Ottawa's Capital Railway gets a facelift

Ottawa's O-Train, formally known as the Capital Railway, runs along the old CP Rail Ellwood sub and is by most estimates a runaway success. The Bombardier diesel trains have proven to be a massive hit with commuters since they first began running in 2001 between Greenboro Station in Ottawa's south end and Bayview Station, just west of Ottawa's downtown . The city estimates that the trains have accommodated 21 million commuters since their debut.

This past spring, the line fell silent as the city began a $59-million overhaul of the 8-kilometre line to allow the trains to make the run in eight minutes from the current 15. This will be accomplished with the help of two new passing tracks and six new trainsets. As it stands now, there is only one section of the railway, at Carleton University, where the trackage has been doubled. Two trains ply the route each day and coordinate their schedules so they arrive at the university at the same time as they head in opposite directions.

I have been visiting Bayview Station lately, to see how the work is progressing, which has proved to be a disappointment. My patience finally paid off last week when I saw the trackage in the beginning stages of being replaced. I was surprised at how the track was being removed, as you can see below.

Above: End of the line (for now). Trackage leading to Bayview Station is being torn up and the bed prepared for new rails. New ties can be seen to the right. Smell the creosote!

Above: View of the new roadbed being prepared from the Somerset Street overpass.

Below: A few days later, the trench is moving.

The new O-Trains are Alstom-built Caradia LINT diesels and have been the subject of lots of attention from interested light rail advocates here, like this shot from the Skyscaper Forum. I will actually miss the Bombardier O-Train, whose look I grew to appreciate. The new trains are apparently quieter and use less fuel. Here's a shot of the new and old O-Trains together. The new O-Train is on the right.

The new O-Trains will be tested this fall when service resumes in time for the new school year at Carleton University. The new, faster schedule will be in effect after the testing is complete. It sounds like this will happen sometime early in 2014.

Above: Can you see the red signal still operating in the distance? Capital Railway around Young Street in Ottawa.

The O-Train line is one of the more scenic you will see in a city. Its picturesque crossing of the Rideau River on a vintage trestle is a favourite of train watchers here. Most O-Train shots you'll find online are of this trestle. This shot above is shot looking south from a pedestrian bridge at Young Street in Little Italy. You can just make out a red signal still operational, even though the line hasn't been used in months.

My guess is that this line will be torn up from north (Bayview) to south (Greenboro) and then a new track will be installed from the south end to the north end, since its only operational connection to an outside rail network is the Walkley Diamond junction with the Canadian National's trackage in the city, near Walkley Road.

The amazing thing in all this flurry of renovation is that the city has still not even seriously considered extending the Capital Railway's O-Train service to the Ottawa International Airport on existing trackage from the old CP network in the city. The tracks are still occasionally used when the National Research Council needs various rail cars to be delivered to its surface transportation testing facilities near the airport, so it's not as though significant repairs need to be made. However, for whatever reason, this option has not been seriously considered.

So, for now, all is quiet along the Capital Railway until this fall.

CN's quirky Point Edward spur

The end of the CN Strathroy Subdivision is a train watcher's dream. CN operates a massive rail yard and a couple of picturesque local spurs in Sarnia. The most intriguing of the local spurs is the Point Edward spur, which is a curious run of trackage with an interesting history. According to local rail watchers, the line has 2.9 miles left. Much of the trackage into Point Edward has been lifted (for those who don't know, Point Edward is a village at the mouth of Lake Huron surrounded on all other sides by Sarnia). Those who have been to Sarnia will know that CN once ran rails as far as the Bluewater Bridge. The Point Edward Casino is in fact, an old CN freight shed.

In the early 1990s, the Point Edward spur was a busy stretch of track as a host of CN SW1200s shuttled countless autoracks and hi-cube boxcars onto the old CN ferry, which was the only means the railway had of moving these oversized cars across the St. Clair River into Michigan onto the St. Clair Subdivision of CN subsidiary Grand Trunk .

This section of the spur (seen below) was just beyond the edge of the Imperial Oil refinery in the south end of Sarnia. This area, located near a retirement home and the Sarnia Observer offices, is now just a single track. Before 1994, it was triple tracked and a hive of activity as the influx of oversized cars grew. In 1993, with the influx of double-stack container trains forcing its hand, CN started construction of the Paul Tellier Tunnel, which was able to handle these cars. In 1994, the tunnel replaced the original St. Clair Tunnel, which was dug by hand and had been in operation since 1891. The ferry service ended at the same time and the Point Edward spur grew increasingly quiet.

Above: CN SW1200 1206 and 1317 work a switch job near the St. Clair rail ferry along Front Street in Sarnia, Summer 1993. The Bluewater Bridge is barely visible amid the haze in the background.

 

Another shot of the pair of SW1200s at work in the Summer of 1993 near the rail ferry. You can see the dock for the old ferry jutting out into the St. Clair River, just behind the UP autorack. The Chemical Valley is also visible.

The Point Edward spur is a curious run of track, which runs along the Sarnia waterfront, behind office buildings, through Alexander Mackenzie Park (Canada's second Prime Minister spent many years representing Sarnia in Parliament) before it crosses Front Street where it then runs parallel to the street. The trackage then crosses Front Street again and runs through Centennial Park where snakes its way to the government wharf, where it services the massive Sarnia grain elevators, that store goods from Great Lakes freight ships.

At one point, the spur had another small yard along Front Street, which branched off from the line leading to the grain elevators. This yard was used for storing hopper cars that were used to service the grain elevators. This stretch has been removed.

The line continues to operate for the sole use of servicing the grain elevators. Curiously, even today, large stretches of the line are not barricaded by any fencing, including the stretches that run through city parks. It makes for nice photos, but it also requires vigilance. It also makes for easy access to special trains, like the CFL Grey Cup special, which set up shop on the spur during the cup's centennial celebrations in 2011.

What I love about the spur is its level crossings along Front Street. Since the activity on the spur was light beyond the rail ferry in the 1990s, you were lucky to catch trains crossing Front Street and trundling along through Centennial Park. This shot (above) I took around 1993. You can see the crossing is an awkward one as the line angles across the street. Watch out cyclists!

This shot below best illustrates how this line remains a curious part of downtown Sarnia. Here it runs along Front Street next to manicured gardens and apartment buildings on the other side. Notice the father and son sharing a moment as the engine roars by and the engineer giving a wave.

The SW1200s have disappeared from this spur, judging by more recent photos I've looked up online. In the 1990s and beyond, these little engines were workhorses for the CN in Sarnia in its rail yard and on its local spurs. I find it interesting that, in an era where we encase our children in bubble wrap and hockey helmets just to let them ride a bike, this spur still wends its way through city parks with no fencing. No one seems to get hurt and everyone seems to enjoy watching a train go by.

FREE STUFF: Do I have your attention still? You might notice an addition to the right sidebar section of this blog. In addition to blogging, I am also a published author. My first novel was published in 2006 by Baico Publishing. I have uploaded eight ebooks online, which vary in length from short story to novel, and all are available to read (some are free, two are half price until the end of July). They are all works of fiction. The ebook cover you see to your right (King Eddie) has a strong railway connection. It is based on actual stories I heard from union leaders and people I interviewed when I worked as a business and labour reporter in Kitchener. Please take a moment to check out my author's page and feel free to upload an ebook onto your reader.

A family tradition

I come by my love of railways honestly. Both my grandfathers worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway. All my uncles worked for the CP in their teens while one worked for Via later in life at Union Station in Toronto. My Dad told me that he often used to clean out the RDC Budd cars that Canadian Pacific used for its passenger service between Windsor and Toronto. He said he often found money and booze. My cousin works in the industry as well. Ever since I was a child, the railway has played a role in my family.

Which leads me to what is perhaps my favourite photo of my grandfather, Paul-Emile (below, second from right). He was born into a large French-Canadian family in St-Fabien, Que., in the Rimouski region. After leaving home in his teens to become a lumberjack as a way of supporting his family, he found his way into a railway job. For close to half a century, he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway as a rolling stock mechanic, first in Chapleau, Ont. and then in Windsor, Ont.

The photo below was taken in the 1960s or early 1970s at the site of a derailment in Ridgetown, Ont. For years, this photo hung in the kitchen of my grandparent's house in Windsor with the inscription "Life on the tracks." My grandfather had impossibly large hands from a lifetime of working on these big machines. Even in his 70s and 80s, he could squeeze your arm (jokingly) and it would feel like a pair of vice grips. As I grew up, many in the family said I looked like my grandpa, which I always considered a compliment.

This photo was the source of a family myth for years. My grandpa never talked about the photo, but others in the family guessed it was taken in Northern Ontario, when my grandpa worked in Chapleau, which was a major servicing point on the CPR for years. It wasn't until my grandpa passed away in 2008 when we were told by a former co-worker at his wake that the photo was actually taken in Ridgetown, in southwestern Ontario.

Given the recent tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, Que., I don't want to make light of train accidents, but am happy to share that this one was a minor accident and the only casualties were the rolling stock and track, as you can see behind the trackside gang.

The next photo is a shot from the 1950s when my grandfather (back row, right) took his family to Padoue, Que. (near Rimouski as well) where much of his family lived. My father Georges is front row, left, while my grandma Imelda is back row, left. I love this photo because it is quintessentially Canadian. It could have been taken at any small town anywhere in Canada in the 1950s and the chances are, there would be a railway station and families on the platform. Padoue still has but a few hundred souls, but it had its own train station in the 1950s. Imagine that. How times have changed.

Below is a photo that continues the family tradition. My father took this photo of my siblings and I in front of former Canadian National steam engine 5588, dubbed the Spirit of Windsor, in front of the old Windsor rail ferry. I am in the front row left while my brother is beside me. My sister is in the back row right next to her childhood friend, who is trying to keep me still for a photo. The shot was likely taken in 1980 or 1981. You can just make out the Railbox boxcar behind (Next load, any road!). It was around this time when my grandpa first brought me to the Windsor rail yard and took me aboard a locomotive for the first time. I still vividly remember when he showed me how an engine worked.

And the tradition continues with my nephew and godson, Daniel, as he marvels at the passing of a CSX freight train headed for the Chemical Valley in Sarnia a few weeks ago. My sister told me that the train had stopped on the main line, which runs by the edge of their property. My nephew ran to the back of the property to watch the idling train until it eventually trundled off on its way to Sarnia. I wonder if my year-old daughter will share my passion when she grows up. She does like it when I fire up my little N-scale train set in our house, so there's always hope.