Updated: The CP transcontinentals stir up young dreams in the 1950s

After hearing so many stories of life in rural Northern Ontario from my father, you'd think I'd get sick of them. But I don't. 

(Note: There was some confusion and errors on my part about what power pulled the transcons for CP in the 1950s and 1960s. Thanks to Eric Gagnon for setting me straight! That's why I ask the experts.) 

He told me a story the other day of growing up in Chapleau, Ont., where his father (my grandfather) worked as a rolling stock mechanic for the Canadian Pacific. My dad recently took the Canadian across Canada, allowing him to fulfill a childhood dream. He relayed to me a story after his trip, saying he used to enjoy watching the passenger trains go through his town when he was young, including the transcontinentals.

He recalls my grandmother telling him: "Those trains are for rich people." I think it might have been her gentle way of tempering his young dreams a bit, as my father was one of six children who grew up in a modest working-class household. Even though my grandfather had an employee's rail pass for the Canadian Pacific system, I doubt it would have been accepted for the premier transcontinental trains.

Above is a scanned image of a postcard I have in my collection of CP's early Canadian advertisements. I have this poster on the wall of my home office, where I spend my workday and where the Beachburg Sub takes shape. 

But I was curious about my dad's recollection. What train was it that he saw that ignited his imagination? The Canadian was launched in 1955 by the Canadian Pacific as the only streamlined transcontinental train across Canada with dome observation cars. CN's Super Continental could not boast the streamlined coaches or domes when it launched at the same time. 

Checking the CP Public Timetable from 1956, the westbound Canadian didn't arrive in Chapleau until 4:25 a.m., which means this was not the train my dad saw. However, the eastbound Canadian arrived in Chapleau at 7:21 a.m.*, which makes it possible that this is what my dad saw. 

(* - The timetable lists two separate arrival times for this train, the other arrival time being 7:06 a.m.) 

It should be noted that CP operated the Canadian from two starting points on its eastern flank at this time. One section operated from Montreal's Windsor Station, where it would make its way west via Ottawa, Carleton Place, Pembroke, Chalk River and through to Sudbury, where it would then be combined with the separate Toronto section of the train, which originated from Union Station in downtown Toronto. The Montreal section of the Canadian was Train 1 westbound while the Toronto section was Train 11. The eastbound return sections of the train, which were split at Sudbury, were Train 2 to Montreal and Train 12 to Toronto.

Postcard image of both CN's Super Continental and CP's Canadian at Ottawa's railway station in 1971. Both launched in the mid-1950s, these two transcontinental trains originated in Montreal, although CP also had another section of its Canadian that originated in Toronto (postcard courtesy of Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure). 

This image, above, is of the Canadian circa 1968 at Carleton Place, Ont., west of Ottawa. By this time, the train could have been fully transitioned to its CP Rail action red scheme, from its original maroon and yellow trim. However, I am reasonably sure that this was likely the style of Canadian that my dad would have seen in the late 1950s and early 1960s going through Chapleau. Photo is courtesy of the Canada Science and Technology Museum online archives.

There's another layer to this story from my dad. Was it really the Canadian that had him dreaming as a young boy? After all, the Canadian Pacific also had another transcontinental train, the Dominion, that made its way through Chapleau at the same time. 

Unlike the Canadian in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Dominion was not a fully equipped streamliner. It was CP's second premier cross-Canada train, having begun operations in 1931 as a summer special before becoming a regular fixture in the timetable. This train itself was the successor to CP's first transcontinental train, the Imperial. 

Like its sister transcon, the Dominion also operated in two sections east of Sudbury, one originating in Montreal and the other from Toronto's Union Station. The Montreal section was added shortly after the train first began operations from Toronto.

Looking at CP's 1956 schedule, this train was clearly the forgotten stepchild once the Canadian was introduced. Its slower schedule meant it was significantly shortened after 1955, as its express mail business was shifted to fast freight trains and the speedier Canadian. The concept for the Dominion changed from a true transcontinental train to a train that provided local service across the continent. It seems as though its mission switched to being a local train that people would take to various points all along its run from the east to Vancouver. It soldiered on until 1966, when it was officially discontinued. In 1967, a version of the train was retained to take people to and from Montreal for the Centennial Expo.

But for my purposes, I am interested in when it made its way through Chapleau. Looking at the same CP timetable from 1956, the westbound Dominion arrived in town at 11:55 a.m while the eastbound arrived at 5 p.m.

This, to me, is proof that my dad likely saw the Dominion coming through town, and not the Canadian. Still, to a young boy, I would imagine either train would have been fairly impressive in the late 1950s and early 1960s. At a time when both CP and CN were seeing the last of steam, the steamlined transcons, likely pulled by sleek diesel units, would have been a modern marvel.

I'm assuming that, since the Canadian was all sleek and modern when introduced in 1955, the Dominion was still very much a product of earlier passenger rail cars, like this.

An example of Canadian Pacific's older passenger equipment that would have seen use on its transcontinental train, the Dominon, when the Canadian was introduced in 1955. This car was part of CP's Holiday Train in 2017, here making a stop in Finch, Ont.

The other question that comes to mind when considering my dad's story is what pulled the Dominion in the mid- to late-1950s? Thanks to Eric Gagnon of Trackside Treasure, I can confirm that this train was usually pulled by General Motors FP units in an A-B-A arrangement. The same was true for the Canadian. Here's an explanation from Eric:

The FPs (ordered by CP as dual service Freight/Passenger) were needed for the steam generators on the Canadian. They were four feet longer than Fs, due to the steam generator in the carbody. CP ordered eleven new FP9As, 1405-1415, and eight F9Bs, 1900-1907, for the Canadian. It also renumbered five FP7As (4099-4103) to 1400-1404. These FP7s had been purchased in early 1953 and had served on passenger and freight trains in southern Ontario. In dual service, they were geared for 77 mph. When dedicated to the Canadian, they were re-geared to 89 mph, the same as the FP9As.

 

 

This is an example of the type of locomotive that sometimes pulled the Dominion in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Photos of the Canadian show it being pulled by FP units almost exclusively. Photo is courtesy of the Canada Science and Technology Museum online archives.

What's interesting is that, in my searches, I found several images of PA units like this one above pulling the Dominion. This was clearly not the norm, judging by the images available of CP's transcons at the time.  

In sifting through some images from the 1950s in books, which I cannot not reproduce here, I did find one image of the Dominion making its way along the Lake Superior route in 1951. That train, pulled by a steam engine, had six coaches of some sort (possibly a sleeper or dining car, although there's no way to tell from the image), two baggage cars and four mail express cars. 

In the same book, I found another image of a passenger train with both streamlined silver and older red passenger cars intermixed. The shot shows the tail end of the train, with a curved observation car with the Dominion markers attached to the back of the train. This image looks like it was taken much later, but there is no way of knowing what train it is from the information in the book. It seems to me it is not the Dominion, which by all accounts was a short train after 1955. Maybe it was an expanded version of the train that served the demand for people going to Montreal's Expo 67.

But, in seeing this photo of the mix of older and newer CP passenger cars together, once again my research jived with information provided by Eric. Even in the 1960s, when the Dominion's status was very much in limbo, the consist of this train was very much a regular mix of older and newer passenger equipment, depending on when you caught the train. The train would look different depending on where it was at in its journey, with cars added on, depending on the needs of where it was geographically. 

All this to say, would a train like the Dominion, which was far removed from its peak, be enough to capture the imagination of a young boy in Chapleau in the 1950s? Maybe. 

Guest post: Ride the Algoma Central Railway while you can (Part II)

This is the second part of a series about Beachburg Sub contributor Dave M.'s adventures aboard the Algoma Central's passenger trains in Northern Ontario. Please click here to read the first part.

By Dave M

In the morning, we tried to go standby on the tourist excursion train so that we could have some time to hike around the Agawa Canyon before continuing on the local passenger service. Unfortunately, staff said that all 15-20 cars were full, so we were unable to get on. We then proceeded to the yard to catch the regular passenger train back. The train had around 30 people aboard when departing Sault Ste. Marie. Before we got moving, people from a group trying to save the service handed out petition postcards and explained the importance of the line to each passenger. I noticed that some statistics that said the line is responsible for $35 to $48 million in direct and indirect economic activity and that $2.2 million would be required to keep the passenger service alive a year. Everyone boarding the train gladly filled out the surveys.

Interior of an Algoma Central baggage car

An hour or two into the trip, the train stopped at a lodge along the line and picked up a film crew of 15 people, along with several canoes, camera equipment, generators and other items. Many hands helped load and fill up the baggage car. It took around 5 to 10 minutes to load everything. They stayed on the train for about half an hour or so until they reached the canyon. The crew was filming Spirit Land: In Search of the Group of Seven. They were very excited about the footage they shot, shooting at some of the exact locations where the artists made their paintings. When they arrived at the canyon, they unloaded all of their stuff and started moving into a modified box car/sleeping car on a siding. The scenery between the Montreal River and Agawa was very good, especially with the fall colours. When we departed the train at Mile 183, there were only six people remaining on the train, which was going through to Hearst.

Typical scenery on the Algoma Central line

After spending the night in Dubreuilville, we got up early to catch the train at Mile 77.9 on the White River Sub. I knew that there was a hotbox detector at Mile 84.9 (on the far side of Franz), so I tuned the scanner to get a heads-up on when the train would arrive. I didn't catch the detector but I did hear Via 186 and CTC discussing an oncoming freight. Sure enough, in about five minutes, we saw the freight (above). And five minutes after that, we flagged down Via 186. When we boarded the train, there was only one other person aboard. It was a very smooth ride on CPR's continuous welded track, a big improvement over the jointed rail of the ACR.

Typical site aboard Via Rail's Northern Ontario service. Harder than it looks!

 

The journey back was much busier. We picked up several fishermen and hunters with their canoes. There was an exciting stop where we picked up an ATV. The owner of the ATV made metal tracks so that he could drive the machine onto the train. Driving the ATV on was a bit more difficult than I thought it would have been. The man has to give it quite a bit of juice to get up the steep incline. He also had to be sure to duck so he didn't hit his head on the top of the baggage car doorframe. He then had to hit the brakes hard once he made it in. When we got to Cartier, he pulled his pickup truck beside the train and they lifted/pushed the ATV onto the truck. On our journey to Cartier, we picked up quite a few more passengers. But after Cartier, there were less than 10 of us left.

 

Just outside of Cartier on the Nemegos Sub at Forks, we pulled into a siding and then a mainline freight stopped, occupying the switch we were to pass over. The detector at Mile 23.2 had flagged a heat alarm on the freight train. The Via staff then went out to inspect the CP train to help find the problem. The freight was more than 50 cars long. They found the problem five cars from where we stopped. The Via engineers addressed the problem (which I think was a brake issue) allowing the CP freight to continue along, which also cleared our path.

 

We arrived in Sudbury a few minutes ahead of schedule. I am unsure how long this punctuality will last because CP has recently rescheduled a slow freight train (the reason for the recent schedule in the first place) to depart before Via 186. We were lucky on our trip because CTC allowed us to pass the slow freight train when we were both sent to a siding to allow CP 101 to pass. Let's hope that the goodwill of the CP CTC will continue to allow Via's Lake Superior service to be on time.

 

 

Based on my discussions during my trip, I don't think that Via's Lake Superior service is in danger of being lost, but I'm fearful for the future of the Algoma Central passenger service. There are two ways that we can help the ACR. The first is to write a letter to the federal Minister of Transportation in support of this service. The second, and most fun way, to show your support is by using the service.

 

Special thanks to Dave M. for this extensive look at passenger services in Northern Ontario. Please feel free to leave a comment and let Dave know what you think - Michael



Guest post: Ride the Algoma Central Railway while you can (Part I)

By Dave M

In late 2012, we lost Ontario Northland's The Northlander, from Toronto to Cochrane. I still kick myself to this day for never having ridden it. In early March 2014, I found out that the Algoma Central Railway passenger service was to be cut. I feared that I had lost another train that I didn't make the time to ride. Thankfully, the Algoma Central received a one-year reprieve. When the extension was given, I told myself I would make time to ride it before I lost this train as well.

My original intent was to ride the line from end to end. But after some analysis, the following itinerary was much easier:

Thursday
[3:00-8:30] Drive from Ottawa to Sudbury
[9:00-15:50] Via 185 from Sudbury to Franz (Mile 77.9)
[Hotel] Dubreuiville

Friday
[11:30-18:10] ACR 632 from Dubreuilville (Mile 183.0) to Sault Ste. Marie
[Hotel] Sault Ste. Marie

Saturday
[9:20-15:50] ACR 631 from Sault Ste. Marie to Dubreuilville (Mile 183.)
[Hotel] Dubreuilville

Sunday
[8:20-15:50] Via 186 from Franz (Mile 77.9) to Sudbury
[16:00-21:30] Drive from Sudbury to Ottawa

VIA RAIL 185

The first train, Via 185 (Via 6250/RDC-4 and Via 6217/RDC-2) was in good shape compared to the last time I took it in 2007. The refurb from Industrial Rail Services of New Brunswick looked great.

The controls of Via 6250

The interior of Via 6217

We departed Sudbury on time with about 10 passengers. In Chelmsford, we picked up a couple more. Half of the passengers were going to camps (some with canoes) along the line while the others were going to Cartier and Chapleau. Only one person was travelling the length of the line to White River.

Via recently took over full operations on Via 185 and 186 (Lake Superior) from the Canadian Pacific. At the same time, the eastward schedule was modified to have it leave a couple of hours early to get it ahead of a slow freight train. Before the schedule changes, the train was typically three to four hours late arriving at Sudbury. After talking with the crew and passengers on this trip, it was apparent that these schedule changes significantly improved the train's punctuality. Many of the regular passengers commented to the staff that they appreciated this new punctuality. I can understand their appreciation since many of the stops were flag stops and would be miserable places to wait for hours in bad weather.

Sinker Creek: Nor your standard Via station

After Chapleau, there was only us only one other passenger on the train. Originally, I had planned to get off at Franz, but the hotel we were staying at advised us that the road from Franz to Dubreuilville was in very poor condition and suggested we get off a few miles before Franz at Park Road (Mile 77.9) because that road is in better condition. We arrived at our stop (Park Road) five minutes early and spent the night in Dubreuilville.

Via Rail 185 at Mile 77.9 Park Road

ACR 632

Our ACR boarding was a true flag stop. We went to where the gold mine road crosses the ACR tracks at Mile 183 on the Soo subdivision to catch the train. Unfortunately, they were expecting us a couple of miles earlier, behind an old mill. The train was travelling at a reasonable speed when we flagged them down. As we were flagging them down, I heard the crew on the scanner say "That is where they are. Stopping. Open door on the right." The consist of the train was CN GP40 9574, AC 312 luggage car (Budd), AC 5654, 5656 coaches (Budd) and AC 78 generator car (Alco). When we boarded, there were about 15 people on the train. About an hour later, we arrived at Hawk Junction. Just about everyone departed the train except for us and five others.

Interior of ACR 5654

After we left Hawk Junction, we didn't stop to pick up or drop off any other passengers. All parts of the train were open to everyone, allowing us to wander around the baggage car and shoot pictures in the open air, out of doors and windows. It was a very nice feeling having your head out the window as you pass along this amazing scenery. The scenery is better than that on any train I've ridden in North America.

When we were about half an hour from our final destination, one of the train's staff went through the car to determine who needed taxis so that they would be there when we arrived. We arrived about 45 minutes behind schedule at the terminus in the ACR yard.

Thanks to Dave for sharing his photos and thoughts about this vital northern lifeline. Please come back next week for the second part of this post. Also, please take a moment to tell Dave what you thought - Michael



  

A photo mystery solved

The other day, my brother emailed me to tell me he took his son to the train yard in Sarnia for a few minutes as he was running errands. My nephew, not even three years old yet, is already a big train fan and is into Thomas the Tank Engine. My brother was kind enough to take a few shots of the trains he and his son were watching (I will share those in a future post). I mention this because it started me thinking of my father. My dad often used to take photos of trains for me. I have some great 1990s shots of the Goderich Exeter Railway, thanks to my dad.

I think, deep down, my dad is like me in that he likes the big machines. That is why I wasn't surprised when my brother emailed me this photo he found in the family archives recently. I had never seen this photo before. In fact, I didn't even know it existed until my brother sent it to me. Initially, my only solid conclusion about this photo was that my dad took it. I was glad to add this image to my collection, but it made me wonder where this was taken and when.

 

 

This is what I initially managed to figure out about this photo.

 

1. This is an Algoma Central Railway train, since CN took over the railway in 2001 as part of the Wisconsin Central purchase. That would mean this photo was taken post-2001.

 

2. The units leading this train, including CN 5714, are SD75Is, judging by other photos I found of 5714. However, the 2011 shot I found shows 5714 has been repainted at some point since this photo was taken.

 

3. The dome car following the locomotives is ex-Western Pacific 813, Silver Palace. This was one of the Budd-built streamliners of a similar vintage to Via's silver and blue cars. The car was purchased in 1999 by ACR's parent company. This site suggests the car, now called Spirit of Superior, retained its California Zephyr paint scheme until at least 2004, which clouds the timeframe a bit. Looking at the information available online, this car doesn't seem to have a number, as it is usually referred to by its former number.

 

4. Given that these units are pulling a dome car, it's a safe guess to say this train is the Agawa Canyon Tour train. I figured it was taken at the end of the line, at the canyon.

 

5. You can see two passengers reading a tourist sign in front of the engines, which would suggest it was taken in the canyon.

 

Earlier this week, I was able to solve the mystery behind this photo when my Dad confirmed to me that he did indeed ride the Agawa Canyon tourist train in the early 2000s, although he wasn't able to pinpoint exactly when.

 

Also, later on in the week, my sister sent along some photos she took when her family rode the same train on Aug. 15 this summer. Note the similarities between the two photos.

 

 

The only question that remains is when was the first photo taken. I place the timeline between 2001-2005. It depends on when the old Zephyr cars were repainted in ACR colours. Anyone out there know the answer?