A visit to Greenfield Village

The following is my brother Marc's account of his family's summer trip to something all railfans would love: Greenfield Village near Detroit, Michigan. Please feel free to leave a message and let him know what you think - Michael

Henry Ford’s vision and legacy changed the world. His innovation, business sense and social ideas have shaped our world into what it is today. In Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, is one of the most significant museums in the United States.

The Henry Ford Museum houses an immense collection of technology, art and Americana. It is a must see for anyone who loves history.

Nestled to the side of The Henry Ford (as locals call it) is Greenfield Village. Originally the site of an agricultural college, it is now a 90-acre recreation of a turn-of-the-century industrial village. The village covers many aspects of the industrial revolution in America, but for the focus of this post, I will try to cover the many aspects of rail history. After all, Henry Ford's ideas, which led to the automotive assembly line, also led to a major change for freight railways, who have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with automotive production plants ever since.

I took my family to the museum for a day trip this summer. As you may have read here before, my young son is a railfan. It’s in our family's blood, generations deep. Thomas the Tank Engine was the main attraction for the kids, a life-sized engine taking kids for a ride.

 

It's like stepping back in time.

 

Greenfield is circled by the Weiser Railroad, a passenger train that travels around the perimeter of the village with four stations. Steam power, of course!

Torch Lake, an 1873 0-6-4 Mason Bogie steam locomotive. It's one of the oldest operating steam engines in the USA.

 

Another interesting site for railfans, especially those who like vintage rolling stock. You can see the vintage Cotton Belt boxcar, a C&O For Progress-clad boxcar and an ornate New York, New Haven and Hartford boxcar.

 

At the end of the string, a wooden Detroit, Toledo and Ironton boxcar. DT&I was a precursor to the Grand Trunk Western, a CN subsidiary that operated in Michigan for years before it was folded back into CN.

 

The Weiser Railroad is unusual, in that it is connected to the Norfolk Southern right-of-way that is used by Amtrak for the Detroit-Chicago run. There is a station reserved for tours that arrive via Amtrak (pun intended, for Canadian readers).

Another great attraction is a operating steam crane that was used in the construction of the Windsor-Detroit rail tunnel. Built by the Detroit River Tunnel Company for the Canada Southern Railway in the early 1900s, it was leased by the Michigan Central Railroad and owned by MCR parent company the New York Central. It changed hands through the years, ending up in the hands of CPR and CN in the end. That tunnel warrants its own post!

 

The crane was lifting and moving rails and trucks for the crowd. It was fascinating to watch. Be ready for the whistle, it’s loud!

 

Kids could take turns rotating this little engine around the manually-powered turntable. A lesson in leverage.

 

Detroit’s historical society has a group that specializes in model railroads. They brought a great display that drew quite the crowd. Not pictured: Dad enjoying a cold beverage.

 

Work is ongoing at Greenfield Village as restoration of a vintage wooden caboose with rounded cupola roof takes place.

 

Two steam locomotives rest under the roof of a restored railway maintenance facility.

 

I will be taking the family back to this gem of a museum. I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone with an interest in history.  Greenfield Village is a day on its own, and I imagine the Henry Ford Museum would also take a whole day to roam.

 

Thanks to my brother for contributing this post. Please take a moment to let him know what you think. - Michael

 

 

 

 

Notes from Goderich

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Postcard from Saint Laurent Boulevard

This is the second in an occasional series telling the stories behind standalone photographs that don't otherwise fit within the themes of my regular posts. You can read the first postcard post here.


I'll be the first to admit it. I don't understand how some people obsess over steam locomotives. Growing up, whenever I looked at my train picture books, I would often skip over the pictures of steam locomotives because, to me, they all looked the same. Even now, I have a hard time getting all the excited about these giants. But, I never grew up with these brutes and I have never seen one in action.

Having said that, I have begun to appreciate steam locomotives much more in recent years. There are a few reasons why I have begun to come around. First, they are incredibly complex machines that are capable of incredible things. Second, they serve as vital reminders of the importance of railways through history. In many ways, these engines were the only lifeline people had to the outside world. Of course, the automobile and the development of freeways has changed the role of railways in people's lives, but these brutes serve as a useful reminder of how vital railways were to the development of Canada, the United States and a number of other countries (depending on where you are reading this).

 

This shot was taken in early March 2013 on the front lawn of the Canada Science and Technology Museum. The museum is located on Saint Laurent Boulevard in Ottawa's east end. The museum itself houses a number of railway relics inside, although the museum itself is closed until 2017, due to mold and other safety issues that are being addressed via a large rehabilitation and renovation of the old bread factory.

 

This locomotive, Canadian National 6200, is a 4-8-4 Confederation locomotive more commonly known as a Northern type steam locomotive. Thirty five of these engines were built by the Montreal Locomotive Works and the Canadian Locomotive Works in Kingston, mainly for the Canadian National. They were in service until the late 1950s before a number were saved from the scrap heap. Other cities that have a Northern on display include Toronto and Guelph.

 

This particular locomotive was built in Montreal in 1942. It was acquired by the museum in 1967 and is one of a number of railway artifacts either on display or in storage at the museum. A number of other pieces are maintained by the Bytown Railway Society at this site. You can read more about these locomotives here.

 

For the most part, the engine is in decent shape. Many preservationists now argue that leaving these locomotives outside is not the best way to preserve them. I'm not sure what more can be done to preserve these artifacts, given their size. This locomotive is a popular subject for photographs in Ottawa. It's certainly a fixture on the museum's front lawn.

 

Just walking around this behemoth is an experience. Even though I'm not a foamer when it comes to these locomotives, I've grown to admire them because they remind me of my grandfathers, both of whom worked on the CPR when these giants were in operation. I'm glad it's there. 

 

 

RMEO Part III: The dental car

This is the third part of a series detailing the artifacts found at the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls. You can read the first part here and the second part here.

One of the more curious artifacts in the museum is Canadian National heavyweight sleeper car 15095, built in 1913. What makes this car curious is that is was converted in 1951 into a dental car. The bedrooms in the car were remade into living quarters for a travelling dentist, a dental office and a nurse's room.

The car, which was converted in 1951, owed its new lease on life to the Ontario government, which introduced a program in the 1930s to provide free dental care to children in remote communities in Northern Ontario, many of which were connected to the outside world by the Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Ontario Northland main lines or other northern subdvisions (think of towns like Sioux Lookout, Capreol, Kapuskasing or Cochrane).

Children would enter one end, be treated in the dental office halfway down the length of the car before exiting the other end. The dental car travelled with an accompanying car that stored the dental supplies. This car had three options for its power supply. It could receive power from a train consist, a generator or directly from the hydro grid. The dental car would also serve adults, for a fee.

The car served as a travelling dental car before being retired in 1977. Shortly after, it was preserved in Toronto and was on display there before it was acquired in 1990 by the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario. This is what the car looked like when it was stored in Toronto (below).

Photo courtesy of the Canada Science and Technology Museum online archives

The museum's volunteer in the dental car told me that each end of the car retained much of its original mahogany interior décor. I took this photo of what the hallway near the entrance looked like. This is what a passenger would have seen as they boarded this car in 1913. That head you see in the bottom of the photo is my daughter practicing her photobomb skills.

This room, below, was once the men's smoking lounge. It was converted to a kitchen as part of the dentist's living quarters.

Some beds were removed from a bedroom to make up the dentist office. My daughter thought the stuffed animals on the dentist's chair were a nice touch.

This shot below shows you what the exterior of the car looks like right now. The car is perched at the end of a long wooden boardwalk. I've read some conflicting points of view online regarding this Canadian National paint scheme. Some seem to like it while others hate it. I, for one, like it.

This final shot gives you an idea of the collection at the museum. When I took a handcart ride on the track between these cars, I was able to see the seven or so passengers cars in various states of repair. Given the museum relies on volunteers, I'm guessing it will be a long road ahead for some of these old beasts.

 

The volunteer in the dental car told me that the car, which was known as Camrose, was also used on Canadian Pacific trackage in Northern Ontario, making it likely that it might have made its way to Chapleau, where my Grandfather worked as a rolling stock mechanic.

 

The dental car is one of seven at the museum (see above). CP and CN both contributed three old passenger coaches to the museum as part of its creation in 1985. Some bear no outward identifying marks, which makes it tough to trace their history. 

RMEO Part II: Two cabooses, two stories

This is the second in a series of posts profiling some of the more interesting pieces of rolling stock on display at the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls. Read the first post in this series here.

At first glance, this CP caboose resembled the centre-mounted cupola cabooses I remembered from my childhood. Of course, most railfans would recognize this car as being quite a bit older, since the cupola is mounted off centre and is clearly clad in tongue-in-groove wood. But as I neared this old caboose, I noticed something was not as it should be.

And this closer look confirms it. Expecting to see the slated wood finish, I discovered this old caboose was actually clad in plywood. It made me wonder why. So I did a little digging.

It turns out this caboose, CP 437169, was built in 1945 at Canadian Pacific's Angus shops in Montreal. The museum's website mentions that the car was actually constructed with plywood, instead of tongue-and-groove slats, due to ongoing materials rationing that was a result of Canada's war effort. Let's put this aside for a moment. We'll come back to it.

The museum's site also stated that the car, over the course of its career, went through 3-4 paint schemes before finally undergoing its final transformation in the CP multimark livery. The car served in Eastern Ontario before being retired by the railway in 1990. Upon its retirement, it was donated to the museum.

Below is the view you get when you walk into the car. You can see the interior is made of slated wood with a bench, desk, bed, stove, kitchenette and the cupola off toward the other end of the car. All in all, not a bad setup. The museum has done an excellent job of maintaining the interior of this old van.

Below is a sister caboose to the one above. Numbered 437169, this car was also made in Montreal at the Angus shops and was retired in 1990 after serving in the Eastern Ontario region. If you compare this side profile with the side profile of the caboose above, you will see they are identical, but for the paint. The museum's website states that this car was originally built with slated wood and then sheeted over with plywood sheets at some point in its history.

If you look closely, you can see the nailing edge on the end of the car.

So the question remains, which story is correct? I can't imagine that one car would have been built with plywood while the other was made with slats. The interior of the yellow caboose shows that its interior was clearly made of slated wood, which leads me to believe that it too was re-sheeted at one point.

The next question is, why were these cars re-sheeted? Scanning a few websites, the best answer I found was that the railway found it was easier to maintain these cars with a plywood veneer rather than maintaining the slats. The one unintended consequence of this cost-saving measure, however, was that the exterior sheeting actually contributed to the slats underneath rotting, which compromised the structural integrity of the cars.

Penny wise, pound foolish? Maybe.

 

This last shot was my attempt at framing the above caboose next to a backdrop of the station. I shot this image in the area between the passenger waiting rooms and the railway express office, which was in a separate structure, although both were connected by the same roof.

 

I have to say that I have always been fascinated with old rolling stock being dressed up in contemporary railway liveries. I found this car in the Sarnia rail yard and was amazed that a car so old was repainted in the wet noodle paint scheme. The wood CP caboose in the multimark scheme appeals to me for the same reason. I was drawn to it immediately. I think it's the mixture of railways past and present that makes these cars unique.

 



RMEO Part I: The not-so-little engine that could, CP's S3

This is the first in a series of posts detailing the artifacts on display at the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls.

As I recently mentioned in my first Smiths Falls post, I visited the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in late July. The museum has a surprisingly large and diverse collection of rolling stock from various eras of railroading. The museum also has two locomotives on display, a CN steam engine and a Montreal Locomotive Works S3 switcher 6591 (ex-CP).

This diesel locomotive, which the museum lists as weighing 99 tons, often roamed the Smiths Falls freight yard and other parts of Eastern Ontario as a switcher until it was retired in 1982. The unit was then donated to the museum three years later. The engine has been restored and operated since that time. In fact, a volunteer at the museum told me they recently operated the S3 for some switching duties on the museum's tracks.

The shot below was taken from the platform of the museum's restored Canadian Northern (later Canadian National) station. So, had you been waiting for a train at this station in the past, this is the view you would get when an engine passed by, although it would be an unlikely site to see this CP unit on CN tracks.

This locomotive absolutely exudes first generation diesel. This model was built starting in 1957 in Montreal (earlier models were built by Alco in the United States). It's bulky compared to the more common switcher of choice in recent decades, the SW1200.

One might think that a switcher this big would have horsepower to burn, but the S3 only had 660 horses under its hood, compared to 1200 for the SW1200. For this reason and others, this locomotive and its sibling, the S1 were not the runaway success that Alco had hoped they would be.

Only 292 of these switchers were built by Alco and only 163 built by MLW. But, despite its shortcomings, 101 were purchased by CP while CN rostered 49.

This unit, as you can see above, is a centrepiece of the rail museum's collection, which is why it's the first thing you see after you emerge from the reception area onto the grounds.

I was able to walk around the unit and get a shot from the other side. As you can see, a number of Eastern Ontario winters have been less than kind to the locomotive's maroon, grey and gold livery. (here's a shot of the locomotive in action red in 1977 in Brockville) But its undercarriage and its trucks seem to be in great operating shape. You can just make out a piece of the station's original semaphore signal above the hood.

  

This shot shows you (again) the condition of the paint and the trucks. I took this shot from inside the doors of the station. You can see a small piece of an antique luggage cart to the left. Getting a wide shot of this unit was impossible, given the sightlines.

 

It should be noted that this locomotive is one of three that are either preserved or operating in Canada. Another S3 (with the Canadian Pacific cursive logo) is on display at the Saskatchewan Railway Museum while another has been refurbished by the Waterloo Central Railway, where it is now pulling excursion trains on the tourist line to St. Jacobs. The switcher in Waterloo has an Ottawa connection as it was housed at the National Research Council's railway facilities near the Ottawa International Airport. In 2012, the NRC sold the unit to the WCR, which has retained the old CP action red scheme for the most part (see Waterloo Central link above).

 



A station with a story: Petrolia's GTR station

The Grand Trunk's legacy lives on in a few scattered communities around Canada, but nowhere is the grandeur of the railway better reflected than in Petrolia, Ontario, a beautiful Victorian oil town in southwestern Ontario, east of Sarnia. The town's central square faces the wonderfully preserved Grand Trunk Railway station, which has long served as the town's central library. I passed by this station a number of times when I was younger but never really knew much about it until I dug into its history last year. The results were surprising.

Above: Petrolia's central library, formerly a Grand Trunk terminal, is a town centrepiece. This shot was taken Dec. 22, 2013.

The most remarkable feature of this building today is that it is virtually unchanged from its railway heyday, as you can see in this undated photo below. Note the muddy streets and the alternate town spelling. The town has long since changed its official spelling from Petrolea to Petrolia.

 

 

For those unfamiliar with its history, Petrolia's claim to fame is that is was the site of the first major commercial oil discovery in North America, although many in Pennsylvania have long since debated this fact. With the influx of oil riches, the town grew quickly. Its main street, the Petrolia Line, is lined with enormous Victorian mansions, which housed a number of oil company executives.

 

The rail station was built in 1903, although rail service to Petrolia predated this station. The rail lines hosted oil trains and passenger service, since roads between the town and Sarnia were often unreliable "plank" roads (corduroy road) as they were called locally. It's interesting that passenger rail was seen as such a vital service, since Petrolia is not more than a 15-minute drive from Sarnia, but in the late 1890s, when a town was built in a middle of a marshy swamp, roads were at the mercy of the elements.

 

The town had one small problem. The station was built on the east-west main street, but there was no room for an east-west track due to the development along the street. The solution was a strange one. The railway built a track that ran north-south from the GTR main line between London and Sarnia. That meant that trains would reach a dead end at the station, meaning the station was actually a terminal (see image below from the Lambton County Archives).

 

 

Here's another shot below of the back of the station in 1909 during the Old Boys Reunion (Lambton County Archives). As was the case in many small towns at the time, the train station was a focal point for town gatherings, since it was such an important gathering place for travellers. The tower behind the station is Victoria Hall, home of the town's civic offices and the famous Victoria Playhouse arts centre. The building still houses town offices and the theatre.

 

 

But, the usefulness of a terminal in a town so close to a major centre like Sarnia diminished. The Grand Trunk was purchased by the Canadian National and the station was closed in 1927, meaning the station's railway use lasted only 24 years. Luckily, Petrolia has always been conscious of its heritage, which led to the station being preserved, thanks to efforts of people like Robert Nicol (see below).

 

 

I made sure to get some shots of this building late last year. The shot below is the rear of the station where the trains reached the end of the line.

 

 

Even an old baggage cart has been preserved by local officials, although the CN noodle logo is a little out of place in this context, but that's nitpicking.

 

 

It's interesting to note that, at one time, Petrolia had another railway station, which belonged to the Michigan Central Railway's St. Clair Branch. That station was not preserved, as far as I know. Information about the MCR station is hard to come by, but I know that the Petrolia trackage was a spur off the St. Clair Branch, much like the Grand Trunk line was a spur off what is now known as the Strathroy Subdivision. Today, there are no tracks in Petrolia, although the only reminder of its railway past remains faithfully preserved.