine this keeps the engine in place. The steam engine is surrounded by benching, very much like the ones you would expect to find in a train station in the 1950s or earlier.

The museum even has a CPR baggage cart with some old luggage packed onto it. Nice touch!

 

In many ways, I think Goderich is a town that punches above its weight. Its preservation of its past has served the town well. And its current rail operations are a bonus.

Goderich 2014, Part I: GEXR Operations

A family trip to the Goderich area this August allowed me to get a better look at the Goderich-Exeter Railway operations in the lakeside town. The railway's operations appear to be fairly quiet in this town these days, due to the loss of local industry in recent years, notably the Volvo Manufacturing facility. However, the railway still services the town's salt mine on the lake and related salt processing facilities. Also, a government initiative to establish Goderich as a deepwater commercial port could bode well for the GEXR, whose rails run from Lake Huron through much of southern Ontario all the way to MacMillan Yard in the Toronto area, via running rights on CN.

The day I explored some of the railway's facilities, including its rail yard at the old CN Centre Street railway station, all was quiet. GEXR GP9 4001 (right) had been parked for the day while a string of eight hoppers looked ready for placement or shipment. You can see the TPI Enterprises facility behind the yard. The plant makes industrial parts and equipment for various industries, including the salt mine.

 

 

As you can see from this shot, the yard is somewhat overgrown. GEXR is now a Genesee and Wyoming railway, but traces of its Rail America past are still visible, including the former Rail America livery on the GP9.

 

The shot below shows you the railway's descent down toward the Sifto salt mine on Lake Huron. Despite some of the overgrowth, it appears that the right-of-way was recently topped up with new ballast, judging by the bleached stones beneath the rails. As a point of interest, I crossed the right-of-way at a level crossing with a hiking trail. You can see that the level crossing with the road is marked with crossbucks, but no signals. I suspect this is because this line is not terribly busy and most movements here are slow.

 



If you are a fan of the big machines, then Goderich is the place for you. My wife and I like hanging out at the beach in Goderich, right next to the salt mine, whose operations jut out into the lake on a very large pier. From the beach, you can usually see a string of covered hoppers at the ready. I haven't been lucky enough to see any switching operations, but I saw something equally fascinating in August. 

 



On the day we were at the beach, Great Lakes salt ship Algosteel was being loaded with salt. These hulking ships are amazing to see up close. You really don't realize just how big they are until you see them in person. Algosteel, it should be noted, still bears its Algoma Central Marine colours, which closely match the Algoma Central Railway colours. This harkens back to when the railway (now a CN property) was once linked to the shipping company as part of a larger Algoma Central transportation concern.

As an added bonus, the large ship was met by a tall ship, that just happened to be coming in to dock at Goderich when we were on the beach. Again, you have to see these vessels up close to appreciate them.

 

A closer look...

 



Getting back to the yard up the hill from the salt mine, here's a close shot of the battered old GP9 4001. I was not able to get shot from the sunny side, since that was on private property. This was about as close as I could get.

Here's a shot of old 4001 at the railway's servicing facility, taken from the old Centre Street station platform. I tried to get the signs in this shot, as well as the lone axle resting behind the geep. Here's a shot of 4001 with its former Rail America paint scheme.

 



I liked the look of this string of hoppers, due to the colours. It's a man-made rainbow.

 

 

As I mentioned in my first post about Goderich, the city has a number of  preserved railway artifacts, including its two railway stations. Just west of the old CN station, a maintenance shed appears to need a little attention. Good for a model railway prototype, for those so inclined.

 

 

While in Goderich, I also managed to hike on an old CPR trestle, took in a preserved CP steam locomotive and captured shots of the old CPR station, which is being redeveloped. I will share photos and information on these relics in a future post.



Goderich's Railways: Then and Now

I love Goderich. It's a beautiful town on the shores of Lake Huron, which was once described as one of the country's "prettiest towns" by Queen Elizabeth. It has a rich history, much of which is preserved in the town's older quarter. Most importantly for our purposes, Goderich has long been a railway town. I recently visited family near Goderich for the Thanksgiving weekend and was able to get a few up-to-date photos of the town's wonderful train stations.

That's right! This town has actually preserved both of its stations.

Luckily, my parents visited Goderich a few times in the early 1990s and took some great photos of the railway operations then. The shot below is the Canadian National railway station in the early 90s. By this time, the railway operations had been sold off to the Goderich Exeter Railway, which would mean the photo is post 1992. You can see the old green and cream coloured GEXR GP9 locomotive on the right of the photo. These engines once sported Shakespeare inspired names, since the railway is based in Stratford. More on this in a later post.

As mentioned, Goderich has a long and proud railway history. The GEXR rails have an interesting lineage themselves. Before the short line operator took over (GEXR itself has been a RailTex, RailAmerica and Genesee & Wyoming concern), the line was CN. The CN operation was inherited from the Grand Trunk, which took over a railway by the name of Buffalo & Lake Huron Railway. That means parts of the rails in Goderich date back to 1859.

The Canadian Pacific also laid rails to Goderich in 1907, seeing as how the town was a key cargo port on the Great Lakes and had long prospered, thanks to the enormous salt deposits in the area. The CPR built this beautiful rail station (below) near the Goderich harbour. The passenger service was axed in the 1960s and the entire CPR line was pulled up sometime afterward, but the building was preserved by the town. For decades, it sat at the bottom of a bluff, existing as a town storage facility. I remember once looking into the station and seeing Christmas decorations and pieces of parade floats. In the shot below, you can see the old luggage cart still sitting on the old platform. A beautiful old trestle nearby over the Maitland River has also been preserved as a public trail.

In the last two years, the town has been busy rebuilding after a devastating F3 tornado ripped apart much of the town's octagonal town square and surrounding neighbourhood in August 2011. One of the initiatives included moving the old CPR station from its lonely spot near the bluffs to a spot facing the lake and the town's public beach. An entrepreneur is opening a restaurant in the old station and adding an adjacent convention facility, which will be physically attached to the old station. You can see the Goderich lighthouse at the top of the bluff to the right.

The station looks to be in decent shape, despite being jarred from its home and moved a few hundred metres to its new spot via a giant flatbed truck. As you can see below, a fair bit of work needs to be done to the exterior facade, which has not been given much attention in the past few decades. Still, it's good to see this beautiful old station being put to good use.

  

I managed to venture across the downtown to the old CN station to see what was happening there. My father-in-law told me that the town has also renovated this old station and used it as a performing arts venue. You can see some subtle changes between the top photo and this one, including the lattice in the front windows. Also, to the right of the photo, you will see a lonely hopper car and a few industrial buildings. Those structures are part of the GEXR's operations, which serve a nearby Sifto Salt processing facility, which was once part of a Volvo heavy machinery plant that was recently closed and moved south to the U.S.

As you can imagine, there was nothing happening on the rails over the Thanksgiving weekend, but I did get a quick snap of a few covered hoppers awaiting loads at a loading dock near the old CN train station. Those tracks beyond the crossbucks lead to the Sifto salt mine on the lake.

Taking a close look at both stations, you will notice some architectural flourishes, including the witch's hat turrets and archways, that were not all that common for small-town railway stations at the time. It is also worth noting that a third railway once attempted to reach Goderich, but ultimately failed. When you examine the town's rail history and take a close look at both of its stations, you can understand just how important railways once were to small-town Canada.