The history of Walkley Yard

This post is the third in a rail history series I intend to extend through 2017 as we celebrate Canada's 150th birthday. Click the links to read the first and second rail history posts.

Here's an anniversary to consider this year. Sixty-two years ago, Walkley Yard was constructed,  a significant component to the changing face of Ottawa. The impact of this rail yard is not to be underestimated. Even though it's a shadow of what it once was, the rail yard played a key role in the transformation of the Ottawa that we now take for granted.

Walkley Yard today, as seen from the Bank Street overpass. The rail yard is quieter than it once was, but it still sees activity most mornings. This shot shows from maintenance of way happening earlier in April.

Let's take a brief tour of the yard today, to give you an idea of what can be found in the yard now.

While most people in the city likely don't pay this yard any mind, there was a time when it was big news. That was because by the early 1950s, politicians of all stripes were finally ready to remake the face of Ottawa, which at the time was an anomaly of a capital city. Within much of the city's older sections, rails were extremely prominent along with heavy industry. Many photos of Ottawa from the late 1940s and early 1950s illustrate this. Many felt that a capital city should not look like Ottawa did in the 1950s.

Of course, today, much of this heavy industrial imprint is long gone, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it was still very much scattered through old Ottawa. Politicians were finally able to agree that something had to be done. It's important to note that plans to remove rail and heavy industry from the core of Ottawa began to gain traction in the early 1900s. However, two world wars and numerous changes in government ensured that any plan to remake the city was shelved. That changed with the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King.

The end result was the 1950 Greber Plan, which called for several radical changes to Ottawa, including the relocation of rails and heavy industry from central Ottawa. The most important element of the report for our purposes was the section calling for the relocation of rails and industry from central Ottawa, which was done.

Amazingly, this is where the Queensway now splits the Ottawa neighbourhoods of Centretown and the Glebe. This is CN's old Bank Street Yard on the former CN Renfrew Subdivision in 1948. Canada Science and Technology Museum image.

Walkley Yard began life as a necessary evil. When it was clear that politicians were finally going to plow ahead with some key elements of the Greber Plan to build an expressway through the city, the Canadian National’s Renfrew Subdivision was the ideal choice. It was an 80-foot wide right-of-way through the heart of the city, but it was already beginning to see diminished traffic. The predecessor to the National Capital Commission bought the land from CN and began acquiring additional properties to expand the right-of-way’s width to 180 feet in order to accommodate the highway.

This all took place quickly. The Greber Plan to remake Ottawa was unveiled in 1950. CN operated its final trains on the old Renfrew Subdivision in 1952 and the old right of way through Ottawa was lifted in 1953.

Before the Greber Plan began to take effect, CN had several rail yards in the core of the city, including its Bank and Elgin Street yard, which stretched from Bank Street all the way to the Rideau Canal (see above image). CN also had a rail yard along the Rideau Canal, which served the old Union Station in downtown Ottawa, and an engine roundhouse on Mann Avenue.

This undated photo from the Canada Science and Technology Museum archives only states that this is one of the earliest shots of the Walkley Yard. The heavyweight coaches, early SW switchers and numerous wooden cabooses give you an idea of the era. Note the absence of any development around the rail yard, which was then on the fringes of Ottawa.

With the rationalization of railway lines throughout Ottawa, there was a need to centralize this function and so Walkley Yard was created in a rural area south of the city.

An interesting fact about Walkley Yard. The yard is not all that close to the road for which it is named. When the yard was built, there was no development between Walkley Road and the yard, but over the last half century plus, development has surrounded the yard on all sides. A railfan coming to Ottawa for the first time would be hard pressed to find it, since it is not all that accessible, except via the end of Albion Road and via Conroy Road on its eastern fringe. Housing development surrounds the yard on its north and south sides.

A UP hopper car sits on the Rideau Bulk transloading spur in Walkley Yard. Note the proximity of housing on the yard's south side.

Another interesting fact about Walkley Yard. This is one of the few yards in Canada that can lay claim to serving four railways over its lifespan. Obviously, the yard was built by CN, although its rival Canadian Pacific did not choose to locate its operations there until 1967, when it abandoned its Ottawa West railyard at what is now known as Bayview. CN and CP shared the yard, with CN using the south tracks and CP using the north tracks. This was a year after CP and CN also left Union Station in downtown Ottawa and began to route their passenger trains through the new Central Station on Tremblay Road, just east of the downtown.

An early shot of CP's operations at Walkley Yard in 1971. Note the old maroon and red scheme on the Alco switchers. This is the north side of Walkley Yard. Canada Science and Technology Museum image.

These two railways used Walkley Yard until 1997 when CP discontinued operations in the region as its last customers across the river in Hull dried up and the Ellwood/Prescott Subdivision was discontinued. A year later, CN sold off its railway operations in Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley to the Ottawa Central Railway, which operated between Pembroke and Coteau, along the Beachburg Subdivision and the Alexandria Subdivision.

Two old OCR warhorses at Walkley Yard. Photo print courtesy of Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure, although Eric was quick to point out he didn't actually take the shot. Maybe it's better to say it's from the Eric Gagnon collection?

CN reacquired the OCR and resumed operations in the region in 2008, albeit on a much smaller system.

Summer 2015 shot of Walkley Yard with cars set out for a run to Ivaco Steel in L'Orignal

The fourth railway to use Walkley Yard is the Capital Railway, otherwise known as OC Transpo’s O-Train. This yard has been used by the Capital Railway since commuter service was launched on CR’s Ellwood Subdivision in 2001. That line is publicly known as the Trillium Line. In addition to storing its Alstom diesel trainsets at Walkley overnight, CR also uses this yard as a maintenance facility.

The old and the new: The Capital Railway's new Alstom trainset sits next to an older Bombardier Talent trainset in the summer of 2013.

What's next for the yard? Well, its northern half is largely empty and the activity here is pretty sparse. It's a sad site for a railfan, but the yard has played a major role in Ottawa's railway history. For years, it hosted transcontinental freights from the Beachburg and Alexandria Subs, when they comprised part of CN's former northern transcontinental main line.

A triple header freight rests at Walkley Yard in 1972. Canada Science and Technology Museum image.

Given how CN has downsized its operations in Eastern Ontario, including the scrapping of the Beachburg Sub from Pembroke to Nepean Junction, it's likely that Walkley Yard will never again play a role as important as its role in decades past. Still, it's an important piece of Ottawa's railway history. That's something to celebrate.

Postscript: There was a conversation recently on the Eastern Ontario Rails Facebook group about the extension of Albion Road, which lines the south side of Walkley Yard. There have been questions about whether this road is in fact fair game for railfans or private property. The access road serves Rideau Bulk facilities, but signs do remind people that the yard is private property. I have used this access road in the past but am now of the opinion that this road is a private road. I no longer use it and would remind any local railfan to steer clear. Railways are very serious about security and it's not worth the trouble. Besides, there is so little happening here, it's more worthwhile to focus on more active operations.

Revisionist History

Ottawans have always had a certain amount of antipathy for the National Capital Commission, but it wasn't until recently that I began to understand how deep this antagonism seems to run through the capital. I was on a treasure hunt last week, hunting for old photos in the newly redesigned Library and Archives Canada online photo archive as well as the City of Ottawa's historic photo gallery. This search led me down some interesting alleys and left me with a different impression of the city.

Most notably, I came away with the impression that, despite efforts to bury Ottawa's railway history, longtime residents have continued to embrace the city's railway past.

The photo below is part of the City of Ottawa's online archives. CP F-unit 1428 leads a 1958 royal train carrying Princess Margaret in 1958. The train is set out in the former train yard behind Ottawa's downtown Union Station, along the Rideau Canal. The building, which still stands, remains a subject of fascination for Ottawa residents, not to mention a source of frustration.

Readers of this blog know the story of Ottawa's Union Station and its demise as a rail station in 1966, due to a decision by the National Capital Commission to lift rails from central Ottawa. The photo below shows the station in its heyday (photo is from the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology), as a focal point in Ottawa's core. It seems strange today that a city like Ottawa would have this gem of a station in its core, which is off limits to the public and used strictly for government conferences. The building is officially known as the Government Conference Centre, but as I learned searching through some Facebook pages and other historical discussion groups, people who know Ottawa's history loathe the official name of this building and still call it Union Station. They also resent the fact that the government took off the dome atop this building to make way for a penthouse level of offices. This added level really seems out of place on the building.

I also noticed quite a few comments in the discussion groups that question the decision to remove the passenger service to the core. Clearly, these people are my kind of people! Although, I do have to say that having a triple track next to Majors Hill Park, across from the Bytown Locks (lower left) and Parliament Hill is a bit of overkill, especially today. This undated photo below shows the approach to the Alexandra Bridge, which is now a main artery for cars.

The great tragedy of the downtown train station seems to be the continuing efforts by the federal government to keep this building off limits to locals and to downplay its magnificent history. Anyone who has walked around this building will only find a tiny hint of its past in the form of a small plaque overlooking the canal. Try as we might, we can't escape the fact that Ottawa was once a very different city that had a more pronounced industrial character.

The shot (below), which seems fitting this week, shows how the Rideau Canal was used as a snow dump for the downtown rail yards. The shot below is an undated shot from the national archives, but it's a safe bet that it was taken in the 1930s-40s, judging by the vintage of the passenger coaches and wooden boxcars (to the right). This yard is now part of a scenic parkway called Colonel By Drive. The lands to the right are part of a mini expressway and bus route called Nicholas Street, which basically empties traffic off of Highway 417 (The Queensway to locals) into the core. Beyond Nicholas, you will find the University of Ottawa campus. I personally believe having this expressway to and from a 400 series highway in not much of an improvement.

One of the unintended consequences of pulling up the rails from Ottawa's core was the stress it placed on downtown roads and the interprovincial bridges. This decision contributed to an inundation of truck traffic on key downtown streets, like Rideau Street. This has been a longstanding problem for the city, with no relief in site.

One of the funnier discussions I came across concerned some promotional literature for Ottawa's current train station, which was opened in 1966. The building won architecture awards and it really is an interesting structure, to give it its due. However, I found it funny that some effort was made in 1966 to dub this station as Ottawa's new "Union Station," as it served both CP and CN. From the discussion boards I read, I gather that this attempt at branding was a dismal failure. The name never caught on. Today, most people know of only one Union Station in Ottawa and it's not here. And what is Ottawa's train station known as exactly? Some names list it as the Central Railway Station, but the station isn't exactly central, so that name is also dubious. Most just call it the train station.

One thing is certain. Those who know Ottawa know this will always be the Union Station.

I find it interesting that, despite the best efforts of the NCC and federal officials to gloss over a piece of Ottawa's history, local residents have refused to buy into it. Like I said, these are my people.

Programming note: The Beachburg Sub will be taking a short break on a passing siding as I will be on vacation for the next few weeks. Expect some southern railroading content to come!