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.

It's not the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)

The summer of my not-so-amazing luck continues, but before I get into some new content (finally have some new meets and pics to share!), I wanted to touch on something that seems to be top of mind here in Eastern Ontario and Ottawa these days.

No, it's not the perpetually awful O-Train.

It's the fate of freight railways in the capital. In case you've been living under a rock, you know that CN has filed to discontinue service on the former Ottawa Central in this region. It doesn't come as a surprise to me, since this is hardly a strategic or important operation for this railway.

But I do want to remind you of a few things. You might recall (or you might not) that the former head of the Ottawa Central told this blog that he thought there was a good opportunity for a short line to resume operations in the city. This is not a railfan offering his opinion. This is the guy who successfully operated OCR in this region for years, before a recession forced the hand of OCR's parent company.

Here's another item to consider. Closer to my hometown, there is a significant portion of the old CSX Sarnia Subdivision, which has been dormant for several years. The railways wanted to pull up the line, but the Municipality of Chatham-Kent bought the rails in its territory to try and salvage an important freight link for its businesses and farmers. The prospects of a new operation were dim for years. At one point, Ontario Southland considered the operation, but backed away.

Well, lo and behold, a company has indeed purchased the line with the intention of operating a short line, mainly for rural customers along the line. I mention this because I see the CN operation here in Ottawa as very much the same type of short line. It has a limited customer base, but the beautiful part is, there seems to be very little overhead, compared to what OCR had to shoulder when it operated here. And who knows what a company focused on carload business can do when it has feet on the ground in the city who are solely focused on small customers?

So, I will say once again that this is not the end of freight railways in Ottawa. Not yet, anyway.

City of Ottawa looking to acquire CN's remaining Ottawa trackage

Here's a breath of fresh air if you are a long suffering railfan or rail advocate in Ottawa. According to the Capital Current, the city is actually in talks with CN to purchase the small pieces of trackage it still owns in the city, which includes the tracks in and around Walkley Yard and the Beachburg Subdivision leading up to the old Nepean Junction. 

The story notes that the talks are very preliminary but are a priority since the old CN line roughly parallels Hunt Club Road through numerous large subdivisions in the southern portion of the old City of Ottawa and in the western suburbs of Nepean. The story also notes that the talks will likely pick up once the discontinuance of service is made official and the line is offficially on the block.

The story itself has some curious statements. A city official told the Current that the city already owns the Renfrew, Carleton Place and Prescott trackage. But, back up a bit and that statement doesn't make a lot of sense. 

Yes, the city owns the land for the Renfrew Spur, although not the actual tracks, which are owned by Nylene Canada in Arnprior. The city may "own" the Carleton Place trackage, but that is also a misleading statement, since no part of the old Carleton Place Sub is intact anymore. The last little bit in Bells Corners was ripped out to make way for a suburban street that will lead to an infill residential development near the Bellwood trailer park community. And the rest of the old right-of-way is now a recreational trail through parts of southern Kanata and the older part of Stittsville. The Prescott trackage, the remnants of the old CP Prescott Sub, are being transformed into an extention of the O-Train Trillium Line leading to the Ottawa airport and the Riverside South community. The trackage was still used occasionally to spot cars at the NRC research facility near the airport. Beyond that, the line was ripped up.

The story does point out that a government would be able to buy the rails at the salvage rate, rather than the going commercial rate. This is also a statement worth examining, because there was a great deal of controversy when the Pontiac municipality in Quebec desperately tried to salvage the old CN tracks within its boundaries, but found that the railway's idea of "salvage" rate was exorbitant.In other words, the municipality thought the price was set far too high, as a way to lift the rails and use them elsewhere on the CN system.

I have to ask, if securing these tracks was such a priority for the city, where were city officials several years ago when a portion of the Beachburg Sub leading into North Kanata and beyond to Fitzroy Harbour was torn up? What a waste of an opportunity to connect Kanata via rails to the rest of the city. As it stands now, Kanata will have to wait for Stage 3 to get light rail while much of the rest of the city (Orleans, Blackburn Hamlet, Westboro, Riverside South, Crystal Beach, Bells Corners, Algonquin College, parts of Nepean) will have rails within close proximity when Phase 2 is complete. 

If I lived in Kanata, I would find that utterly unacceptable.

Councillor Shawn Menard did say that, "it is the city's intention to acquire these lands." I just hope that means for rail purposes. As we know all too well, once the rails are gone, they're gone.

That raises the next question of what will happen to the remaining freight services in the city and Eastern Ontario. CN is clearly checking out of the region. I wonder if that means that someone like James Allen from the old Ottawa Central is looking at starting a scaled-down freight short line operation in the city that would provide freight services in off hours under a running rights scenario with the city. I also have to wonder if such an operation would even be worthwhile.

Although, it's important to remember that a short line could very well reach out and attract new business, since they are much better equipped to run this type of operation, compared to CN.

Any freight operation would require some cooperation with the city since the rails would have to accommodate both standard freight trains and light rail operations.

I suppose we can at least be content for the moment that the city is actually doing something constructive for once. In my opinion, they should have been taking this approach years ago, but what's done is done. Let's just hope that there might be railfanning worth pursuing in this city in the years to come.

The Final Days of CN's Northern Transcon

The end of the last remnants of CN’s Northern Transcontinental began with a closure of the Smurfit-Stone plant in Portage-du-Fort, Quebec, in the Pontiac Region. The mill closed in 2008, putting 200 people out of work. At one point, the mill employed more than 400 in the Pontiac and neighbouring Renfrew County in Ontario.

By 2008, the Beachburg Sub was essentially a sparsely used Upper Ottawa Valley rail line that served what few local businesses still required rail service. Ottawa Central Railway operated over the old transcon, but the economic recession was in full swing in 2008 and hit the short line hard. The customers along the old sub began to disappear. The Smurfit Stone plant was essentially the last remaining major customer and the rail line’s raison d’etre.

The end was nigh for the OCR as the short line struggled to cope with the impact the recession had on what little heavy industry remained in the Valley and in Ottawa. Just days after the mill announced its closure in October, OCR announced that CN would reacquire all of its former Ottawa-area properties from the company that owned OCR. That deal included the 156 kilometres of rails between Ottawa and Pembroke, not to mention the 40 plus kilometres between Glen Robertson and Hawkesbury that was once the Ottawa-L’Orignal Railway (purchased by OCR’s parent company).

It wasn’t long before the Beachburg Sub north of Nepean Junction was essentially deemed out of service and put on the chopping block. But the battle that ensued for the rail line meant that the old transcon hung on a lot longer than CN likely wanted.

The governments of Renfew County and the Pontiac fought to keep the old Beachburg Sub in the ensuing years. The first move was to organize an entity called Transport Pontiac Renfrew, which was aimed at retaining the rail line and finding a new operator for it, not to mention new uses including commuter rail.

OCR co-operated with TPR and ran a special Rail Day commuter train up the Ottawa Valley line, just before CN took over. The double ender included two classic CN coaches painted in the railway’s olive green scheme, with an old OCR MLW warhorse on each end, like these beauties below.

That initiative generated some interest in the media and goodwill. There was an appealing element to having a solid commuter option for residents of the Upper Ottawa Valley who might travel into Ottawa and Gatineau for work.

In the midst of this goodwill in the months and years that followed, Renfrew and Pontiac struggled to come to any agreement with Canadian National on a deal that would save the line and help their municipalities find a new operator.

It wasn’t until 2009 that it was revealed in the media that James Allen, the former general manager of the OCR, was in fact working closely with TPR to come up with a workable plan to move freight and establish some sort of long-term commuter vision for the Beachburg Sub.

I was lucky enough to be that reporter who broke the story in the now defunct OpenFile.ca. At the time, what James Allen told me was a real departure from the dismissive or ambivalent attitude most people have toward railways in the city.

Allen pointed out that the Trebio wood pellet plant in the Pontiac was interested in rail service. He estimated that the plant would form the basis for upwards of 800 carloads a year. It wasn’t a huge number by any means, but it was a decent start.

Allen told me that the Trebio plant was the anchor in a strategy to develop a rail-serviced industrial park in the Pontiac. What was even more surprising was TPR’s plans to launch some form of commuter service over the old sub as well as tourist and recreational trains up the Valley. It all seemed very positive for Pontiac and Renfrew, two areas that are far too remote to attract large-scale economic development opportunities without this mode of transportation.

Unfortunately, not long after I wrote that article, which was not surprisingly dismissed locally, the deal to buy the Beachburg Subdivision fell through. That ended all reasonable hopes for the line to be saved. Depending on who you ask, there are various reasons why the line was ultimately killed. The biggest reason was likely cost. Politicians in the Pontiac claimed that CN had set the sale price well beyond the reach of Renfrew and Pontiac. In other words, it was priced far beyond the scrap value of the line.

Surprisingly, the Pontiac region fought on for several more years, even without any reasonable hope of success. The region’s tactic was to pass a local bylaw essentially designating the railway land as a key transportation corridor, which prevented any dismantling. The province of Quebec signed off on the bylaw, but CN fought the move in a higher court and won.

In fall of 2013, the last stretch of CN’s Northern Transcontinental route was pulled up from Pembroke to the Pontiac region, but the work was stalled when the region barricaded the tracks, preventing CN crews on a CWR maintenance of way train from stripping the rails. That stand-off was short lived.

There was one last-ditch effort to enlist the help of the City of Ottawa, since the Beachburg Sub still connected Fitzroy Harbour, in Ottawa’s northwestern boundary, to Nepean Junction, near Bells Corners. The efforts included enlisting the help of the city’s councillor for Kanata North and for West Carleton, the ridings where the rail line’s removal would happen.

Predictably, those efforts went nowhere as the city maintained that it was only interested in the land upon which the tracks sat, for possibly future use as a multi-use recreational trail.

That meant that the CWR train made its way into West Carleton and stripped the rails from much of the line, although various scraps were kept in place at level crossings, including one in Dunrobin, which meant motorists still saw disconnected crossing signals for a rail line that no longer existed.

By spring 2014, the line was completely dismantled all the way to Nepean Junction. Not long after the last train rolled through with the last bits of useable rail, the switch was removed at Nepean. The last little bit of the Beachburg Sub from Federal to Nepean Junction was then directly connected with the Nylene Canada-owned Renfrew Spur.

Today, as CN looks to leave the Ottawa region once more, the rails in the west end of the city continue to exist with a large question mark hanging over them. When CN first proposed discontinuing service to Arnprior, it was Nylene Canada's predecessor BASF that put the wheels in motion to purchase the tracks and continue service. That arrangement continues today, mainly because the company cannot find a way to economically receive what it needs by trucks. The main reason why rail service continues is because the chemical it needs, caprolactum, can only be transported via a specially insulated tank car. As it stands now, there is no way to have the same amount of this product delivered via truck at a comparable cost.

For what few rail enthusiasts there are left in west Ottawa, the question of what any future rail operator will do about Nylene Canada is a big one. There's also the larger question of who will step up to provide rail service in Ottawa when CN eventually leaves?

It's not a great time to be a railfan in west Ottawa, but that could change in an instant if a short line operator with a vision and a much better understanding of a carload freight based business model steps in to save the rails.

And, coincidentally, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if a revitalized freight railway could take a few trucks off our congested Queensway.

It's interesting that, in a city that struggles to cope with congestion and the onslaught of truck traffic in older neighbourhoods, a simple solution of encouraging a short line railway would go a long way to clearing the air. For Ottawa in particular, encouraging less congestion, especially downtown, is almost an economic necessity since it has a huge impact on the tourist experience. You would think that someone in charge would figure out what a benefit it is to have a healthy freight railway in a city of nearly 1 million people.

CN leaving Ottawa? A look at the possible scenarios

As several local rail enthusiasts have noted in recent weeks, Canadian National has listed all of its Ottawa-related trackage on its three-year abandonment list. That includes the entire Alexandria Sub, the section of the Smiths Falls Sub where is operates with running rights from Via Rail, one mile of the old M&O, its Vankleek Spur, L’Orignal Spur, its connections to Walkley Yard and the last remnants of the Beachburg Sub.

Here's a link to the CN page, where you can find the PDF report.

What does this mean? Well, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen, but it’s obvious that CN no longer wants to foot the bill to maintain what little trackage it does own in the Ottawa area, not to mention in Eastern Ontario (not including its Kingston Subdivision main line through Prescott).

There are many possible scenarios and consequences at play here, depending on what does happen. No doubt, CN will argue its operations in this area are no longer viable to its bottom line, which is probably fairly accurate, given the scale of the operation and the massive overall structure of the company itself.

This is how I see it, from my limited knowledge of CN and railways in general.

1. CN will sell what little trackage it owns on the Alexandria Sub/Smiths Falls Sub corridor to Via Rail. There is no question this will happen. On its abandonment list, it’s not clear to me if CN owns any of this trackage anymore. Someone with more information than me can fill me in. It is listed with an operating rights designation, which likely means it's not theirs.

2. Depending on what’s left to be sold off and what CN still owns in the city, is there a chance CN would continue operating freight services here on a strict running-rights basis? I don’t think so, but I’m raising the point for someone who knows more than me. If CN doesn't own much of anything, it would make no sense to continue on a running rights basis.

3. The opportunity for a new shortline railway to take over CN’s operation is now very real. For this, I reached out to the former General Manager of the much loved Ottawa Central Railway, James Allen. This is what he told me via email: “Can a go be made to operate traffic from Arnprior, Ottawa and L'Orignal/Hawkesbury...I think so. However much due diligence is required.”

We can only hope that someone as professional as Mr. Allen would step in and refocus all local efforts from a more effective shortline mindset. Ottawa will never again be a freight railway hotbed. But, Ottawa Central’s success from 1998–2008 is proof that a freight railway can succeed here.

If CN does indeed pull out, the question becomes who steps in? Is there an existing shortline company or company along the lines of Genesee & Wyoming (G&W's Goderich-Exeter Railway seen below near Mitchell, Ont.) that would be interested in Ottawa? It all depends on what is actually left and what new business could possibly be attracted.

4. If a shortline does step in, then the question of what to do with Walkley Yard becomes a moot point. I’m guessing a number of interested parties would be watching this situation carefully, including OC Transpo, which uses a portion of the yard as maintenance facilities for its fleet of Alstom diesel light rail trainsets that ply the Trillium Line. That line, as you know, will be extended as part of the second phase of the city's LRT expansion.

5. This development causes another headache for one of CN’s sole remaining customers in the west end, Nylene Canada, in Arnprior. This company has stated in the past that it has to have its caprolactum delivered via insulated tank car, given the nature of the substance. Trucking is not an option. A shortline would no doubt continue its weekly deliveries to Arnprior, but the company must still be uneasy.

It’s hard to see CN’s pending departure from Ottawa as anything but inevitable. I once tended to agree with those who stated at the outset that CN was only interested in OCR for the scrap value of the Beachburg Sub from Nepean Junction to Pembroke. That’s a lot of rail, worth tens of millions of dollars that it was able to retrieve and use elsewhere on its system. And I’m not mentioning the other assorted pieces of track it has removed in the last several years in and around Ottawa.

But, given that CN has been operating in Ottawa for 10 years now that argument doesn’t seem to hold up. If the company was only interested in rails only, then why would it stay in Ottawa so long? Maybe the opposition from Renfrew County and the Pontiac Region in Quebec held up its plans for the Beachburg Sub longer than it would have liked. Maybe the OCR acquisition was something CN had to shoulder as part of its purchase of the entire Quebec Rail Corp. portfolio in 2008.

As a railfan and major proponent of regional commuter rail, I’m hopeful that a shortline operator can step in and make a profit here. From a very selfish point-of-view, it would great to see more than one train a week on the railway tracks going through my neighbourhood.

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.

Who killed the train in the Ottawa Valley?

These past few weeks have been frustrating for me as an Ottawa rail fan. I was twice able to leave the house early to try and catch the one weekly freight train that travels over this blog's namesake subdivision. Only to be disappointed.

As I spent time waiting for the train that never came, I began to wonder, are railways in any way relevant in the Ottawa Valley anymore? And who or what killed the train in this region? As I pondered those questions this week, I surprised myself with some of the conclusions I reached.

This deer was the only thing I saw on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 16, as I waited for the Arnprior local.

My first conclusion is that, despite everything that has happened since the 1950s, railways are still very much relevant in the Ottawa Valley, more specifically Ottawa, although the impact of the decisions in decades past are now being felt more than ever. What I mean is that trains, specifically passenger trains, could be relevant in the Valley, if the infrastructure was still in place. I won't wax on about the possibilities if the CN northern main line and CP Chalk River Sub were still in place. The reality is they are gone and for good reason. Rail lines need heavy industry trackside and other rail-friendly businesses in order to thrive. This, in turn, allows passenger lines to thrive by extension. The sad reality is globalization has killed many small-scale manufacturing businesses that were once common throughout Canada. Railways, specifically CN and CP, have become continental long-haul railways that do a good job moving imported goods from port to major centres, not to mention moving bulk commodities from their source to refineries and the market. These railways are not in business to provide local services on local spurs.

So, why do I think railways are still relevant in Ottawa? Well, it's clear that Via Rail is doing quite well in Ottawa, as evidenced by the opening of its second local passenger station, Fallowfield, in 2001. More recently, major track improvements have been made in the city, including a new passing siding at Wass. Via's local schedule of trains departing for and arriving from Toronto and Montreal is impressive. This is Via's third busiest hub. That says something.

Typical busy day at Ottawa's main railway station, April 2014.

The distance between Montreal and Ottawa is such that driving between these cities is no big deal. But the train still thrives between these cities because it is not all that convenient to drive to either city during rush hour and it's certainly not advisable to drive in either city's downtown core without a solid game plan.

This reminds me of European railways. They connect neighbouring cities where cars aren't always a feasible means of transportation. For this reason, Ottawa's passenger rail service will more than likely continue to be strong, government willing.

This leaves one question in my mind: What happened to the towns in the Valley that once had a reliable rail link? This is where I think you can make several arguments, but I think it's more easily explained by a chain of events. To be clear, the loss of passenger trains in the Valley isn't as cut and dried, or as romantic, as railfans would have you believe. It's simple economics. The rail lines in the Valley became less busy for freight railways, driven by the same economic factors that have hallowed out manufacturing towns in eastern North America for decades. In CN's case, a northern main line was overly expensive to maintain, particularly through stretches like Algonquin Park.

A CN freight train passes over a shoo-fly track near Moodie Drive in 1973. This rail line now hosts one round-trip per week (Canada Science and Technology Museum).

Once the freight railways lost business on lines like the Beachburg and Chalk River subs, passenger rail was in trouble. There were two reasons why these passenger trains have disappeared. The first reason is simple: passenger trains travel over CN and CP tracks at the whim of these freight railways. Once a line is redundant to a freight railway, Via's chances of keeping that route are slim. Ask those who fought to have that rail line in New Brunswick retained for Via's service there (happily, the line was retained, but not without lots of drama). More close to home, the Canadian travelled on CP's Carleton Place Sub only until CP decided it wasn't worth keeping that line around.

The second reason passenger trains have disappeared are closely tied to the first. When business dries up in these small towns, the very nature of these towns change. Unless these towns manage to reinvent themselves as tourist hotspots or in some other way, their economy suffers. The demand for rail travel diminishes as there are fewer reasons to go to these towns by train.

We can't overlook the obvious fact that passenger rail in small towns has also been affected by the development of bigger, better, safer highways, even in fairly remote areas in the upper Ottawa Valley. This was a continental trend, which has resulted in a number of problems in American cities where freeways have destroyed neighbourhoods and segmented cities. But for towns in the Valley, highway construction has become the main form of local transportation.

Finally, deregulation made it much easier for CN and CP to dispose of rail lines that were not profitable, including the Beachburg, Chalk River, Ellwood, Prescott and Lachute subdivisions, all lines that were once prominent in the region. Of course, this factor is not unique to Ottawa. Rail fans in every corner of the country can point to a line close to home that has since been abandoned. The complicating factor for rail fans is that the Canadian government does not have strong legislation that prevents railways from ripping up track when there is a compelling local case to be made for retaining those rails. For example, if the city wanted to save Beachburg for whatever reason but could not immediately afford the asking price, there would be little to stop CN from ripping up the track. The situation in the United States seems much easier for local groups who are interested in retaining rail lines.

All these factors have combined to make stops like Carleton Place, Almonte, Perth, Arnprior, Pembroke, Petawawa but a memory.

The question that I often have when I think of these old train stops is what do people do for a living in some of these more remote towns (Petawawa being the exception, everybody knows it's a military town)? The businesses close, the rails disappear but these towns persist. What keeps these towns alive? Some exist as bedroom communities for people who commute to Ottawa, but the others struggle. It's a question that I cannot answer.

CN Rapido service on the Beachburg Subdivision in 1972 (Canada Science and Technology Museum)

We cannot discount how much of an impact the Greber Plan has had in driving railways out of Ottawa. The plan, for those who might not know, was devised by what is now the National Capital Commission in the 1950s. The plan called for the removal of most railway lines from the central part of Ottawa. Most of those lines were removed in the late 1960s, including the main passenger line to Ottawa's former Union Station downtown. The beautification scheme mostly made sense, since there were too many rail lines in Ottawa, including a large rail yard where much of the University of Ottawa's more modern campus now sits. It makes no sense to have such a large railway presence and related industries so close to the Parliamentary precinct.

But, I truly believe anyone who is fair minded would agree that the plan went too far. Having a passenger rail link in Ottawa's downtown core makes more sense today than ever. Via still does quite well in this city. The value a railway brings to a city like Ottawa very much depends on its ability to deliver passengers to the downtown core. Railways understood this 100 years ago and Via understands this today. If you have to drive out to an airport on the edge of town, pay a king's ransom for parking or cab fare, arrive hours early to clear security and check your baggage and wait for your plane to take off after it taxis behind a string of other planes, you will begin to consider the train as a viable form of transportation.

Ottawa's main station is perched in no man's land, beside the Queensway, without an efficient link to the highway. On the station's back side is a massive big box store development (former railway land); on another side, a busy four lane divided arterial road; on another side a cluster of small-scale office buildings and shops. Just beyond that small industrial area is a small subdivision with streets named after the letters of the alphabet. You get the idea. Imagine if the city still had use of its Union Station downtown. Granted, it would infringe on parkland near the canal, but I have never understood how having a busy parkway on either side of the canal makes any more sense than having a single railway track.

As an example of a city where this arrangement works, allow me to submit for your consideration, Quebec City.

Quebec City's Via Rail Terminal in August 2010.

This station, much like Ottawa's old Union Station, is an architectural marvel very close to old Quebec. I would imagine if Ottawa had retained a rail connection along the lines of the one in Quebec, residents would come to appreciate having such a connection in the heart of their city. But the car-crazy 1960s beautification scheme that transformed Ottawa will never permit this to happen. And make no mistake, the Greber Plan was very much geared toward creating major car thoroughfares. Anyone who sees the truck traffic on Rideau Street or the patchwork quilt of roads and abandoned stores behind the Rideau Centre mall in the downtown can thank the Greber Plan in part for this mess.

Also, the existence of the Queensway and the Vanier Parkway are both largely thanks to the use of railway lands and tracks for roads. In many respects, these thoroughfares are a product of a time when highways were seen as a showpiece of a modern city. Just look at some of the original renderings of the Queensway and you will see the vision, however flawed, that planners had at the time.

The city did do one very smart thing with old railway tracks when it created the bus-only Transitway. This rapid bus road crosses much of the city with very minimal stoppages, allowing commuters a convenient option for getting to and from work. The system has flaws, of course, like the bottleneck of buses in the old city core, where the Transitway makes use of downtown arterial streets, but on the whole, it's an excellent system. When I heard that politicians wanted a light rail system and wanted to operate it through downtown with a tunnel, I scratched my head and wondered why the same consideration wasn't given to buses. After all, the city already has much of the Transitway infrastructure in place and buses offer more flexibility than trains for commuters. No matter what your view of the new light rail system, you can't deny that using old railway lines for a bus road was a silver lining to the worst elements of the Greber Plan.

So, for those keeping track, those are all the elements that I believe led us to where we're at today. Economic forces have caused a great deal of industry to leave the Ottawa Valley, which includes pulp and paper, manufacturing and other commodities that freight railways used to rely on for revenue. Once those businesses closed, the freight railways scaled back their operations and eventually abandoned their rights-of-way. That in turn has killed passenger rail along those rail lines. Those economic factors combined with an anti-rail development plan in Ottawa, which further reduced the rail network's prominence in the region. Deregulation further eroded the national railway presence in the Valley.

The more recent developments include CN taking over for former shortline Ottawa Central and subsequently tearing up much of the remaining Beachburg Subdivision between Pembroke and Nepean Junction.

That moves leaves several remaining industries along that former line and the shortened Renfrew Spur (wood pellet plant in Portage-du-Fort, aerospace manufacturing facility in Arnprior and other businesses without rail service) with no other option than to use trucks. Despite efforts to re-establish rail service on the old Beachburg line, the rails are gone and the last remaining rails in the Valley are now only a memory.

Switcher and two old cabooses in Pembroke, 1973. That rails in this Ottawa Valley community are now gone.

All this leaves the question in my mind, what's next for railways in Ottawa? I think there is reason for faint hope and here's why.

The first reason there could be hope is that Ottawa is busy re-establishing rails for a 2018 launch of its electrified commuter rail service. While this won't have any impact on the Valley's rail network on a larger basis, it will at least bring railways back into prominence in the city. There was some talk years ago of freight railways using the city's LRT line for freight operations outside the hours of O-Train operation. I don't see this happening anytime soon, but it at least raises the possibility that it could happen, if there was a willing partner.

I think it's highly probable that a shortline operator could return to Ottawa in the future, if there is a business case to be made. Currently, I don't think there's enough carloads or traffic to entice a shortline operator along the lines of the Ottawa Central. But I think that if the CN was given a chance to leave Ottawa, it would leave in an instant for the right price. It's fairly common knowledge that CN had very little interest in returning to this city when it was given control of the OCR as part of a package of railway operations it purchased in 2008. It seems to me that Ottawa would be a natural fit as an intermodal hub, since our city is the largest urban centre this far north and could potentially act as a gateway hub for cities further north. American railways have followed this model, but CP and CN seem content to funnel their container trains to the major centres exclusively. Perhaps Ottawa is too close to Montreal for any container train facilities. But it seems like a good spot for a regional container offloading spot where trains offload container trains and trucks take them to cities throughout the Valley and into Northern Ontario.

Finally, if there was ever the political will to do so, I think Ottawa would be an integral part of a high-speed rail corridor. We seem to have lost our interest in nation building exercises, which include high-speed rail links. Thinking of the last attempt at a project of this scale, one might be able to make a case for the Trans-Canada Highway as the most recent example. I am encouraged that other countries have pursued high-speed rail with some success. Heck, if the United States can do it in California (so far anyway), then surely it's not out of the question for Canada to pursue this. But that would require the political will, which is the tricky part.

A few backers have suggested that Ottawa and its surrounding municipalities could benefit from a GO Transit model that would deliver commuters to Ottawa via commuter trains, but the appetite for that type of system has not attracted any political backers, sadly.

Unfortunately, Ottawa has been spoiled by half a century of not really having to live alongside an active rail network. Most people in the city have very little idea of just how much potential Ottawa's rail network holds. The current LRT love-in among city politicians notwithstanding, there is very little understanding of railways in Ottawa.

So, that's my take on what's happened to the rails in the Valley and what might be ahead for this form of transportation. To answer the question I first posed in the title, no single factor or person killed rail in the Ottawa Valley, but I think a number of bad decisions need to be rectified if there is to be any realistic future for this mode of transportation here.

Beyond my self interest as a rail fan, the benefits of a healthy rail system to any major city are obvious, even beyond the benefits for inter-city passenger rail. Anyone who sees the truck traffic on Highway 401 or Highways 416 and 417 can attest to the stress this puts on the highways. I'm not saying that trains would ever overtake trucks for short-haul cargo traffic, but I do think a healthy rail corridor could have prevented the flood of trucks we now see on highways here.

And to close the loop on my anecdote, I decided to head back out in the afternoon to catch the Arnprior local returning from Nylene Canada and finally had some success. This picture below, in  the context of this post, represents what is left in the western Ottawa Valley. This train is all that is left of railways in an area that was once very much defined by railways.

More on this meet in a future post.

Last glimpses of the Beachburg Subdivision

When I first started this blog in April of 2013, I knew it was a risk calling it the Beachburg Sub. Even then, the dormant CN subdivision was in danger of being lost. These past few weeks, this blog's namesake rail line has been torn up by the Canadian National, despite various efforts to revive the line with a shortline operator. Last week, I headed deep into Ottawa's rural northwest countryside, to pay my last respects to this line.

As of Saturday, Nov. 16, the line has been torn up all the way to the Dunrobin area, although rails are still in place into Kanata. The work train was loaded on that day and shipped out. A reader told me that the work crew is then given a six-day rest before resuming its work. That would mean work will resume on the 21st or 22nd.

Below is a shot of the Beachburg Sub at Stonecrest Road Ottawa, Nov. 9, 2014

Here's the same stretch on Nov. 11. The bolted rail will be picked up later by truck, I assume

Here's the same crossing, looking east on Nov. 9:

And here it is two days later. You can just make out the end of the work train in the distance.

On Nov. 9, the work train was silent, as the crew was taking its days off before revving back up on Nov. 11. This is what I saw on Nov. 9 at Stonecrest Road.

On Nov. 11, I ventured out to another rural crossing, to try and catch the CN continuous welded rail work train in action. This led me to a rural road, Torbolton Ridge Road. As you can guess, this was another remote stretch of the city and it was heavily wooded. This didn't allow for great wide shots, but I felt compelled to capture something. CN GP40-2W 9543 was idling by the crossing, waiting for the track gang to finish its work so it could inch forward.

Here's a shot of the longest freight train I've seen in Ottawa in all my time in this city. How sad is that statement?

As you can see from the woody stemmed weeds in the above shot, this crossing is pretty rough. I stuck around for a while, thinking the train was about to move. One of the worker's cars was idling on the road, which led me to believe something was about to happen. After half an hour of waiting, I decided to call it a day. Here are a few more shots.

Bug's eye view.

The dreaded CWR cars carrying their prize.

By now you know the story of the subdivision. It was once part of a transcontinental main line, which stretched through Algonquin Park and a large swath of rural Ontario. You know it was also a vital part of the Ottawa Central Railway.

Now, it's mostly history.

I thought about the name of my blog this week and wondered about the merits of changing the name for a moment. But, as one of the few rail enthusiasts carrying the torch here in Ottawa, I think it's more important than ever that we pay attention to the past.

After all, Ottawa's troubled light rail plan is proof positive that those who ignore our history are doomed to repeat it. And at great cost.

For consideration: GO Trains in Ottawa

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks Ottawa needs to retain what little heavy rail network it has left.

In my travels with family this summer, I ended up having an interesting conversation with a friend of my wife's family that once operated a truck stop in Cardinal, Ont., a small town in Eastern Ontario. She mentioned to me that she found operating the business extremely difficult because finding staff was a major headache. She explained that most people told her they were chasing a federal public service job in Ottawa. This got me to thinking.

Thousands upon thousands of Eastern Ontarians commute into Ottawa each day to work in the federal public service. The traffic volumes on the region's two 400-series highways are a testament to the commuting patterns in the region. There's also little debate over the growing traffic jams on the roads.

I began to think about this conversation the other day when I stumbled across another conversation on YouTube. The commenters spoke of how silly it was that no one stepped in in 1997 to save the old CP Prescott Subdivision between Kemptville and Ottawa. Another commenter questioned why the dormant CN Beachburg Subdivision between Nepean Junction and the Pontiac Region in Quebec hasn't been eyed for a regional rail commuting service.

It seems painfully obvious that the last remnants of the CN Beachburg Sub north of Nepean Junction will be gone before long, even though it has managed to remain intact this summer, much to my surprise.

Going, going, gone: Could this stretch of the old CP Prescott Subdivision have hosted GO Trains for Eastern Ontario commuters? Some people here think so. Too bad this rail is now gone.

In 2009, a group that once operated the Ottawa Central Railway attempted to purchase the remnants of the Beachburg Subdivision. I recall interviewing James Allen, the former general manager of the OCR, for a story I wrote for a local news website. In addition to establishing immediate freight service for a wood pellet plant in Pontiac, Que., Allen said there were plans for a regional commuter service between Renfrew County, the Pontiac Region and Ottawa. It would be focused on those who work in Ottawa and live in the valley (what locals call the area northwest of Ottawa).

Unfortunately, rails were lifted from Pembroke all the way to the Quebec border. The remainder of the rails to Nepean Junction also seem to be on their way out, despite some very measured and sensible arguments about the importance of this infrastructure to the future of the region. Sadly, Ottawa has expressed no interest in this line, even though city staff said they would be interested in buying the land for a recreational trail. If this city valued its rail infrastructure as much as it values its trail network, local transit would not be such a challenge.

Could the Beachburg Subdivision see new life as a commuter line in west Ottawa? It doesn't seem like city planners see any potential for this corridor other than as a future recreational trail.

The obstacles to regional rail in Eastern Ontario are formidable. The National Capital Region spans two provinces, which means a number of provincial policies would need to be streamlined for a regional service to operate across the Ottawa River. Don't count on this. Ottawa and Gatineau can't even agree what to do with the Prince of Wales railway bridge, which has sat dormant and neglected for years.

Another significant barrier would be how this system would be funded. Would municipalities have to buy in on their own dime? Would the service be funded through the Ontario government like GO? How would it be funded if it crossed over into Quebec? How would it operate in conjunction with the existing Ottawa bus and O-Train service? How would it operate around other rail operations like Via and CN in the capital region?

These are all tough questions, but it seems to me that some have remarkably straightforward answers. Toronto's transit system is far from perfect, but I have never heard anything bad about the GO Trains. Having taken GO Trains before, I can vouch for their reliability and convenience. It seems that this is a conversation worth having in this region.

Why? Well, Ottawa's main expressway, the Queensway, is being widened  in the city's east end, but it's obvious that the highway has no room left to expand in many spots through the city. The city's planned Confederation Line O-Train expansion will not be open until 2017. And the new east-west line will operate from Tunney's Pasture to Blair, on brand new trackage. These areas of the city are sparsely populated at best.

Tunney's Pasture is a warren of outdated government office buildings, with very little connection to nearby neighbourhoods. And it has the advantage of being fairly close to the downtown core. It is already well served by the existing bus commuter road, the Transitway. How this area became the western terminus for the new O-Train line is beyond me. It is by no means underserved.

Blair, the city's east end, is a commercial area with lots of commercial development, but very little housing in the immediate vicinity. Again, I struggle to understand how this became the eastern terminus.

The existing north-south O-Train line, from Bayview Station to Greenboro Station, is well used. There has been talk about extending this line, which was once the CP Ellwood and Prescott Sub. Existing trackage has been left in place all the way to Leitrim Road, which is a road in the city's south end, relatively close to the Riverside South neighbourhood, which is crying out for better transit options. The city owns the old CP right-of-way to Osgoode, a community in the city's mainly rural southern countryside. Why the rails were never retained along this right-of-way is a real head scratcher. The city now faces the possibility of having to install a new rail line along the old CP right-of-way, just to reach Riverside South and other developing communities in Ottawa's southern suburbs like Greeley and Manotick. The lack of vision is astounding.

Taking all of this into consideration, it seems to me that regional rail could still be done in Eastern Ontario, provided the political will and vision is there.

Unfortunately, this might be the biggest obstacle of all.