 Shedding A Few Tears For Old Locomotives, 20 March 1959 Taking Old 419 Off Ottawa-Wal Pontiac Passenge Run At End 29 September 1959 Push-Pull Ancient Steam Engine Holds Own With Diesels, 8 December 1958 Montreal Trip On Flyer Combines Speed, Luxury, 8 April 1958 Wistful Memories As 'Crack Locomotive Just Rusting Away, November 10th, 1959 105 Years Of Steam Engines Ending For Ottawa, Saturday September 3rd, 1960 Life's Going To Be Dull Without CPR's Old "33"; September 3rd, 1958 Gets A Sound Scolding For Railroadin Vancouver Only Three Sleeps Away In Push-Butto It's Montreal To Ottawa Non-Stop In Two Hours, 27 September 1955 Explaining The Mystery Of Train's Early Run, 17 May 1958 Railway Keeps Her Around Because Of Her Size (CP 2-6-0 3011), 14 July 1954 The Canadian Hit "Dot" On Trip To Vancouver, 5 January 1957 Five-Hour Toronto Train Is What Ottawa Needs, 21 September 1956 Austin Near "Heaven" as "Canadian" Sweeps Across The Continent, 25 April 1955 Who Wants An Engine For His Front Lawn? , 17 July 1948 Railway Bell at Anglican Church, 12 November 1948 The Train of Tomorrow like a dream on wheels. 26 September 1949 On the way to Montreal, 10 December 1929 Reveal Plans To Re-Route Hull Traffic, 30 March 1946 Track Removal Giant Project Estimated Cost $200 Million, 16 June 1947 Old Number 30 Has Run a Million Miles, 24 September 1940 Abandoning Old Rail Line, 5 July 1952 Abandonment of Brockville to Westport line, 2 September 1952 Old cabbage stacker pulls museum train to city for week's showing, 23 August 1954 A gushing farewell to steam, 6 September 1960 Tram 650, 16 January 1946 Thurso and Nation Valley Railway, 6 February 1946 Redcaps, 17 January 1946 Railway Schedules out of Ottawa, 20 January 1960 "Swan Song" for Famous Line. (Barrys Bay) 2 March 1959 Travelling Trav's Tidings, Canada Central Railway, 18 April 1960 Canada Atlantic Railroaders At End Of Long Run, 18 April 1960 Last Steam Railroading Link Gone, 8 April 1961 Nostalgia On Rails, 4 February 1961 Station Master Bertrand Retires After Career Of Almost 50 Years, 3 May 1961 Cross Rolling Home, 27 April 1955 ‘To the ‘Bone Factory’ and the blow torch
have gone some of my dearest friends. They are the locomotives whose
demise has just been released by the railways. As the growling but
efficient diesel takes over, and the noble high wheelers go to the melting pot,
I feel I am saying goodbye to real old friends, and I also believe that the
country is the poorer for their passing.
‘At random , let me mention a few dear. dead
friends, over which I would like to recite a requiem.
‘My initial tears must be wept over CPR 437,. which for
almost half a century ran on the way freight out of Ottawa. Mostly it was
through Vankleek Hill to Montreal, although in a pinch this old ten wheeler
could be drafted for the Pontiac passenger.
’The Canadian Pacific never hit on a better class of
engine than what came to be known as ‘The D-10” and of these, none more
efficient that CPR 1003. She went in 1958.
‘Those who for the last 50 years, took the passenger to
Montreal must inevitably have ridden behind 2210, or in earlier days when she
was 1010. This light Pacific type was a ’58 casualty.
‘Running faithfully at the end of the war to Montreal
via the North Shore was 2393. Comparatively new as engines go, with less
than 20 years’ operation, she is now melted down into some re-incarnated steel
girder some place.
‘Who can forget the high-wheeled Hudsons.. proudly
bearing a crown, carrying the king and queen on the first trip any ruling
monarch ever made in Canada. Prominent among these was 2828, now only a
magnificent memory.
‘Faithful and long lasting, I first saw freight
type No. 3437 in Broad Street yard, back in 1913. Not stylish and not
fast, she lasted most of this century till they took her off the rails
last year.
‘Finally, who can forget that strange experiment,
No. 3000, whose wheel arrangement was, oddly enough, 4-4-4. Its high
wheels really whirred when it ran up the Guelph Junction hill west of Toronto
and roared to a stop at Galt.
Chicago-based passengers. and tired troops returning to London
alike rode behind the oo-00-oo type engine and never knew how hard she worked
for them.
‘I could get equally sentimental as I say
goodbye to old Canadian Northern class 1408 or Old Grand Trunk 2622. Saw a
fond farewell to ex-Canadian Government Railways freight engine 3339. So
there are three former railways who ended their days with the Canadian National.
‘Then there is 5604, which John Diefenbaker
and I surveyed when we both visited the Canadian National roundhouse at Prince
Albert in 1944. It was a light passenger type, described as a 4-6-2
‘The old Canadian Northern Railway was always hard
up, and never seemed able to buy more than five Pacific type passenger
engines. For years, those 4-6-2 type ran east and west of Winnipeg,.
Now gone is the original 5000. It had kept its same number right clear
through, from out-shipping to blow torch.
‘Perhaps the finest class the Canadian
National ever produced were the high style 6200’s They could haul
20 passenger cars at 80 miles and hour, or drag 100 loads of freight as
fast as the International Limited. Their life was like a
butterfly’s, brief and beautiful.
‘Never again will we hear the throaty roar of the
high-wheeled hard-running Hudsons of the CPR 2820 class. Up they would
come from Montreal, with the classy “varnish”, dumping their hundreds of
passengers at the Union Station “right on the advertised”.
‘’Those crown-embossed Hudsons were the finest
thing that CPR ever operated.
‘If those glossy behemoths had an equal, it would
be the CNR’s 6200 class 4-8-4’s. I can still hear their high, piercing
whistle, hauling the Continental Limited down from Montreal to Ottawa. Or
it could be the westbound, disappearing under the midnight stars, their
half-howl heralding the arrival of the new day and assuring the passengers that
all was well.
‘ ‘Now we travel swifter, we travel smoother, but
it seems to me we also travel more sadly.
This article had a picture of the D4g 419 about to back on to its train at old
Ottawa Union.
‘Eyes take your last look at old No. 419 on the
Pontiac run. Because when the Canadian Pacific takes this old-time
ten-wheeler off the Ottawa-Waltham run, we shall not see her like again.
‘Smallest of all engines “running passenger”
around Ottawa, No. 418, out-shopped more than 40 years ago, is just about
panting her last. Once away from Ottawa, she’ll be boiled down like an old
horse.
‘No. 419 came out in the halcyon days of 1913,
when steam was monarch everywhere and they wanted a fast light passenger engine.
In the classing mode of Casey Jones’ own locomotive, the 419 is a ten-wheel type
with wheels thus: oo-000.
‘No. 419 has seen a lot of living in her time, but
now she has, by the gentle but relentless dictates of time, gravitated to the
Pontiac. This is the absolute zero of passenger service out of
Ottawa. No engine can hold up her headlight and run on the Pontiac.
‘Much worse
‘Worse, much worse, the Pontiac run has now been
demoted to a mixed train. Up ahead, one may well see one or more freight
cars as the afternoon train clears from Ottawa yards.
‘The Pontiac has degenerated to M543. “M” is
for mixed. The also has been running on a five-day-a-week schedule
lately. M543 accordingly leaves the Union Station at 2:55 p.m. standard
and arrives at Waltham 79.8 miles away, at 6:20 p.m. Returning, she starts
from Waltham at 6:30 a.m. E.S.T., and reaches Ottawa Union at 9:45.
‘On Saturdays. she’s out at 1:30 p.m. to give the
folks up the valley a chance to shop and still get home for supper.
‘Not only is this magnificent old ten-wheeler the
same type as Casey Jones wheeled into eternity, it is the classic North American
engine. It is the prototype which made North America what it is.
Engines like it opened up the Canadian Pacific to Vancouver. Others of the
same ilk ran 120 miles an hour on the Plant Line, Florida-bound, back in 1902,
Death Valley Scotty roared across the continent behind a
ten-wheeler.
‘So, next time you view old 419, say with Othello:
“Eyes, take your last look.
‘And if you really love her, add, also with
Othello: “Arms, take your last embrace. Picture
of 425 at Hull (Beemer) and the line below the pic says THE FINAL RUN MADE ON
STEAM. (there were 2 further days with diesel 6552 until the
30th).
‘The Age of Steam’ died on the Pontiac, when the
last steam train arrived in Waltham last night. Passenger service ended
this week after 70 years.
‘The picturesque and historic Pontiac and Pacific
Junction started operating trains to Waltham, the end of steel of the line, in
January 1887. The railway was originally incorporated in 1880, and
passenger service was progressively extended, first to Aylmer, then to
Shawville, and so on until Waltham, now mileage 78.9 was reached on a
January day 70 years ago.
‘The final run was made with steam, though the
train for the past year has functioned with diesel power.
‘CPR train No. 643 described in the time
tables as “mixed”, left Ottawa Union Station yesterday at 2:50 p.m. standard
time. She carried one express car and one day coach.
‘Strangely enough, the day coach had steam on
which could not be turned off, and parboiled passengers clear through to
Waltham.
‘Engine No. 426 not only was sounding the death
knell of steam, but was getting ready to go on her last mile at the end of the
run – to the scrap heap. CPR No. 425 is a 4-6-0 engine, with a wheel arrangement
thus: oo-000. It was “outshopped“ in 1913, and therefore is 46 years
old.
‘There were some sentimental touches about the
last steam train up the Pontiac. Stationmaster Sam Bertand was not only
down to wave a fond farewell, but phoned his brother “Cap” Bertrand in Val
Tetreau, and the “Cap” emerged from retirement to wave the Pontiac through his
home town.
‘At Fort Coulonge, Hugh Proudfoot, former
MP, was down to greet the through passengers and mourn at the passing of this
70-year-old train. Also joining the cortege of the Iron horse at Fort
Coulonge was William Kenney, the Citizen’s resident correspondent for that
area.
‘The gallant little old 46-year-old engine rarely
tops 40 miles and hour, but once in a while, she would let herself out to what
seemed like a modest 42 or 43 mph, just to show she could do it.
‘Those who have never taken the CPR to Aylmer
perhaps fail to realize how beautiful it is in the woods by the river, with a
view of velvety golf greens on the north. To the south, Lake Deschenes can
be glimpsed, appropriately enough, though the oaks.
‘We “took the hole” at Breckenridge to let a
40-car diesel-hauled ore train go by. We were ahead at Quyon, so there was a
pause for pictures.
‘At Shawville, on came the kids. These
youngsters go to the good schools of Shawville from towns up the line.
Successive batches of youngsters for years have been riding the Pontiac
Now the bus will serve them.
‘An interesting ritual was perpetuated at Campbell’s
Bay. The boys make a mad dash for the ice cream parlor, buy two cones, and
sprint back.
‘Gareth McKnight of Waltham. with two vanillas,
won the dash. Bearing two chocolates, Douglas Rabb of Campbell’s Bay was a
full eight seconds late. But they held the train. That’s the kind of train
the Pontiac is.
‘A mournful few viewed trhe two-car local all
along the 79.8 miles like it was the passing of a coffin of a dear friend.
‘Finally the brave little engine, almost
cartoon-like in proportions, emerged from the downpour and steamed into the
station.
‘On time, she had reached Waltham. She had
also reached the end of an epoch.
‘The train crew was: Stanley T. Byron, conductor,
64 Poplar Street; John B. Murphy, engineer, Prescott Highway, Don McPherson,
trainman, 15 Irvine Avenue; Erville Coleman, baggageman of Carleton Place.  ‘Perhaps it would be more polite to announce that
the Board of Transport Commissioners has given the Canadian Pacific Railway
permission to abandon passenger service between Ottawa and Waltham, the Pontiac
and Pacific Junction Line.
‘Trains have been operating on this line up
the Pontiac for almost 70 years. In a judgement handed down Monday and
signed by Rod Kerr, Chief Commissioner, the board agreed that the line was not
paying, and if the railroad chose, it might abandon passenger service after 30
day’s notice. Such notice is expected from the CPR within the next few
weeks.
‘Said the commission, in part: “The
dispelling of any doubt in the minds of the residents of the area as to the
future of the passenger service, the interests of the public generally and also
the interests of the railway company, requires a determination without further
delay. We are also mindful of the interests of the school children, some of whom
would depend upon the train service to attend school beginning again in about
one month’s time.
‘“ Weighing among other considerations the
patronage that has been given to the passenger service, our opinion is that the
economies that would result to the railway company by the discontinuance of the
service outweigh the convenience that would remain with the public by the
continuance of the service.”
‘The Board of Transport Commissioners has advised
that the discontinuance of the service “shall not take effect before 30 days’
notice of the discontinuance is given by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
‘Thus, an historic link is about to be
snapped. Easily, the most picturesque of all the lines out of Ottawa, the
old Pontiac and Pacific Junction Railway, soon metamorphosed on popular tongue
to the Push, Pull and Jerk.
‘The P. P. and J. remained, in name, long after it
got respectability by being purchased by the CPR. To begin with,it
started off, lobster-wise, by going its first mile backwards. The train
and its cars backed a mile or more over to Hull before it could straighten out
and head for the Pontiac.
‘The Push, Pull and Jerk was all of that, as it
wobbled to Aylmer, fought its way through to Quyon, then then hit those good
towns of “The Pontiac”, like Shawville, Campbell’s Bay and Fort Coulonge.
Then it panted its way through, finally, to the quaintly picturesque village of
Waltham, 79.8 miles from Ottawa Union Station.
‘Somewhere, after the CPR abandoned the old Broad
Street station, now only a memory down on The Flats, “The Pontiac” lost two of
its four trains, and operated as one train each way, daily except Sunday.
‘In its day, it carried shanty-men and servant
girls to town; it took back commercial travellers and farmers.
‘School kids clergymen and summer resorters, the old
Pontiac was all things to all people. Everything came slowly to the this
train. Closed vestibule coaches came late in the day; wooden coaches
lingered. Electric lights were a recent innovation. The Pontiac
never saw a parlor car; nobody can remember a dining car running up Shawville
way.
‘Now, the CPR is ready for the requiem and the
burial. Seventy year’s passenger railroading are expected to end next
month.
‘Express will be served on the way freight three
times a week, with highway trucks, being employed two other days. ‘Last of the fast-vanishing high-wheelers can be found any morning these days except Sunday. hauling the fast, non-stop two-hour flier on the Canadian Pacific to Montreal. The steam engine is truly The Vanishing American. ‘I found myself in the rear of the twin
parlor cars which roll smoothly on the dot at 7:55 these gloomy mornings.
I thrilled as the 84-inch drivers behind the Hudson-type, 2822, started to bite
the rail. I felt that thrilling, ever-tugging ever-chugging steam engine
go. It lack, it is true, the serene glide of the diesel. But how
affectionately I listed to the big 4-6-4’s heart beat.
Alta Vista and its bumper-to-bumper traffic behind
us, it seemed that the big engine laid back its ears like a deer and ran.
That rumble was Blackburn and the total mileage was six. At the next
rumble at Navan, we had knocked down 12 miles. So the stations passed like
picket fences as Leonard, Hammond, Bourget were followed by Pendleton and
Plantagenet.
A mile a minute we raced as the big Hudson started
to warm up. This was steam travel at its best. Then we paused to see
what Vankleek Hill was doing, we gave her the go-by at 30 miles an hour, banged
over the CNR diamond half a mile to the east where we crossed the Glen
Robertson-Hawkesbury branch, and then we let go again. The upbound diesel
passenger to Ottawa, Train No. 233, had thoughtfully taken the siding.
Being eastbound, we had the superior direction. The it was Quebec Province
and by now, Canadian Pacific’s big monster was rushing long as if it was really
beginning to enjoy its work, It sent out joyous clouds of steam and
emitted long, strong sausages of smoke as it passed Vaudreuil and Ste. Anne’s as
if they were not there..
‘The dining car crew banned all meals except
coffee about half an hour out of Montreal and the late and hungry were out of
luck.
‘Then, right on “The Advertised”, we glided
swiftly and softly into Windsor Station,. The great adventure was
over.
‘The steam engine holds its own in this swift run to Montreal
with the slick new, soul-less diesels. But it’s on borrowed time. If
you want to live over the past, take the early morning train to Montreal.
‘The last fast steam train to Montreal is the Canadian Pacific’s No. 232 at 7:55
a.m.. It is also the only morning non-stop train between the Capital and
Montreal. As you might guess, I was on it when it took off from here the
other morning.
‘Behind that magnificent Hudson No. 2822, we
started to pick up speed as soon as we crossed over the Hurdman diamond, and the
snow was really swirling as we did a mile a minute and better through Hammond
and Bourget and we roared over the Nation River at Plantagenet.
‘Vankleek Hill is no longer even a flag stop for
the high-wheeling Hudson. We said goodbye to Ontario below St. Eugene and above
Rigaud, and then we play over the curve at Hudson Heights to pass Lake of Two
Mountains.
‘At Dorion, we swung onto the double track, and I
hoped for a CNR train to race, but on this race track, we travelled
unpaced.
‘There is a delight when one steps into the parlor
car, and either has his first or second breakfast. During the session, you
can usually pick up some political chat from a member of
Parliament.
‘In fact, the early morning train is a veritable
club, as Russell changes to Prescott, and Vaudreuil County into Montreal
Island.
‘Soon, the parlor car steward is asking you where
you are getting off. For the New York or Quebec-bound passengers, there is
the bustle at Montreal West. Then the next lot are popped off the
train at Westmount, and finally, the train pants happily as it rests after its
111.3 journey in 120 minutes. Steam is still fun. Wistful Memories As 'Crack Locomotive
‘One of the last of the old-time “Pacific” type engines of the Canadian National
railways is getting ready to whistle its swan song. It is CNR No
5559.
‘There are a waning few of us around here who can
recall when the 4-6-2 type engine came to Ottawa, away back in 1913.
‘At that time, the old Grand Trunk Railway, making
a serious bid for the passenger service between Montreal and Ottawa, felt it was
losing out to the new Pacific types on the Canadian Pacific lines.
‘So, in the spring of 1913, train fans were
surprised and delighted to see on the evening Grand Trunk local from Montreal,
as she parallelled the Driveway, some big new Pacific type engines. The
Grand Trunk had given up on the lighter 300 class, and such types as 3l5, and
its sisters were sent to other branches while engines running where from 181 to
242 began to appear regularly.
The 300-type they replaced were routine
ten-wheeler class engines, somewhat reminiscent of the kind Casey Jones had
driven to his death at the turn of the century.
‘So began a great era as the Grand Trunk started
sending its behemoths up to Ottawa.
‘Conspicuous among these was GTR No. 203, The then
comparatively new engine was fresh from triumphs on the main line between
Montreal and Brockville. At that time, the fastest scheduled time in all
Canada was the two hours and 45 minutes old No. 1 the International Limited,did
every day, over the 125 mile run.
‘No. 203 ran 10 years before she became part of
the new Canadian National and had her number changed to 5559.
‘As 5559, the transformed CNR engine hauled the
Continental Limited up to Brent, the first divisional point west of
Ottawa. She ran morning or evening, as the case might be, between here and
Montreal.
But the years began to take their toll, and
when Sir Henry Thornton brought out the first 6000 class, these finally “bumped”
the 5500 class off the best runs.
‘Still, 5559 held on, running sometimes around
Ottawa, sometimes out of Montreal.
‘ ‘This class K-3-a Pacific type finally lost out
to the bigger power and now bows to the diesel.
‘She operated as a suburban out of Montreal and finally, when her sister CNR 5562 was sent to the shops in Montreal, back came 5559, the old Grand Trunk 203, to Ottawa. ‘Today she is running on the Barrys Bay line, also
on borrowed time.
‘One never knows when the “growlers”, the
efficient but unromantic diesel, will replace all the friendly and lovable steam
engines.
‘So every weekday morning at 7:50 these days, and every
evening except Sunday at 3:50, you could see the ancient Pacific leaving the
Union Station.
‘Now over 40 years old, and indeed nearing
her 50th birthday, the old Pacific runs its 112.3 miles up to Barry Bay stays
from 11:32 to 12:05 at this Renfrew County terminal and then starts back,
‘But 5559 is on borrowed time. Some time
soon, the big boss will whistle in the 5559 for the last time, and her obituary
shortly afterwards will be written from the scrap in Montreal. Just Rusting Away, November 10th, 1959 There are 2 pix at the top of the page; first one is CN 5583, next one a switcher, can’t make out the 3rd one; pic below it has 5559 and 3 more behind it. Second title says ‘Benched Steam Engines Squat Silently On Siding’.
‘Six dead dinosaurs are rusting away silently on the
Canadian National tracks at the roundhouse off Hurdman’s Road. They are a
mixed group of passenger, freight and yard switching engines. The total
ages would aggregate almost 300 years with individual engines being from 40 to
over 50 years old.
‘Locomotive foreman Frank G Walton describes them
as being “under Tallow”, and most of them could be put back in service under an
estimated 24 hours.
‘The history of these old locomotives in pretty
much the history of railroading in the 20th century in Canada.
‘Yet, these steel saurians had their glimpses of
grandeur as recently as two years ago. Study the line and you will find,
second from the south end, is CNR 5559. Though it was built by the long
defunct Grand Trunk railway as far back as 1910, this high-wheeling,
high-stepper was hustling the first section of the Super Continental down to
Montreal only two years back. That was when the diesel-driver Super was
dragging its tail, back somewhere beyond Brent.
‘Whenever Ray MacDougall, the the big shot in the
CNR hereabouts before retirement, thought that the Super was going to be too
late, he would order a “first Number 2”.
‘Thus you would have a steam-driven first section of the
Super, made up right here at Ottawa.
‘‘”That 5559”, said Foreman Walton. with love in
his eyes and a break in his voice, “would take the Super down to Montreal in two
hours flat”.
‘While photographer Doug Gall looked on in
non-comprehendingly, Rail Fan Cross lent the foreman a kerchief to mop up a shy
tear.
‘In some sentimental vein, the foreman would also
use 5562 or 5583, for the elegant Super.
‘These 5500’s go back to the ancient 200 class of
the Grand Trunk, now remembered perhaps only by such rail fans at Canon John
Smith, rector of Our Lady of Fatima Church.
‘Also in the string of six is 5251,
with a proper door in her cab. This writer identified her as an old
Canadian Government Railway type. Sure enough, she turned out to be old
CGR 479.
‘Less sentimental is a railway buff inclined to be
over yard switcher 8360, which was built for the Canadian National in
1929. To an engine fan, this was just yesterday.
‘But a reverend bow for 2609, now 52 years of age,
and “outshopped” in 1907. When the Grand Trunk first brought this big one
into Ottawa about 1913, she looked to be the biggest thing on wheels.
‘Engine 2609 ran latterly on freight but,
after a half century, she has to go.
‘Now the whole six are “under tallow”. Some
day soon, the engines will roll as part of their own slow-motion cortege, at an
absurd 25 miles and hour, to Montreal and the graveyard.
‘Only hoping, Locomotive Foreman Walton is
secretly scheming to keep the 5559 in standby shape out at the rickety
roundhouse. Maybe, some day, No. 2 will be late, the Super will not be so
“super” that day, and out will come the 72-inch drivers of this lean locomotive
greyhound, rushing the first section of the Super to Montreal at a mile a minute
all the way – and on time.105 Years Of Steam Engines Ending For Ottawa by Austin Cross, Saturday September 3rd, 1960 2
pix at the top of the page, painting of the first train into Ottawa Sussex
Street in 1855 on the Bytown and St. Lawrence, other is CNR
6153
Next title says; ”Sunday Last Chance To See Iron
Horse In Action
‘When high-wheeling Canadian National Railways No.
6153 blows for Alta Vista Road Sunday morning, it will sound the death rattle of
railway steam engines in Ottawa, after 105 years.
‘Hauling seven coaches, this fast-stepping. rugged
passenger engine is due at the Union Station at 11:15 a.m. (EDT). After
she has taken coal and water here at Ottawa, the train will leave the Union
depot at 1:15 p.m. (EDT)
‘”This is the end of an era.” sagely says Walter
Smith, executive representative of the Canadian National Railways here in
Ottawa, as he advised parents who want to see this historic event, to take their
children down to the station this coming Sunday. It is specifically
suggested by Mr. Smith that the most suitable time to see the last steam engine
will be from 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. (EDT). For by that time, the engine, all
coaled and watered, will be turned around and headed back to Montreal.
‘CNR No. 6153 was “out-shopped” about 1929. It is
a Northern type. That is, she is a 4-8-4. In other words, her wheel
arrangement is oo-0000-oo.
‘It is a far cry from the first picturesque but
feeble steam engine which crawled in to Ottawa through the snow around Christmas
1855. This diamond-stacked job from Currier and Ives arrived at the St.
Lawrence and Ottawa Station on Sussex Street,
‘The old St. Lawrence and Ottawa Railway connected
the newly-renamed capital with the American border, it wobbly rails running down
to Prescott. Those rails still exist as a freight line from Sussex yard to
where they join the Montreal-Ottawa main line of the Canadian Pacific at Hurdman
Bridge.
‘Competition invaded Ottawa in area earnest
during the 1880’s when the Canada Atlantic Railway headed for Ottawa through
Glengarry and Russell Counties.
‘Ottawa , through the Grand Trunk Railway at
Coteau Junction now had fast, swift service to Montreal over the Canada Atlantic
to Coteau. Ultimately, J. R. Booth who built the C.A.R., extended his line
to the U.S. border.
‘The Canada Atlantic gave the longer CPR North
Shore such a run for its money that at the turn of the century, the CPR built
its famous “Short Line” from Montreal to to Ottawa via Vankleek Hill, this
reducing the mileage to 111.3 miles.
‘It was during these classic years that the
Canada Atlantic and the Canadian Pacific raced each other on these often
parallel steam speedways. High-spirited engineers threw the timetables out
the windows and made the normal two and a half hour run in as little as l.50
hours!
‘In terms of continental runs, Ottawa was a
station on the Montreal-Vancouver run. The Canadian National added their
competition in 1920. Both have run daily trains ever since.
‘The Grand Trunk made its belated arrival into
Ottawa when it bought Booth’s Canada Atlantic, which, by this time had also gone
clear through to Depot Harbor on Georgian Bay.
‘Hereabouts, such quaint rails as the Push, Pull
and Jerk (Pontiac and Pacific Junction) as well as the Gatineau were acquired by
the CPR.
‘The New York and Ottawa Railroad reached in from
Tupper Lake, Ney York, and for many years offered four passenger trains a day
between here and Cornwall and beyond. They tore up the rails just a few
years ago, and the Queensway now covers its historic right-of-way.
‘Then in 1909, Ottawa’s last railway invaded the
capital. The Canadian Northern, that expensive and picturesque toy of the
Mackenzie and Mann dynasty came in from Hawkesbury and Quebec in 1909. In
November, it made a characteristic if dramatic debut, when it arrived two hours
late behind two locomotives. It arrived at its brand new station at
Hurdman’s Road. Later, the Canadian Northern moved into the Union Depot
from where its trains reached out toward Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
‘This last decade, the railways have been
reversing themselves in a baleful and tragic strip tease, as they take off this
train and abandon that track.
‘So tomorrow, September 4th, when the big 6153
blows for Alta Vista Road, that, as far as railways in Ottawa are concerned, is
the end of steam.
‘We had a good 105 years. Life's Going To Be Dull Without CPR's Old "33", September 3rd, 1958
‘The Canadian Pacific Railway took Pool train 23 and 24 off the Ottawa-Toronto
run, after Labor Day. Every night, for 18 years now, Saturday excepted,
this train has left Ottawa around midnight for Toronto. Though described
as “pool”, it ran over CPR tracks with a CPR crew all the way.
‘Back at the beginning of the war, they found the
night train, No. 33, so heavy. they started to run it in two sections.
(No. 33 actually began to run from old Broad Street Station at the turn of the
century). But train controller Tom Lockwood, would not even admit the existence
of this new train, since he had decreed that no new trains to go on the Toronto
or any other run,.
‘So it was a wide-open secret that there was
another train to Toronto at night, and she went by the name: “The Second
33”.
‘In the old days, when I would be playing bridge
after 11 p.m. – I lived it up those days – I might look up from my potential
three no trump and remark:
“The Second 33”.
“I beg your pardon”, my partner would say Then I would
have to explain what the second 33 was.
‘The train ran via Trenton and Oshawa rather than follow the
first 33 via Havelock and Peterboro.
‘Everybody liked it, because it left late, and
arrived late. It was the last thing out of Toronto at night. In
winter, instead of arriving on a cold dark winter “night”, you got to Ottawa
late enough to step off in daylight.
‘The secret of the second 33 became such an open one
that it was finally dignified with the number 23, and it has run now just about
18 years.
‘But the coach business has fallen off – no one
wants to go to Port Hope or Oshawa at night apparently, and the sleeper business
has languished, as we’ve bred a new breed of
early-to-bed-and-early-to-
‘So say goodbye to this grand war-time
train. Her big 2400 blasted her way through what later became Alta
Vista We took the curve at Kemptville like a cortege, and the late sitters
got a vista of Smiths Falls at one a.m. Came the dawn, and maybe
Whitby or it could be rejoining the double track at Agincourt. Then
down to Don River till you were set down opposite the Royal York Hotel
tunnel.
‘But the biggest thrill of all was on the return trip,
when they double-headed you up the long crawl to Leaside Station, while the
train fell back to a creep, as the engines cough got hoarser all the time.
‘As I say, the CPR is making life dull for me. Gets A Sound Scolding For Railroadin
‘I got scolded by a railroader who calls himself “T.A.” He says I muffed
things when I described the Canadian Pacific’s mountain climbing type, The
Selkirk 5920 series, as “by far the biggest ever to run in Canada”.
‘If you are not a railroader, skip the next
paragraph.
‘T.A. chides me for calling these 5920’s 4-10-4’s
types, when actually their wheel arrangement is o-0000-oo. The Americans
call them Texas Type. Then he notes these 5920’s are the smallest of the
Selkirks. Actually, of course, the first 20 of these engines are the most
rugged, but they are not as handsome as the 5920-5929 class.
‘Then my critical friend asks what became of
the 8000 class. That, I am afraid, is a secret buried in the heart of
President Buck Crump. I well remember the whooping and hollering about
their super locomotive and the CPR then built a wooden staircase up into her
cab, as she stood proudly in Windsor Station. But, alas, somewhere along
the line, the big 8000 must have flopped. For not only did they never
build another, but they actually tore this one to pieces. It is as if she
never existed.
‘I am further told that somebody in the CPR also
ordered destroyed all pictures of the 8000 class. Thus does this Behemoth
join the dead bones of the earlier 2900-2901 class and the 3100-3101 class,
which were spectacular failures. At least, the CPR never built any more of
them.
‘It has always seemed to be strange that the
Canadian Pacific could never develop a high-class engine with four wheels on
both sides. This despite the fact that the CPR’s Pacific’s (oo-000-o) and
Hudson’s (oo-000-oo) were so successful. Yet, the Canadian National rolled
off hundreds of the 6000 to 6200 class with four wheels on each side, thus
oo-0000-oo, as you find them on the 6200’s.
‘Thanks to any non-railroaders who stayed to the
bottom of the column. Vancouver Only Three Sleeps Away In Push-Butto
‘Super!”’
‘That is the best say to describe the Canadian
National Railways’ sumptuous new streamliner, the Super Continental
Limited.
‘On a special tour Saturday afternoon,
a preview of this crack continental flier was afforded Ottawa newspapermen as
the new No. 1 went from Ottawa to Pembroke and Brent.
‘The Super Continental Limited is the new
transcontinental train on the CNR from Montreal to Vancouver via Ottawa.
‘Put in Indian language, the speeded up
schedule makes Vancouver only “three sleeps” away instead of four.
Winnipeg is only one night from Ottawa instead of two, as heretofore. The
Donald Gordon system also insist that their new train offers the fastest time
between Ottawa and Winnipeg.
‘However, this train is not to be measured in time
alone, as the Saturday safari showed. Sharp at 3:05 p.m., it rolled out of
Union Station, Pembroke-bound. Its twin gold and green diesels haul the
train so smoothly through the landscape that one hardly knows when one is
sitting or where it is stopping, Nor is the average passenger aware as to the
high speed he is making. There is no speed up or slow down on the diesel
job as there inevitably has been on the romantic if less efficient steam
power. Anyway, no more insomnia on the Super.
‘The Super Continental has beautiful new pastel
shades for day coaches and parlor cars alike . The trim decor of the
buffet longer car spell sumptuousness, exude luxury.
‘In the dining car, whether one relishes his special
Lobster National salad or munches an a la carte club sandwich, time and distance
seem to roll by effortlessly.
‘Back in the rooms, the new push-button world will
be a revelation to passengers. The whole train, genie-like, becomes the
willing servant of an exacting traveller, literally at a twitch of the finger
tips.
‘The green 6500 and 6600 engines soon had the
train out of Ottawa’s Union Station on a Magic Carpet ride. Up in airy
Alta Vista soared the Super. Poor denizens out there looked up and forgot
their second mortgages as they gaped, wasted the grass seed while their eyes
popped. Then gaining altitude and speed, there was the Bowesville Road,
here the Rideau River, that was Bells Corners, this was Mallwood (sp). Out into
deepest Carleton County, the train purred, as one passed the farm houses where
everybody votes the Tory ticket and goes 100 percent for Drew.
‘To many an Ottawa accustomed to this trip at
night, it was a revelation to learn that the main line of the Canadian National
crosses the Ottawa River not once, but twice, as it takes the short cut cross
country to Pembroke. So at Fitzroy, the Super picked its way across the
miniature Thousand Islands to the Quebec side. Then a quick look at Norway
Bay in late spring, a fast glance at Bristol and here we were crossing the
Ottawa again above Portage du Fort and high-tailing it for Beachburg
Ontario.
‘All too soon it was Pembroke Junction, where a
thousand people turned out to greet the slick new streamliner. Among those
coming aboard to greet Eddie Marsh, The Citizen news editor, and other Citizen
personnel, was Mrs. Clare Brunton and her sister Mae. Mrs. Brunton, as
Jean Logan, was The Citizen’s woman’s editor and feature writer during a
brilliant journalistic career. It seemed like old home week up there in
Pembroke and it was only broken up by the conductor;s inexorable “All
Aboard”. Incidentally, the Super Continental will not stop regularly at
Pembroke Junction.
‘The return trip, with the two dining cars serving up
meals that had the concentrated cunning of great chefs, seemed to take about
five minutes. Before we knew it, here was Ottawa, darn it. We were
back too soon.
‘Super is the word for it. It's Montreal To Ottawa Non-Stop In Two Hours, 27 September 1955
‘History was made last Sunday afternoon, when, for the first time in history,
a train was scheduled to run from Montreal to Ottawa, non-stop, in two
hours. I was at the ringside, when I stood in the cab of the twin diesel
and saw Super Continental No. 1 go from downtown Montreal to downtown Ottawa, a
distance of 117.7 miles in 120 minutes.
‘I crawled up into the giant cab of 6503 which was
coupled to rear unit 6605. Engineer was Hermengilde Blais, Montreal, while the
fireman was Eddie Robertson, 714 4th Avenue, Verdun. Behind us was
Conductor J. P. Ouelette.
‘Sharp on four, the fireman cried “Green Light”
and he was echoed back by the engineer: “Green Light”. So we began the
slow but spectacular journey through a maze of tracks. Not only is it bad
enough for the big train to be hypothetically held back by two crossings of the
Lachine Canal, it seemed to me also that there were too may yellow over red and
yellow-yellow signs. Big American terminals give their crack trains better
operating than that. We did not fool around at Turcot for any engine
change and once in the clear, there we were allowed to go 60, then 80. It
seemed incredible that we then had only 103 minutes to get to Ottawa because the
operation department required 17 full minutes to clear the yard terminals.
‘Then we moaned along the Island of Montreal,
while the dial went 62-64-70-75-80 and held an even 80 going past Beaconsfield
station,. We roared by our opposite number when we passed
Super-Continental east of Ste. Annes.
‘Then around the curve which is Ile Perrot and
onto the mainland. They gave us a “red” at Coteau and a fellow came out
with some orders on a long stick,. I grabbed them. There was nothing in
them we did not know. They gave us rights, though we travelled west and in
the inferior direction, over No. 50 to pass at Limoges.
‘Then over the CPR double-tracks at De Beaujeu
Junction, into Ontario at Glen Robertson, and we took Alexandria on the
fly.
‘Up to now, we had lost eight minutes. Come
to find out, the front diesel apparently had not read the new time table and
thus for more than 60 miles, the big streamliner was being carried by the second
locomotive only. Finally, Engineer Blais got the front end working, the
big fellow cut in, and we started to race as if chased by the Canadian
Pacific.
‘:I’m going to try and make it.” grinned Engineer
Blais.
‘There were times we were below 80 MPH, but after
we crossed the Nation River at Casselman, we held it a steady 85 MPH,
Indeed, when we got on that race track across the “Mere (sp) Bleu”, he had to
feed her air once in a while to keep her down to 85. The head end diesel
was really feeling her oats now. Too bad No, 6503 hadn’t read the
time card earlier.
‘We passed No, 50, the Montreal-bound, “in the
hole” at Limoges, and we raced past Vars and Carlsbad as if they were not
there. Ottawa terminals gave us the green light all the way in, and we hit
the deep cut in an even two hours. That made history.
‘’Jules Leger, External Affairs pontifico, and a
parlor car patron, remarked to me as he strode toward the exit: “That was
fast”. Explaining The Mystery Of Train's Early Run. 17 May 1958 ‘L. B. Miskell writes all the way from Goose Bay, Labrador, to dispute my statement that a train could arrive in Toronto 15 minutes ahead of time. ‘With some acerbity, he says that if I can
borrow a rule book from the railway, I will find out that a train “must not
arrive more than five minutes in advance of their schedule time of arrival at
any station”.
‘Former Canadian Pacific Brakeman Miskell, who is
now WO1 Miskell, RCAF, evidently never made the Friday afternoon trip to
Toronto. If he had done so, he would know that CPR 263 often carried as
many as a dozen coaches to Brockville. This being too much to add to the
already heavy CNR No. 15, due soon, the Caadian National makes up an Advance
15. The CNR engine, baggage car and maybe one coach is already on
track,. The shunter backs in the Ottawa section, and then the train takes
off as Advance 15. Thus this first section of the International Limited
runs 15 minutes ahead all the way, and arrives at Toronto Union at 9:30 p.m.,
standard instead of 9:45 p.m. I hope this answers brakeman-warrant officer
Miskell. Railway Keeps Her Around Because Of Her Size (CP 2-6-0 3011), 14 July 1954 ‘Take a last look at old Canadian Pacific No.
3011. She is the great, great grandmother of all steam locomotives on the
Canadian Pacific. Her longevity was inspired by the fact that old 3011 was
the only steam locomotive that could go through the Brockville tunnel. The
3011 is 66 years old.
‘When 3011 was “outshopped”, Queen Victoria was on
the throne and still had 13 years to reign. President Cleveland was in his
first term of office (that’s 12 presidents ago) Prime Minister Sir John A.
Macdonald was alive with three years of power still ahead of him.
‘No. 3011 is a Mogul, a type of engine which has
joined the mastodon and dodo into extinction.
‘Old 3011 began life as the biggest of her class
when she came out of Montreal’s Angus Shops back in 1888. It was the 88th
mogul to be built. Known as a 2-6-0, the wheel arrangement is thus:
o-000.
‘It was the last of its kind, and the diameter of
its driving wheels is 58 inches.
‘At one time, it handled all the fancy high-class
freight trains and was even capable of taking a turn on the passenger
runs. But the times got out of joint, and for the last ten years and more,
it has been a fixture in and around Brockville.
‘Passengers taking the train to Toronto have
often seen this old-fashioned engine switching in the Brockville yards.
The story was that the engine was the only one that could go through the old CPR
tunnel there. This, however, is no longer a valid reason for keeping the
3011, because a diesel can be found that will penetrate Brockville’s ancient
ancient bore.
‘No. 3011 did not begin her life exactly as she looks
now. Like more than one venerable lady, she had had her face lifted.
After all, she came out during an epoch when wood burners were still common,
cabbage stacks stylish, and variable gauge a whim of the day. Thus the
3011 you see today does not look like No. 3011 of 1888.
‘Through it all, 66-year-old No. 3011 has
survived. Today, the old mogul is vacationing in Montreal. ABOARD
THE CANADIAN (Before Strike) -
‘Even at Field, your fall from the height of land
at the great Divide is not over, and so The Canadian drops another 1,500 feet
‘till it reaches the mighty Columbia River at Golden. Few passengers
realize how really rugged it is, fighting through the Kicking Horse Pass often
at less than 10 miles an hour.
‘Then, once beyond Beavermouth (the most
northerly point on the main line of the CPR, by the way), the train starts to
climb again,. You think it has been tough up to now. Well here in
less than 17 miles, the CPR soars up 1200 feet through the Connaught Tunnel in
Glacier, during which time the river at the left dwindles in perspective ‘till
finally it seems like a thread on the carpet. Then the long Connaught
tunnel and then Glacier. You would think that is all? Engineers will
tell you it is as hard to come down a hill as to go up. So The Canadian
rolls down 2300 feet in picturesque ellipses through the Cascades, sweeping by
gorgeous Albert Canyon on its way,. Here you have dropped from 3778 feet
to 2224 feet, or 1500 feet, but you still must plumb the depths by another 900
feet from here to snow-bound Revelstoke.
‘Except for bothersome, if picturesque, Notch
Hill, there are no great territorial hazards and you also slip by the cairn at
Craigellachie, where at Mile 2530.3, Lord Strathcona drove the last spike and
with his final swing, joined Montreal and Vancouver. The bearded Scot completed
Confederation right here, little though anybody pauses nowadays to honor this
hallowed site.
‘Before morning broke, I awoke to see a big diesel
pacing our train across the narrow canyon of the Thompson River in a snowless,
gloomy gorge. The CPR had the narrow curves to take on its side and so got
ahead of us. But once its pirouettes were on the big side of the river
bank curves, we passed it and left it still pickup its way amide the gaunt
rocks.
‘Then back under the counterpane again and when I next
surfaced, there was green pasture and also a cow. We were now in the lower
Fraser Valley. We had sloughed the snowdrifts. Suddenly on another
side. there was the ragged duster of the British merchant marine. This was
the sea, and here was Vancouver. The Canadian hit it on the dot. At the
top of the escalator, Joan, my daughter and Fletcher, my son.
‘What Ottawa needs is a five-hour train to Toronto. Though President
Donald Gordon persists in doubting that it can be done, the hard fact is that
more than 20 years ago, the Canadian National all but did it in five
hours. That was before pooling.
‘In the halcyon days of Sir Henry Thornton
and Sir Edward Beatty, the CNR used to run swiftly to Napanee, couple up with
the Montreal section, then move serenely on to Toronto. We do the same
stunt now but we have the more awkward two-railway deal at Brockville.
‘One of the worst features of the present pooling
system is that the day parlor cars are old, the night sleepers almost as
ancient. I will say that the CNR have done a lot to titivate their parlor
cars while the Canadian Pacific’s 6600 class chairs cars are dull enough.
‘With a five-hour schedule, the CNR can even make
it with a light engine and without diesel to Napanee. From here to the
junction point at Napanee could be a real, non-stop speedway (with flag at
Smiths Falls).
‘As things now are, the morning local runs in on milk
train schedule, stops at Hull, Hull West, Ottawa West and Westboro, all in the
city limits, you might say. It is a slow affair, and misses the fast train
to Toronto (Lake Shore Express).
‘Ottawa deserves a better service to Toronto than
the present 6.15 hour time, which is not as good as they were doing 25 years
ago. Time brings Sudbury and Montreal closer to Ottawa, but keeps shoving
Toronto farther and farther away. We are worse off now than in 1933.
‘Let Donald Gordon put on a train leaving here,
say at 5 p.m., and arriving in Toronto at 10 p.m. The CPR nightside pool
trains could speed up the slow service via Trenton and perk up the Peterboro
night local. (Also cut that 50-minute wait at Smiths Falls on CPR No.
23). For a quarter century now, the night trains have been dull and slow,
with old equipment and no eating facilities.
‘No wonder the railways are driving the business
to the planes. But first, let’s have that five-hour train. Adjoining picture has Austin Cross boarding ‘The Canadian’ and waving to the cameraman. Caption reads: ‘He’s Not An MP – No. 1 railroad fan of Ottawa, and
possibly of Canada, Citizen columnist Austin F. Cross wears a look of happy
anticipation as he boards the CPR’s gleaming new “Canadian” on its inaugural run
April 24th, 1955. He’ll report on the train’s progress as far as Winnipeg.
Photo by Newton.
‘ABOARD THE CANADIAN
‘Somewhere between heaven and earth am I, as I
ride through the air, deliciously suspended from a roomette aboard the new
Canadian Pacific’s glamor train ‘the Canadian’. Reputed fastest of all
coast-to-coast trains in Canada’s history, it is a bit more. It is as fine
a train as I ever saw.
‘With its glass-end observation car, its
double domes for day coach and sleeping car passengers alike, it is something
more than that.
subtitle: ‘An Institution
‘Still only a few hours old, ‘the Canadian’ is
already an institution. You feel proud as you ride this train of trains,
this super sumptuous string of stainless steel, this thrilling Canadian
institution. I am trying to say that, trainwise, I never had it so
good.
‘What impressed me most as slid slowly through
Ottawa, threaded through Britannia and Stittsville before easing around the edge
of Carleton Place was the crowds. They jammed roads and station platforms
everywhere. This is not just a train going someplace, this is a tour of
triumph. They hung on to the rafters at Almonte and even forelorn Snedden
produced a quorum. There were people all along the tracks at Arnprior, and
as we ripped through Renfrew, it seemed the whole town was down to wave us
through. Soft music wafts us on our way.. The dome car offers sun
bathing and there are other enticing
amenities.
subtitle: ‘Tour Of Triumph ‘But it seems to me that ‘the Canadian’ has a
charm and an atmosphere all its own. This train has elegance. It has
beauty. It has an air. It will keep anybody hustling even to equal
this sumptuous club on wheels. As I said before, this is not just a train
going some place, it is a tour of triumph. By Austin F. Cross I rode the Train of Tomorrow yesterday. Who Wants An Engine For His Front Lawn? 17 July 1948 To
every newspaperman, the number "30" has special significance. It means
of course, the end cf the story, and it is written countless times at
the bottom of one's copy. Often you will hear a city editor yell to the
scribe at the typewriter: "Make it '30'," meaning to shut off the story
there. Well, two years ago I went up and wrote a feature story about
CPR engine No. 30, which was built in 1886. and is therefore over 60
years of age by now, and which at the time was running between Renfrew
and Eganville. I had an idea at the time that since No. 30 had run out of Ottawa for so many years, Ottawa should ask the Canadian Pacific to give Ottawa the engine. From what I could glean around Windsor Station, the then president, D. C. Coleman, favored the idea. No. 30 had operated out of Ottawa for many years, and as recently as 1940 took the Pontiac run. But even that got too much for the brave old engine, and she was relegated to the Eganville-Renfrew run. Now I have just had word from Montreal that she is rusting away in the Angus Shops. When it was suggested that we could get that engine for one of our parks, what do you think our city fathers were saying? They were wondering if there was any liability to all this. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth * * * Actually, Winnipeg has had old CPR No. 1 in a park for 32 years that I know of, and it hasn't killed anybody yet. Nor have more than the usual quota of small boys fallen off it. Probably no more kids will bounce on their faces off No. 30 than off any public statue. It seems to me that we ought to get No. 30, and if our city fathers still wish to deny children the pleasure of seeing this historic engine, then perhaps the government might do something. I hereby draw the attention of Fred Bronson of the Federal District Commission that it would be no trick at all to get the CPR to give the FDC this engine. This historic locomotive is a link with the past, and it has been associated ever since Sir John A. Macdonald's day with the Ottawa Valley. I am sure it would become a much photographed landmark, a tourist "must" and it would bring happiness to many Ottawans. Lastly, why could not this be the mascot of the Ottawa Press Club. In this business of deadlines, we have only one number, and that is "30". Why could not the Press Club put on a little pressure to get - and adopt - this mascot? 'Cross Town by Austin Cross For more than forty years now a railway bell has been calling faithful Anglicans to church. What astonishes me is that I have been scooped on such a story for that church bell is right over my own Ottawa East. How the church bell got from the bottom of the Rideau canal to the top of Ascension Church belfry is an interesting story. This is one Lud Hawkins shouldn't miss. One day, back about '04 or '05 before any lady working on the The Evening Citizen was born, Engineer Frank Turner of the old Canada Atlantic Railway was easing a train eastward from Bank Street toward the Rideau canal. Handling the shovel was Fred Page. As often happens, when an engineer has a good fireman, he lets the knight of the shovel take over. "Take her over Fred." he said. Those were the saddest words he ever said. Fred took her over and started to wheel No. 33 toward the bridge. She was a little old Rhode Island type. Then, as now, there was a swing bridge, and the bridge opened to let traffic through. There was a lot more water traffic then than now. For what reason I know not, Fred ran C.A.R. No. 33 through the open bridge. In a word, he put her in the drink. No. 33 settled down calmly and quietly into the ooze and that was than. I am not sure what happened to Frank Turner, but it was goodbye to the Canada Atlantic for Fred Page. Mr Turner, incidentally, dead many years, had a son, Louis Turner, who worked for the Canadian National. Meanwhile Fred Page got a job for the Ottawa Electric and ran on the street cars for Athearn and Soper for many years before he retired. He is dead now. The little Rhode island engine sat in the ooze for some time till the Canada Atlantic got the hook, and hauled her out. At this time, somebody mentioned in Ascension Church that they were without a bell. I got in touch with Mrs Ike Johnson, 137 Hawthorne, who is over 30, and who recalls the incident very well. Rose Johnson said that when the matter of the bell came up. Joe Leslie, then people's warden at Ascension drew attention to the existence of this bell and said he thought he could get it. It also happened that E.J. Chamberlain, who klater became president of the Grand Trunk which bought the Canada Atlantic, was the original general manager of the CAR. The result was that it was an easy thing to get the train bell for the Anglican Church on Echo drive. Old No. 33 has gone to that heaven of all engines, the scrap heap, a long long time ago. But there's a touch of immortality about old 33 just the same. For each Sunday the spirit of the little Rhode Islander rings out a message, calling the Ottawa east Agglicans to church. As it ding dongs a message to the faithful, it conjures up a message to the old timers still alive. This gorgeous $2,000,000 blue and silver streamliner is easily the finest train ever to come into Canada. It looks as if it were something dreamed up by Hollywood, but actually was tossed together by those dull old fellows, General Motors. With glass-filled astra domes astride the top of the roofs, where you could sit deep in cushions, hoist a glass of buttermilk toward the sky and watch the scenery at a mile-and-a-half a minute, you felt you were not travelling but instead you had been a good boy, always had done the things your city editor had told you to do, and here you were already in heaven. You didn't ride, you wafted through the sky like nobody in Arabian Nights ever did. This was your own personal Magic Carpet. Only when you looked out and saw the word Osgoode did you come back to this world, and realize it was not heaven but Carleton County. The Train of Tomorrow, to get down to facts which is hard when you want to relapse into rhapsodies, is a streamline four-car vision of delight pulled by one diesel engine. That it can probably go 120 miles an hour is interesting but not important, that it logged 95 yesterday around Trenton is interesting, that it whooped it up at Merrickville at 75 MPH was at least stimulating. This train doesn't know its own strength, and rolled gently through the historic counties of Lanark, Grenville and Carleton yesterday under wraps. * * * The front car is a chair car, and is known as Star Dust. It has an astra dome, which is the old fasioned freight cupola, all prettied up. While it will actually accommodate 72 persons you feel almost as if you are in a private car; up there at the top of the train. I could not get it out of my head that you could ride in such a car as this, in United States, this very day, at a cheaper rate per mile than you pay in the old hearses certain railways run out of Ottawa today. The Burlington Route, to mention one, operates astra dome cars or vista domes as they call them on their California Zephyr daily. When will we ever come tp that in Canada? * * * The Sky View diner is something to knock the eyes off even the most jaded sophisticate. Who could imagine a dining salon, private, suitable for anything from two to ten people, tucked away cosily "downstairs" on the train. This in contrast to eating under the sky, up in the astra dome. Or, to be conventional, in the strangely shaped but most practical dining tables set catti-cornered in the main floor of the diner. Dishes attractive enough to thrill a ceramics expert, and the first all-electric kitchen on train wheels. are only part of an almost fantastic diner. The Dream Cloud sleeping car, with its many levels, could easily be something Walt Disney devised You go down into drawing rooms that make the latest word seem like an ancient fable. You step down on illuminated glass steps, and as you gaze around, you wonder if you will wake up. Only the balding dome of Kenneth MacGillivray, the GM trouble shooter, reminds you that you are really awake. If you are not already entranced by this dream on wheels by the time you get to the last car, be prepared to shed the last shreds of reality for the portals of Make- Believe as you glide into Moon Glow. This is the observation car. The observation end is delightful but as a long time veteran of twice two dozen streamline trips, this merely had the easy familiar ity a Hollywood star has with orchids. The General Motors sales talk refers to "counterparts of smart supper clubs." That is an understatement if ever I saw one This car is the kind of car you never want to leave, you don't believe it is true, and you are always afraid to move, lest you wake up, break the spell, and be told the paper's been calling you. * * * While the sky ride undoubtedly is the biggest thrill, it is hard to express to those who have not seen Sam McLaughlin's train, the exciting things like ramps from one level of the train to another, the stimulating pastel shades, the beautiful furniture, the fancy Open Sesame doors, the half a hundred stunning sights that follow one upon another. There just hasn't ever been anything like it in Canada before. The General Motors train is as far ahead of anything we've got in Canada as television is ahead of the magic lantern. * * * I boarded the Train of Tomorrow at Smiths Falls, where thousands of people turned out to see her. In Ottawa, her arrival was for some reason mostly unheralded, and only those who saw her by accident watched the dreamliner go by. Many of those who saw didn't believe their eyes anyway. The Train of Tomorrow rolled out of Smiths Falls, limbered herself up a bit, took Rosedale on the fly, and then gave the people of Merrickville, home of Harry McLean, a real thrill. Then highball again, till we got the slow order outside Bedell, where we made the left-hand switchover to the Ottawa line. Silliest creature of the afternoon was a woman at Kemptville who held her hands over her ears in the belief that the noise of the diesel would deafen her. Prize for indifference was the man out near Ellwood, who stood with his back to the train as it went by. Up there in the astra dome, the glories of Eastern Ontario, attired in their autumnal garb of red, yellow, and gold, were eye balm, rivalled the train itself, as nature did her best to out-do the best licks General Motors had given their streamliner. Then, ahead of her down, she coasted to 15 miles an hour, and came into Ottawa, an exciting sight to see. The tragedy was that there were almost none to see her, and why the whole business was not advertised sky high I'll never tell you. We should have had 50,000 out to see this super snake on wheels. W. J. Creighton, travelling engineer, acted as pilot man while the experienced General Motors crew brought her in. Behind the draw bar was Conductor Ivan Harris of Smiths Falls; while the brakemen were V. J. Doyle and P. W. Burt, also of the Falls. The CPR are taking some members of Parliament out on her today, then the Canadian National gets hold of her on Thursday for a run down to Montreal. Meanwhile, it will be on exhibition in the yards off Besserer Street. Mayor Bourtjue made the trip. "This," he said enthusiastically at the end of the trip, "is going to revolutionize railroading." The mayor was never a better prophet. On the Way to Montreal, 10 December 1929 Many people have taken the train to Montreal, but nobody ever seems to have written about It. This commonest ot trips has been unsung by poets and unhonored by scriveners who have meanwhile, dilated lavishly on the loveliness of the south, the hardships of the north, the future of the west, and pre-Confederation glories of the east. It's about time somebody said something about trip to Montreal. Montreal, according to its own admissions is a city of million people, situated on an extinct volcano now familiarly known by Jacques Cartier's label, Mount Royal. It to 113.3 miles by Canadian Pacific short line, 116.5 by Canadian National main route, 120.3 by North Shore Canadian Pacific, and 113.5 by Canadian National Tunnel Terminal. It to more than three hours by car snd two days by boat. As you leave Ottawa, you fly past the gas works panorama and railroad yards ol the New York Central, before crossing the Rideau and cutting loose in good earnest. Going by Canadian Pacific, you slip past a number of stations. English tn their name, but now as French as Gaspe. Blackburn. Navan, Leonard. Hammond. Bourget (formerly The Brook), Pendleton, Plantagenet. Alfred. Caledonia Springs and McAlpine are all in name as English as five o'clock tea or broad a's. It is an Ironic touch that the first English town has a non-English name, Vankleek Hill being named after that inhabited nob in Prescott county, about a century ago. Now not a Vankleek can be found, beat about the town as you may. Meanwhile, if you travel by Canadian National (and here the writer emulates the circus equestrian and rides two horses at once you pass first, the now cobwebby spa at Carlsbad Springs, once famed for its water, but now gone back in prestige like its rival. Caledonia Springs, which was a bigger place hundred years ago than it is today. So we come to the mythical junction of South Indian, where the old line from Rockland used to join the main route by means of what courteously was described as a train. But the sobriquet South Indian jarred the finer susceptibilities of the folk thereabout, and the lofty-sounding Limoges now replaces it. This to the spot where they spilled the Irish President Cosgrave few years ago. There are good towns on this line, the old Canada Atlantic under the direction of its owner, the late J. R. Booth, building wisely. The best of all these is Alexandra, where Gaelic may yet be heard, and which more truly seems to typify the county town of the united counties than the commercial Cornwall. At Glen Robertson, a really and truly junction to seen, the C.N. from Hawkesbury shooting in a 21-mile spur. Then the line continues east, allowing the traveller a view of Rigaud mountain far off to the left, before banging across the CP. Montreal-Toronto line near St. Polycarpe. Reverting to the CP- the train passes Stardale, a shanty the size of a switchman house, built on a little hummock, and after stopping at St. Eugene, rips into Rigaud. This French educational town has near it, Dragon, which blew up in 1917 when T.N.T. was being made there. The ruin can still be seen. It ts hard to find any scenery anywhere much prettier than the brief vista afforded the traveller as at reduced speed, he skirts Two Mountains Lake at Hudson. Towering beyond the lake are the twin Laurentide hills, with fertile acres nestling at the foot. A little lighthouse, white by day and cheerful flash of light by night stands out in contrast, while the islands that fleck the watery expanse give the picture kinship with these overdrawn and over-colored postcard conceptions of Swiss lakes. Hard by is also the home of foot-packed Oka cheese. Then both railroads shoot out Into a magnificent expanse of line fences, and together they run Info Vaudreuil. This is where the fun begins. As often as not. there to a race between the trains, and the inequalities of schedule fore-ordain in the passing of one train by another. If not, perhaps a friendly freight will provide fleeting rivalry, as it rolls merrily along. If one train has a local stop to make, it therefore has a faster schedule, and the passengers have the thrill of passing and being passed. There are always great racing diversions along here, and one glimpses Dorval race track, the wish rises that some of the "bangtails" could have given the holder of uncollectable stubs just half as good a run for his money. Then the backyards of Montreal, viewed over your shoulder from the CN, or in panorama from the CP. Westmount on the left, followed by coach yards, box car, and first thing you know, red cap is making off with your carpet bag. Of course, you can take the day off and go North Shore. Unfortunately, both the North Shore and Tunnel route are much more picturesque, but slow locals, lack of parlor cars and eating facilities more or less bar anything but hardy travellers of the Byrd or MacAlpine type, and then one does not always think to bring along a book to keep a diary. However, on behalf of those whose zeal for penetrating this rural fastness has been whetted, comfort can be proffered. Firstly. the Canadian National will some day use this as the main line to Winnipeg and Vancouver. Just as they employ a continuation of it from Federal to North Bay at present (This part about using the Tunnel Terminal line to Citizen scoop!) Secondly, the Canadian Pacific already has added a parlor buffet car once a day via North Shore, and operates into Windsor Station. With the developments at Montebello. It is predicted a fast train will be put on in a year or so .At least. If that information did not come from President Beatty. tt was told the wnter by cook in a CP. dining car. It therefore looks that as if within this generation, fast trains luxurious trains, will serve these little known routes. The history of these lines, properly told, should make good reading, particularly dealing with the old days of crazy rivalry, eight-foot drive wheels, and less-than-two-hour trains After a decade of slow scheduling, the railways are snapping back now to something like fast time, and two-hour and forty-minute runs are the order on both lines in one particular pair of rival Limiteds. Those wanting to hear about the Montreal trip by boat or car will have to wait. By Austin F. Cross Evening Citizen Staff Writer. New buses are expected by mid-week for the Hull Electric Company, it was announced by A. V. Gale, general manager, this morning, as he outlined plans to funnel his traffic through the Ottawa Electric at the Hull loop. Mr. Gale, still busy surveying the damage, said that he estimated it would be three months before the bridge would be ready for electric cars again. "Meanwhile, we are going ahead with local service on the Hull side," he said. Trams Marooned Three Hull Electric trams are marooned on this side, Mr. Gale said. with no immediate chance of getting them back. The manager said he spent all morning on the phone, trying to get new buses in this emergency. We are going to get electric cars runninig on the Belt Line as soon as the hose lines are up," he said, "and then we shall run an augmented electric service, plus gome buses, to handle the traffic." Phoned Toronto Not having much equipment, Mr. Gale explained that he phined Toronto and five other places to see what he could, do about busses. "Busses previously on order, and then delayed, we now expect to get by the middle of next week," said Mr Gale. "The three originally due far March 31, then delayed, may reach us by then. "We could take more busses If , we could get them, and I would like to get my hands on six more busses; we could use them." he said. Mr. Gales said that the new orientation of the Hull Electric service would be to bring traffic to the Ottawa Electric at the Hull loop at the end of the Chaudiere Bridge, and then turn it over to the Ottawa Electric. Mr. Gale regarded as preposterous ! the story that sparks from a hot motor dropped on to the bridge setting it on fire. He thought such stories were ill-advised, and was sorry they had appeared. At this date. he said, the true cause of the fire had not been learned. The new Hull Electric-Ottawa Electric tie up will mean enormously stepped up service on the Hull line, and the extra business will be reminiscent of the old days of small street cars, back in the times when Hull was wet and Ottawa dry. Track Removal Giant Project Estimated Cost $200 Million, 16 June 1947 Cross town tracks will disappear; the Canadian Pacific line across the Alexandra Bridge will disappear, industries along the cross town tracks will disappear, and Ottawa will have a joint terminal scheme, in the long range Greber plans, it was learned today. Estimated cost of re-routing Ottawa's rail terminals is $200,000,000. The whole railway map of the Capital will be re-drawn, and among railways to disappear will be the CPR line to Sussex street through New Edinburgh. Plans may take, as much as half a century to mature in some cases, while other alterations may be almost immediate. The cross town tracks from the Deep Cut through Ottawa will go, and in their place a joint transportation scheme will handle trains for Arnprior and Renfrew over the CNR, on the other Canadian National line which runs through Billings Bridge and crosses the Rideau near Hog's Back. The Canadian Pacific will abandon its route through Hull, and go out on its own rails, or some joint rails, and will branch off, as far as Carleton Place and Pembroke are concerned, at a point in the Graham Bay-Bell's Corners area. Industries located on the cross-town tracks will be moved, and relocated, presumably along a line either back of Billings Bridge, or a new line re-routed even further south. Compensation is to be provided for industries obliged to move The new railway station as generally known, will be further down toward the Deep Cut. Some locate it opposite Daly avenue, some move it down past Varsity Oval. Final location is not determined. The roundhouse and shops just beyond the Canal in Ottawa east are to disappear, and will be rebuilt' in modern style away out, presumably in the Bell's Corners-Graham Bay area. Joint Trackage The railways will use joint trackage, presumably under a terminal scheme such as in Toronto, or in big American railway stations. The New York Central shops and station will disappear, and it too will be located In the outer perimeter of the revamped city. The CPR roundhouse in Hintonburg is to disappear, and the railway yards down on the flats will be moved further west. Consultations between CNR engineers, CPR engineers and Greber's staff are continuing, with a view to clearing away many problems. Some of the plans are exceedingly long range, and many now living will not see some of them, but a start is to be made soon. The cost is estimated at $200,-000,000, but spread over 50 years, would seem like much less. Old Number 30 Has Run a Million Miles, 24 September 1940 There is a picture of #30, but it looks like a builder's photo. And the caption reads: OLD NUMBER 30 HAS RUN A MILLION MILES Any time now, they'll be pulling this locomotive, old No 30, off her Renfrew-Eganville run for good. The 58-year-old smoke eater is scheduled for the scrap heap, although she has been a fixture in these parts for 30 years. "What's wrong?" asks Evening Citizen writer Austin Cross, "with Mayor Stanley Lewis asking for old No. 30 for one of the city parks?" 'Number 30 is as distinctly Ottawa's engine as Vancouver's recently acquired No. #374, and Winnipeg has long had its No. 1. The old locomotive, according to Mr. Cross, would be a suitable memorial to bygone railroading days in one of Ottawa's parks with happy youngsters climbing in and out of its spic and span cab. (?) Austin Cross, Saviour of Engines, Wants Old No. 30 for City Park. Old No. 30, formerly a diamond-stacked wood burner, and most ancient of locomotives in this part of the world, is still running between Renfrew and Eganville. The Canadian Pacific Railway's old timer is 58 years of age, for she came into this world in 1887. That was the year that Sir John A. Macdonald made his second last appeal to the Canadian people, and the Americans had, only two years before, installed their first democratic president since the Civil War, Gover Cleveland. It seems a long time ago. Visited Old Girl This writer went up to pay a visit to the old girl the other day. No. 30 starts out bravely each week day morning to Eganville, from Renfrew, a distance of 22.9 miles. She leaves Renfrew at 11:30 a.m. and arrives at Eganville at 12:45 p.m. Then she spends an hour in Eganville, and turning around, comes back out again to Renfrew at 3:15 p.m. When she reaches the creamery town, her day's chore is over. The stations out of Renfrew are Payne, Northcote, Douglas, Fourth Chute and Eganville. Your correspondent was determined to ride the cab of 30, but by the time he reached Renfrew, it was a question lof how far down the line he could go and still catch the 58-year-old engine. He finally decided on Payne. So you see me, veteran of 102 railways, trying to find out where Payne was. A gasoline station attendant was completey fuddled, and admitted that he did not know how to direct me to Payne station. He just advised me to keep on going out the highway, watching the side roads. With important minutes ticking away, here I was, chasing down country roads trying to find Payne station. At last, I found a farmer harvesting a belated hay-crop. They tore it down. "Payne Station?" he said. "They tore it down. But look down there, see that little building? Well, that's all that is left of it. You go down to the next road, turn off the highway, and drive down to the tracks. Then get out of your car, and walk along the track. It's only a quarter mile walk." "I'd better hurry," I remarked, "I have only seven minutes." The farmer laughed. "She's due at five past three, all right, but she's due actually only when she gets there. You'll have plenty of time." He was right; I did. I got back into the car, doubled back to Highway No. 17, breezed a fast mile, then turned down the next concession road. After that, when we came to the high iron of the C.P.R., I walked west a quarter mile, and there, as big as a telephone booth, is Payne Station. Originally Some Station. Originally, there was quite a station at Payne, but business has languished the last 25 years or so, and it is now just used as a dispatching point. When No. 582 rolls in from Eganville (don't be confused, that's the number of the train that Engine 30 pulls), she has to stop here and pick her way onto the main line. Payne really is a junction. There is some phoning, some other protective ritual, and then No. 30 hauls slowly onto the main stam, resetting the switch carefully behind her. So remote is Payne now, that I wonder if she would have a dozen passengers a year. Certainly the C.P.R. isn't out for business there! While the grasshoppers tried their long range leaps, while the goldenrod nodded drowsily, and while the crickets tuned up for the fall field concerts. I sat and waited for old No. 30. It was so pleasant there, far from Parliament Hill, and the hubub of the new house, that I couldn't help thinking that I had all the best of it. Here I was waiting to ride a train, amid the beauties of a lovely junction in beautiful Renfrew County, while my fellow writers were pounding out politics on their overworked machines back in Ottawa. Funny Little Toot Finally, there was a funny little toot to the westward, and I knew that No. 30 was a-coming. I had an order to ride the cab from the C.P.R.'s Mr. J. Fortier, and so I quickly hopped into the head end. Handling the throttle was engineer L. Ritchie of Smiths Falls, while dispensing the black diamonds was fireman C. Hogan. (He retired as an engineer on #1 out of Ottawa with one of the VIA cuts, either 1981 or 1990). Far behind, way beyond the seven cars of freight, and back in the combination baggage-coach, was conductor Eric Peever if Eganville. Rounding out the crew were the two brakemen, J. Delahunt (he just lived up the street from me here in Ottawa) and J, M. Fraser. Conductor Peever, in working clothes instead of traditional conductor's cap, gave us the signal, and away we scooted downthe mail ine of the C.P.R. We had left the branch with its 25-mile-and-hour meximum, and were riding down the heavy rails, rolling on the track of the limited. Actually, there is nothing much to say about a trip from Payne to Renfrew, except that it is over quickly. But not too quickly to have a look around. The engine cab is as neat as a pin, and no svelte 2800 is any more spic and span that the train crew keep old No. 30. If you had seen the original engine come out of the Canadian Pacifc's old Delorimier Avenue shops back in 1887, you might not recognize the old girl today. To say that she has had her face lifted would be an understatement. When brand new, she was a smart, wood-burning job, and boasted of a great, bulging diamond stack. In those days, she didn't pull up to the coal chute for her load of black diamonds, but instead sidled up to the cordwood pile, loaded her heap of slivers, and snorted away in a shower of sparks. Her cow catcher, quite the mode of the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, has long since been removed, and she boasts of a more modern bull tosser. In 1913, she was re-boilered. but long before that, she had been converted to coal and her coutours had been changed to suit the age. What her original number was, I am not sure, but I remember looking at the old numbers on the drivers of some sister locomotive down at the C.P.R. roundhouse back in 1913, and they were all somewhere between 200 and 218. Once a Main Liner In her heyday, old No. 30 hightailed it down the main line between Montreal and Toronto, and was regarded as a classy job. Even today, if they let her go, No. 30 can run a mile a minute with relish. Trouble is, she cannot take enough cars at 60 miles per hour to make it worthwhile. No. 30 got her brand new number in 1913, and could be seen in Ottawa for some years thereafter. She was definitely in Ottawa in 1940, however, and ran on the Waltham train, making the 79.8 miles each way once a day. On Friday,. when the Pontiac trade was heavy, they sometimes gave her a long week-end, and coupled on a heavy 400 class instead. But with the progress of the war, the chore got to be too heavy for old 30, and so she was sent up to Renfrew county, where the air is renowned for its powers of longevity. There today, in the serenity of old age, No. 30 rolls in freight plus one passenger car every day of the week to and from Renfrew, During her day, No. 30, both during her recent reincarnation and in her previous wood-burning life, has run more than a million miles. But No. 30 today is in her late twilight. She cannot last much longer. Heavier steel, heavier loads, heavier demands, are gradually crowding such lovable oldtimers off the rails. Of her sisters, only 105 and 144 in the Maritimes, and 136 on the Smiths Falls-Renfrew run, still survive, in all the 20,000 odd miles of the C.P.R.'s tracks. In the newspaper business, "30" usually means the end. Perhaps some of these days too, they'll pull in the old timer, and she'll write her funeral notice with her own number--30. Abandoning Old Rail Line, 5 July 1952 Shed a tear for the old Brockville and Westport Railroad Donald Gordon, president of the Canadian National, the company now owning the Brockville and Westport, applied for abandonment of the line. To this sad proposal the Board of Transport Commissioners have agreed. Thus goes into history not only one of the most romantic railroads in Eastern Canada, but it also represents the mileage in the east for a long time. The railway ambles seemingly aimlessly from Brockville to Westport. On the map it is represented as a straight line. Actually, no cow wandering across the countryside would choose a more meandering course. For instance, the Brockville and Westport, starts off for Westport by going due west for 5.2miles. Yet later on, we find the B and W headed east, and crossing the Smiths Falls-Brockville highway at Forthton station. Here it is almost back where it started. The line threads some famous communities. It touches one place called Athens. once upon a time this community was called Farmersville. Then they got a high school. Legend said that such grandeur went to their heads. With a high school they wanted a high falutin' name. Thus they chose the ultimate, the classical Athens. Lyndhurst Had Mine At Lyndhurst is located an old mine. It has had an interesting career. Run by remote control by Cornishmen, they once got suspicious of monkey business at Lyndhurst. So they sent a man out to investigate. He got as far as Brockville. This much is known. But the man disapeared somewhere between Brockville and Lyndhurst and was never seen again. Shortly after that the mine was closed down. Then on to Delta. Here at what has been called Beverly they used to have open voting. A man was once killed here for voting the "wrong way", says the legend. Presumably he voted against Sir John A. Macdonald's party when Canada was a Union before Confederation. Delta is a hallowed spot for Queen's men. For it was here that the famous Guy Curtis, renowned as the "conqueror of Yale", in an ancient and never forgotten football game, retired to look after his pigs after a glorious career on the gridiron. He was visited in the fall of 1921 and taken from his swine to return to Queens in triumph. Varsity beat Queens that day 24-1. Consulted Witch Not far from Delta is Plum Hollow. Here the witch of Plum Hollow used to make her auguries and people came a long way to consult the witch of Plum Hollow. But there is at least one Ottawa man who remembers Plum Hollow for another reason. When cars were hard to get a national agency here in Ottawa had faithfully promised a Citizen man a new car. When he turned up to get it, the sorrowful smile of the agent told the news before the man could get it out: "Sorry, the agent in Plum Hollow got your car, " he said. At 35.1miles from Brockville the B and W crosses the main line of the Canadian National from Toronto to Ottawa. Many people travelling to Toronto will recall this famous country junction. Crosby, a station nestled in the woods not far from the Kingston-Ottawa Highway has been seen by many. Somebody lives in the station, and the unusual sight of lace curtains in a station is plainly viewed from a speeding car. Height of Land Finally before reaching the terminus comes Newboro. This is the heght of land and, in the old days, ore was shipped down the waterway from Newboro to Lake Ontario and on to Ohio smelters. Go the other way and one comes into the Upper Rideau and on to Ottawa. Thus Newboro offers a two-way waterway out of town. Once upon a time the elegant Rideau Queen used to dock here and among the distinguished passengers to go through town was John Bracken, aboard the Rideau Queen on his way to his new job in Ottawa. The Brockville Westport and Northwestern, to give the line its full and elegant name, finally comes to an end at Westport Mountain. The truth is that the old Brockville and Westport was trying to give the Canadian Pacific a run for its money. The B and W had tried to get a transcontinental franchise. But the franchise ended in a hill 44.5 miles west of Brockville. R.I.P the B and W's transcontinental ambitions. Leeds County said goodbye to the historic Brockville and Westport Railway Saturday afternoon. When old engine No. 86 wheezed to a stop in Brockville, one hour late, it marked the end of the run - forever. For the line, which started off so bravely back in 1888 to beat the Canadian Pacific, with the imaginative name of Brockville, Westport and Sault Ste. Marie, ended up a bad debt at Brockville station. All along the line people came down to observe the obsequies of the old B.& W. When the engine blew that highball before she left the station at Westport, it sounded more like a funeral wail. It Had To Go But the old line had to go. As a railway it was a rail fan's delight, but as a business, it was a bookkeeper's headache. Rich in history, wealthy in scenery, loaded down with sentiment, she seemed to have everything - except money. Furrowed-browed men at 360 McGill Street, Montreal, decided they would wipe out this picturesque bookkeeping item. Next week, the wreckers move in. The Brockville and Westport reputedly has cost the CNR about $400,000 just to keep alive. It was sad its passenger figures ran to little more than $100 take in a whole year. Once the line boasted of six trains a day, of 10,000 passengers in a single sunup to sundown. But it has lived on in its memories, a legend while still alive. Bus and truck have dug the grave of the railway, and the Canadian National accountants have buried it. Postcard Country The Brockville and Westport ran for the most part through picture post card scenery redolent with deep forests and golden meadows, and bespangled with shimmering lakes. Its tracks cross steams of game fish, and Saturday afternoon many a tourist or fisherman paused and looked up to see the old mixed local go by. It was fitting enough that a bed of flowers waved a wan goodbye from the trackside at Delta - they were forget-me-nots. Interesting too was the race the rabbit gave old 86. For quite a distance its pacing paralleled the train. But in the fable, the tortoise beat the hare. On Saturday afternoon, the rabbit beat the tortoise-speed of the dying old train. When Mixed Train No. 340, to give the formal, legal title, steamed into Westport Station, there was exactly one person on the platform. He stood leaning on his cane, in the respectful attitude a man would at the bier of an old friend. He was W.J. Begley. The cane he leaned on connoted the fact that old Bill Begley had brought the first train into Westport away back on March 4, 1888. "B.&W. 1887-1926" was the inscription. He had begun railroading the year before he had brought the first train into Westport. A Diamond Stacker "I brought the train in that day for the first time," recalled Old Bill, sadly. "She was a diamond-stacked wood burner, Old No. 3. Then I got coal burners and I held the run 'til I retired in 1926. I never thought I would see the last train on the line." Stepping off the train was C.E. Hull, Newboro, who had drawn the cord wood for Old No. 3 back in 1888 at Athens. "I just had to make this last trip," said Mr. Hull. Down to see the last train, and arriving at the depot later on were Wesley Brown of Ottawa, well known in football and service club circles. Others included Mrs. Brown and Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Friel. To get the train "Y-ed" around was the work of a minute. Conductor Clem Moore, 63, of Brockville, wore his uniform for the first time. "A lot of people hardly knew me dressed up," he smiled. The crew were taking their last run glumly. For though the quick stepping "con", Mr. Moore was grinning, you felt that back of the grin was a grimace. Clue to the way some felt was that of Cleon Price, the regular brakeman. He didn't make the historic last trip. In his place the less emotional R.W. Morris was hustled down from Belleville to fill in the spot. Up ahead were Dan Moran, Brockville, the veteran engineer and Harry Hutt, Belleville, fireman. In the baggage car was Irvine Gregson. The Westport Station was a-bustle with activity. Stationmaster AM. St. John was getting out his papers. Symbolic of the last day was the empty ticket rack. The station had run out of tickets and when Leo Burkholder, Ottawa, sought to buy a ticket, from Westport to Crosby, there were no tickets. One had to be bought on the train. A Busman's Holiday Taking a busman's holiday was S.J. Sully, ex-station master, who on retirement was giving a convincing display of perpetual motion as he helped load express. There.were parcels for Shamokin and Jersey Shores in Pennsylvania; for Akron, for other far places. The old Westport station was winding up in a flourish. Finally the clock hand slid around toward the vital minute. Conductor Moore, as was his wont, checked his watch against the station clock, then he went out and waved All Aboard. When No. 86 blew the highball whistle, it was like a dirge to the town. "I hate to hear that whistle blow," said Mrs. J.C. Stinson, daughter of former station master Sully. "I worked here with dad for seven years, and that old train has been part of my life." Slowly, inexorably, the train started to pull out. This was no gala affair. Sad faced watched the four freight cars and the old oil-lit combination No. 7154 crawl out. Between grassy covering on the right-of-way, only the little thin old Sheffield rails were visible. Gradually the train picked up speed. It rounded the bend and the town was out of sight. Railroading in Westport was history. MP On Board On the train was George Fulford, MP for Leeds, who with his son made the last run. Leo Burkholder of Ottawa travelled the first eight miles to Crosby. Then he motored to Brockville and watched the train come in there. On and off got passengers, taking that last sentimental ride. Perhaps the most interesting passengers were Bruce and Bob Tedford of Soperton. For the boys, it was their first railway ride. They had chosen the last trip of the old Brockville and Westport to make their first train trip. Accompanying them was George Harrington. First stop was Newboro, where rails and ties for the old railway had been shipped in by boat to this point on the Rideau Canal in 1888. Down near Crosby, W.C. Baker, now of Westport, and taking the last ride pointed to posts where he had dug the original post holes with his father back in '88. At Delta, fishermen paused to take a last look at the old train. Here the combined resources of engineer and fireman were needed to push the broken water spout back up where it belonged. Here too, the railway picked up a car of maple syrup billed to Fort William. There was business to the dying gasp, along the old line. It was at Delta that the forget-me-not beside the engine waved their blue-petalled farewell to the old mogul engine. At Lyndhurst the train had acquired an oil tank car. Other business up and down the line included setting out a car of feed from Fort William for Athens; dropping a car of flour from Fort William also to Athens. All the way the train had a car billed to Schumacher, Northern Ontario, from Westport. William Freeman, agent at Lyndhurst for 33 years, came down to the train. CFJR Brockville had a trackside broadcast. Finally induced to break silence was Conductor Moore who exclaimed, as he was hailed to the mike: "Many's the wonderful I have had along here; many's the great time I have had with the Leeds County people; if I told it all I could fill a book." Earlier Westport outbound passengers had been dropped. Mary and Donnie, children of Dr. F.R. Goodfellow, Newboro and the three Hagen children, Jean, Isabel, and Carmel had gone; also Mrs. J. Orville Forrester, who got off at Newboro. Gone too were Mrs. S.J. Sully, wife of the ex-stationmaster at Westport and Mrs. W.C. Baker whose husband had dug the railway post holes back in 1888. Athens gave the last big turnout as hundreds saw the train switch cars and incidentally lose some of her scheduled time. But the crew were in no hurry. They seemed to want to make the final trip last. Here at Athens it was recalled that one time, 10,000 passengers had passed through the town on the Brockville Westport (sic). It was a far cry to the last years when the old half-coach had run empty, more days than not. Athens prompted further reminiscence from Conductor Moore who remembered he fired old No. 3 before this century, getting slivers in his hand from the cordwood. His day's take-home was $1.25 each and every day. A day merely meant 24 hours. Just as the conductor had his books straight and his envelopes all sealed, there was a flag at Forthton for more passengers. Mrs. Talmage Grey, of Brockville said to a friend: "I guess we are all sentimentalists at heart." Also on at Forthton were Cecil Marshall and Gerald May. Other youngsters now on board were Eleanor and Donald Greenham in charge of their mother, Mrs. Ray Greenham of Athens. Final passengers picked up were H. Fennel and son. The train raced now for Lyn and the junction with the main line. A slow, methodical piece of railroading saw three switches thrown, and finally old 86 got on the main line. Here on the rock ballast, heavy steel, double track, the ancient engine suddenly acted as an old mare does when she begins to feel good. She got whooping it up and she roared down the high iron like the limited. Then she dropped her freight cars in Brockville's improbably named Manitoba Yard. She came back and coupled on. The one combination coach was all that was left of the last run. Even now she could not finish here day. A couple of slick smooth diesels whined across the tracks and No. 86 had to wait. Then with a final triumphant blast she rattled her way down to Brockville station. The conductor shook hands with George Fulford, his MP; the young brakeman had a date in Belleville that night and hoped he'd make it on No. 15, due soon. Sadly Engineer Moran took his 1910 vintage engine down to the roundhouse. That was the end. Old cabbage stacker pulls museum train to city for week's showing, 23 August 1954 "All aboard for yesterday" somebody might well have cried as a train right out of the 19th century rolled into the Union Station this morning. It was the Canadian National Railway's Museum Train,and at the throttle for a dry run was Mayor Charlotte Whitton. The whole train looks as if it were strictly from Walt Disney - in technicolor. A Citizen reporter had a private trip. He rode the plush from the depot to the Deep Cut, on to Ottawa East, out to Hurdman, then back to the station again. Rail Fan's Dream This is the kind of train that makes a rail fan's mouth water. Here are engines you never believed you would see in this world or the next: here too are open vestibule coaches that went out with Queen Victoria and Sir John A. MacDonald. Actually the train was pulled by an old Grand Trunk mogul, now CNR's No. 674. Mayor Whitton made the simulated dry run at a dead throttle with the ancient cabbage stacker No. 40, the oldest engine the Canadian National has. Dr. Whitton sighed at the old equipment and said: "It reminds me of my girlhood." Geranium box of coal Mayor Whitton held the throttle of ancient No. 204, which was outshopped in Portland, Maine, back in 1872. This reconverted cabbage stacker has not got steam up. Nor has its fellow ancient old saddle tanker No. 247. The saddle tanker has no formal tender. Instead there is a diminutive coal container at the back of the engine little bigger than a geranium box. The locomotive itself seems to have mumps with its swollen cheeks which are in reality water tanks. Such and engine as No. 247 could have been seen around Ottawa as recently as 40 years ago. She is a little yard engine. It was in the old No.40 that Mayor Whitton played make believe at the throttle while mogul 674 (formerly 914 at the Grand Trunk) ran the two "dead engines" and six tellow coached into the station. One could sentimentalize over the ancient sleeper. Once it ran in the maritimes. Was it not such a car - maybe that very one - the Fielding took from Halifax when he came up to join Laurier's cabinet of All Talents? In the next car, with its display of period silver one could imagine Prime Minister Sir Charles Tupper doing well by himself as he rode this period piece down to the Blue Nose Country. Quaint Diner In charge of this quaint diner was J.G. Hayes, Halifax,, who first started riding the old I.C.R. (Intercolonial) back in '00 and who remembers such Nova Scotians as Colonel Ralston and Angus L. MacDonald as if it were yesterday. It was fun, too, to study the big generous egg cups of the old Canadian Northern, or the silver champagne buckets of the lordly Grand Trunk. How many though could remember when Reid ran the Newfoundland Railway with his little narrow gauge? Miraculously, a couple of settings have been preserved. Though the white dishes have turned the inevitable tattle tale grey, the Reid cutlery still gleams. Or you could turn to the almost forgotten Grand Trunk Pacific silver, a fine railway and a bold venture that ended in the red. Like an animated cartoon come to life, the Museum arrived at the Union Depot this morning. Instead of a Fairy Queen in charge there was Mayor Whitton. Replacing the bewhiskered and long tailed coats of yesteryear were, among others, Controllers Donaldson and McCann. Looking after the railroaders interests were Ray MacDougall and Superintendent C.T. Dunn. The six yellow cars, a living legend, not only have preserved the sleepers of yesteryear and the funny little day coaches with their diminutive windows, but the whole atmosphere is one of nostalgia. The Museum Train speaks of a day when steam ruled the world and nobody ever heard of a carburetor. The museum cars themselves breather pictorially and press fashion of the world in which our grandfathers knew. This train is strictly out of the history books. A gushing farewell to steam, 6 September 1960 By Austin F. Cross Citizen Staff Writer Steam died on Sunday in Ottawa. The last steam locomotive to operate into the Union Station on the Canadian National Railway tracks arrived about 12.30 (DST) on Sunday, hauling eight passenger coaches and a baggage car, and conveying over 500 rail fans from Montreal to Ottawa and back. The trip was organized by the Canadian Railroad Historical Association, the president of which is Dr. Robert V. V. Nicholls, of Montreal. Pulling ths train was a big, powerful, fast, rugged "Northern" type engine, of a class that has been running in and out of Ottawa both on passenger and freight service for the last quarter century. It was CNR 6153. Like most rail-fan trips, the train started late. Like most rail-fan trips, the train stayed late, got later. But, thanks to Engineer A. Honsinger, of Montreal, the 30-year-old 6153 put on a magnificent burst of speed after she had shaken herself clear of the crowd-cluttered, half-hour stop at Alexandria, and made up enough time to be only an hour and a quarter late. "Organized Chaos" The scene was one of organized chaos at Montreal's Central Station on a sad Sunday morning. Even nature was seemingly weeping over the death of steam. First, the CRHA were throwing off all who wanted to ride the cab of 6153. Even the representative of Train Magazine got the boot. While many might expect the train to be full of misty-eyed steam rail buffs, there were, instead, many from the rock 'n' roll set. To show how keen these kids were, one boy asked another where Lorne Perry was. "Lorne did not come" sneered the boy. "Just because he's on his honeymoon; what a weak excuse!" One of the real old timers aboard was W. G. Cole, Ottawa, 80, and a Canada Atlantic Railway Old Boy. He fired an engine over the same tracks he was travelling from 1897-1900. Ladies Present Another strange thing about the passenger list was the number of women travelling this zany special. Younger ones obviously took the trip to hold hands with their boy friends. But there were not a few plus-forty ladies who seem to be lady buffs. So, instead it being a near-stag special, It was as mixed up as to sexes as you might expect at a picnic. Hot cinders and tears By Norman Avery Citizen Saff Writer Nostalgia and fascination came to town Sunday chugging black smoke and hissing steam. The last stesm locomotive of the CNR brought tears to many a retired railroader's eye, left . the kids wide-eyed and, just for the record, dropped a sharp cinder in many of those same eyes. The CNR "bent over backwards" in this brief visit to the past. Where railway police would have sent trespassers packing by the hundreds at the roundhouse yards, they turned their backs on the inquisitive throng turned out to see the giant engine. "If the CNR prosecuted every trespasser today," observed one onlooker, "they could write off their deficit with no trouble at all." But even the CNR people were caught by surprise at the interest. Cameras clicked while the engineer waved. He blew off steam and hooted the powerful whistle. He smiled warmly as the general public crawled through his engine cab and asked a million questions. For movie makers the crew swung the giant around several times on the roundhouse turntable. Seeing the train was only one of the sensory thrills. Steam engines even smell good after an absence, and that whistle has an authority head and shoulders above the diesel horn. Railroaders, real and amateur, old and young, had a great collection of opinions on what the end of steam really means. Apart from the whistle, which all agreed is thrilling, there will be a good deal less black smoke poured into the air. The cinders that get into the hair and make the eyes water are gone. And the white pebbles beside the track will lose their distinctive polish. The wives of engineers and firemen won't have grimy husbands coming home from work. And so on. Whatever was going through the minds of the thousands who lined the route and brought their children to see the steam engine, little doubt was left that the "iron horse" has left its indelible mark on the memories of many people. Tram 650, 16 January 1946 Cross Town With Austin F. Cross Start looking for street car No. 650, because it is the most interesting trolley that Dave Gill's got. First of all, it was built in 1911, and is therefore the oldest tram on the OER still carrying passengers. (Hull has some older ones, and if somebody wants me to do a piece on them some day, I can.) But No. 650 did not start life as No. 650. She first made her debut, moving across the street, from the old Ottawa Car Company's sheds on the south side of Albert street, to the car barns on the north side of Albert street, as No. 520. * * * She began her career, as men tioned above in 1911. That was a great year. The Coronation of George V took place in 1911. Ontario used metal automobile licenses for the first time in 1911. The Conservatives held a torchlight procession .in Ottawa) that night in 1911 when Borden beat Laurter. And the first two-truck, pay-as-you-enter street cars reached Sparks street, In 1911. A great year as I said. * * * No 520 started out as a snappy green and red job. The one-color austerity decoration began In 1914, when No. 600, the first all-steel car, was painted a sort of pea green. (No 600 is probably the all-red No. 651 now.) Anyway, 520 ushered in a new epoch. Earlier. Ahearn and Soper had ventured into pay-as-you-enter cars with Nos. 500 and 502 (never was any 501) and then ran down the line to 515. These had air brakes, but they were one-truck cars. The success of such smaller cars decided A&S to go into the tram business, in a big way, literally, and so 520 became flagship of a fleet which saw them run right through to 539. The 540's were composites, made up of two smaller cars joined together, and all m all, they proved failures. No. 520, however, was a real car, and she operated down through the years. While she was the first of the double truck trams, she was also the last of the all wooden cars. With the advent of the all-steel green cars in 1914, the company never went back to wooden construction. Somewhere about this time, when the steel cars came out, two other interesting things happened. They began painting the red and green cars a solid, rather ugly green, and they commenced stopping the trolleys on the near side of the street, rather than the far side. The increased motor traffic abetted that move. The reason that 650 survived while no others managed to do so is in part attributable to the disastrous fire down at the Rockcliffe car barns in 1927. Guy Rhoades, now in New York, covered that story for The Citizen, and Vince Pask headed it up. Not only did the fire lick up nearly all of the old 520's and 530's, but it destroyed a number of Ottawa's older cars. Up till then, they had preserved some of the low numbered items like the 40's and 60's and the 80's, I am sure. But after that, I don't seem to recall that many were retained for the passenger trade. * * * Somehow or other. 520 survived the fire. Then after having been first red and green, then all-green, she was to change her colors again. With the conversion of all trolleys to one man cars, those still green were repainted red. In doing this, they changed he numbers. No. 520 became 650. Then 600 was made 651, and so on. But 651, as I said before is nothing like 650. This old wooden car, now steel sheeted, still operates, every day. Now 35 years old, she is still going strong. So I say, that in this age when the current theme is Chickory Chick, and the sloppiest lads and lassies in school are the best dressed, you don't expect the young people to get sentimental about old street cars. But every time I see old 650 go by, I sigh nostalgically for the delightful Ottawa of the good old days when we had more sawmills than senators. A real friend writes to point out that although I may have tried a lot of railways, I have not up till now travelled the Thurso-Nation Valley Railway, up over the Singer limits. I seem to recall writing something about this before, but I would like to settle the topic now, once and for all. The Nation Valley is not a common carrier. You cannot buy tickets on it, on an interline basis, nor could you route freight from Toronto to St. Andre Avelin, for instance, on a bill of lading. I might be wrong about this. But the: Singer streamliner fails to meet the acid test; it is not in the Railway Guide. If it's not there, it's not a railway. Redcaps, 17 January 1946 ' Cross Town With Austin F. Cross It's pretty hard to get in or out of Ottawa by trains without seeing the Bertrand boys. Presidents come and presidents go, station masters are hired and station masters retire, but the Bertrand Boys go on forever. Reading from left to right, they are "Cap." who has a Christian name, Donald, and Sam. Cap joined the old Grand Trunk in 1912; Sam, a few weeks later. Cap is quite a character. He has a friendly beaming face, and he likes to serve the public. Never bad humored, he takes a Christmas rush or a Dominion Day week-end in stride. It's all a day's work to him. and as far as anybody can see, a pleasant day's work. * * * Cap got his nickname from the fact that he was the first red cap In Ottawa. Once th svelte new Central Station was built (later to become the Union Station when they closed Broad street) they decided that the time was right for these new.fangled red caps. Up till then, this town carried its own baggage. But the trouble was, there were literally no red caps in Ottawa. Finally, a white cap. of the style formerly used by Grand Trunk parlor car porters, was dug up and Cap started to carry baggage under his new white cap. Working with him was the late and lovable Jim Mullins, a mountain of a man hiding a simple soul, a fellow who behind his smile concealed a life of grief. Mullins died about a year ago. * * * Cap and Mullins red-capped thrir way for a while, and then Cap went firing, when the war was on. When he got back to the station, after three years with the shovel, he had lost seniority around the station, even though it was still continuous with the railroad. It would be impossible to recount all Cap's interesting forays into other realms. He used to manage hockey teams and take them down to Lake Placid. He was interested in sports. He had interests beyond keeping people from getting on wrong trains. But it seems to me that Cap's big mission in life, like that of his brother Sam, was to please the public. Often overworked has been the phrase "Service with a smile." But not with Cap, nor with Sam. What you write about Cap, you could write about Sam too. Both of them like serving the public, and now, flirting with fifty, they have no desire to do anything else. * * * On a sub-zero January morning, you may see Cap Bertrand out with a little book, writing down the names or numbers of the coaches as the long Toronto train draws in. Or in the afternoon, it might be Sam, down the tracks to see how things are going. Come in early and tired from the west, and one of the Bertrand Boys will greet you with a smile. Crawl in late at night from the east, and the Bertrand Boys will still be doing their stuff. East or west, no matter where bound, no matter where from, arriving in Ottawa is a disappointing performance if one of the Bertrand Boys is not down at the depot. Railway Schedules out of Ottawa, 20 January 1960 Who was it that said that the trains are not doing well! I went to Montreal the other morning, just for the. day, and was sure I would get a seat easily on the "down" train. Instead my seat had been "double sold," and I was ousted. I managed to get the last un-sold seat in the front parlor car. Again in the evening, on the "up" train, I only just managed to get the last chair in my car. I had fallen for all this tall talk about there being only a few people on the trains these days. It was the first time in years I had failed to make a reservation or buy my ticket ahead of time. But both CPR 232 cast and 237 west were jammed. There were even line-ups for the small diner. Both trains are fast, particularly the morning which goes from Ottawa to Montreal in two hours flat, non-stop. They leave at suitable times and. their return is ditto. So I say that if both railways follow up this policy of two-hour, non-stop trains, with suitable times of arrival and departure, they will get the passenger business. I know that you had to fight your way through the Union Depot concourse, because of the crowd waiting to get on the CNR's Super Continental last Saturday afternoon. Who wants to drive to Montreal in bad weather, find a place to park in that teeming city, then drive back, dog tired? Let. the engineer do the work; that's what he's paid for. Good schedules can rejuvenate passenger travel on both railways. Apropos of slow trains, they still run the afternoon train to Toronto somewhat slower than 30 years ago. I am told, and I think it is true, that the Canadian National can run to Toronto over its line through Smiths Falls and Harrowsmith via Napanee in four and a half hours. If such a pool train needs the CPR's co-operation, surely the Crump system would gladly join in this swifter pool schedule. Right now, the CPR and CNR both do a slow and none too efficient a job at Brockville where the trains change railways. So let's get into the 1960's, out of the 1920's, and steer a steam mentality into deisel (sic) thinking. milk train schedules should be shoved into history. "Swan Song" for Famous Line (Barrys Bay) 2 March 1959 Take
the Phoenix, add a strip tease, and you have the capsuled story
of 69 years of passenger trains on the Ottawa-Barry's Bay passenger
service, where the last full train sang its own swan song by diesel
last Saturday. Its a Phoenix all right, for just as that remarkable bird rose, new born from its own ashes, so does a gleaming, new rail dies! car emerge from three, dirty, dingy, dusty old Canadian National coaches, to run from Barry's Bay to Ottawa and return. ` It's a strip tease all right, too. The Canadian Natioual Railways, the wholesale stripper In this case, has stripped off miles of track in the west end, in Algonquin Park, and finally, west of Whitney. Gone are the plush Pullmans of yesteryear, the svelte parlor cars. those New York connections, and Buffalo specials. Stripped off two years ago from passenger service was the Pembroke branch. They have not bothered to clean off the tracks from Golden Lake this winter. Where once there was a train a full 263 miles to Depot Harbor, now there is none. While six trains once were serving the Opeongo line, now only one solitary Budd car handles all the business. As CNR Diesel No. 1302 growled her way swiftly through mounds of snow, last Saturday, one saw a changing vista of abandoned stations, broken panes, snowed-in outhouses, and forlorn station platforms. Meanwhile, the engine trumpeted her own raucous swan song. There were not even passengers down at the depot the see the last run. Train No. 89 paused at Carp, rounded the bend at Golden Lake, then hit the hill for Wilno just beyond Golden Lake. The three-car passenger crawled across the 1000-foot altitude mark, then pushed on to the "Y" at Barry's Bay. Here No. 89, the same train, suddenly became No. 90. Riding the cab eastbound, engineer Jack Culhane of Ottawa recalled that when he worked on this train 40 years ago, he was the youngest fireman on the line. Now, he sighed, be was the oldest engineer. With him was Fireman George Carrie of Ottawa, who gets "bumped" by the Budd car. Few Passengers Conductor Albert Seguin, Gatineau, reported 35 passengers westbound and 30 east bound. A mother got on for a short run with her children, then returned to her home station Ghosts of old time high wheelers hustling through South March crossed one's mind as the throaty diesel ate up the miles. Fond memories of John R. Booth, of the big shots of the old Grand Trunk were conjured up, and in the middle of this day dreaming, was the Union Station. G. T. R. Gunn, the CNR superintendent, was there to greet the last train. It was more like a wake. On Sunday, the service had been transformed. The new rail diesel car, which will run to Ottawa in the mornings, arriving by 8.30, and return to Barry's Bay in the evening, reverses the schedule formerly followed by the train. Travelling Trav's Tidings Canada Central Railway, 18 April 1960 TRAVELLING TRAV'S TIDINGS The Canadian Pacific's public relations expert Trav Coleman has sent men (sic) an interesting historic railway document about the old Canada Central. Key figure in the saga is Mike Heney, who began life in Fembroke. Mr. Coleman is also moved to observe that Jim Coleman of Carleton Place, and his grandfather, selected the name D' Alton for his fifth boy. It may be recalled that this fifth boy went on to become the President of the Canadian Pacific. This was in honor of D' Alton McCarthy. Writes the grandson; McCarthy was able to establish that a Canada Central locomotive had indeed ignited the lumber yard and recovered substantial damages for the company." Trav got a letter from Edwin Swcrgel noting an advance copy of "Alaska's Railroad Builder Mike Heney "It is written by Edward . A. Herron, 10626 Penrose Avenue, Sun Valley, California. Pembroke citizens may recall Mike Heney. Canada Atlantic Railroaders At End Of Long Run, 18 April 1960 By Austin F. Cross Citizen Staff Writer The Canada Atlantic Railway Old Boys are heading for the last round house. Coincident with the death of steam around Ottawa, these seventy-plus veterans of wood burners and the link and pin, after highballing down Memory Lane for a quarter century, with annual stops at Nostalgia Junction, have come to the end of the run. Steam is dead and so are the CAR Old Boys. J. H. (Peg) MacLeod. 117 Glenora, now a rugged 82, as he surveyed the registration list of 12 o'd boys of 57 still alive, shook his head sadly over the 1935 list of 612 who showed up, sighed and said, "I am pulling the pin." In railway parlance this means the end of the run. Historically this Old Boys alumni came together in 1935 in the spontaneous combustion of a happy memory which had glowed long snd warmly in so many Old Boys (and Old Girls') hearts. The CAR Old Boys Association will cease to function as an organization after tonight's annual banquet at the Chateau. Patron Saint Its patron saint was the late J. R. Booth, first last and only president this gallant railway ever had. His memory is always kept alive in the CAR old boys' hearts, and it is a solemn ritual annually observed, when the veterans march to his grave at Beechwood. This year, heavy hearts will be heavier as they march past the mausoleum containing the remains, of Rowley Booth, grandson of the immortal J.R. Booth. Rowley Booth died suddenly in his prime this year. He had been the angel, the guiding spirit, the stimulus of all those who had worked for his grandad. Such great traditionalists are the CARists, that you could have sat down any year, and you could have written what had happened the year before, and as easily predict what would happen the coming year. There is always the picnic to the Experimental Farm - it happened yesterday, under the auspices of the Ladies' Auxiliary, for the last time. Mrs. James Connolly and Mrs. T. H. Olmstead were in charge this year. Then there is the pilgrimage to the J. R. Booth grave. That took place today. Finally, after two days of "fraternizing," of talking over old times, the "boys" and "girls" all meet tonight for dinner in the Chateau Laurier dining room. Last Convention Most solemn for years has been what might be called the breakup benediction, when as the solemn, words are said with the thin and reedy voices of the very old, each slyly surveys his neighbor and wonders if he or she will be back next year. In 1960, they will take their long look. For this side of eternity, most will never see each other again. Before "Peg" MacLeod "pulls the pin" on this nostalgic convention, the octogenarians and nonagenarians, with the convention youth, Rug. H. Eddy, aged 70, looked over old pictures, studied old clippings, surveyed a treasure trove of memories heaped upon a table. In their mind's eye they lived over the gay nineties, the high wheelers of 1903, they remembered the birth of their son, now himself a grev headed man. Through these nch memories travelled The Train to Yesterday. The railroad valedictorians who say their last prayer in the Chateau tonight will include George Holtby, Vancouver, and the last of 15 railroading Holtbys; Cecil Elliott, also from Vancouver; and from Ottawa Val C. Sear, J. H. P. (Peg) MacLeod, George Wallace, Eddie Aust, R. H. Eddy; and W. E. Latimer, Aylmer, Que. Last Steam Railroading Link Gone, 8 April 1961 By Austin F. Cross Citizen Staff Writer Coal kissed Ottawa trains, goodbye this week. With the tearing down of the 50-year-old coal chutes in the Canadian National Railway yards just off the Queensway, the skyline has been changed, diesel has taken over, and nostalgic railway fans are saddened. Shortly after the Coronation of King George V in 1911, the old Grand Trunk Railway decided it needed new coal-handling equipment. After attempting to get into Ottawa for years, "The Trunk" finally bought the Ottawa-owned, Canada Atlantic Railway from J. R. Booth, the lumber king. The C.A.R. was concentrated on both sides of the cross-town tracks, with yards and shops along the Isabella Catherine Street sector. The roundhouse was at the foot of Elgin Street. The new owners built their coal chute in the gore between the Rideau River Ottawa East track, and the Rideau River - Central Station track. This Palace of Bituminous had a capacity of 250 tons. Here came the light engines of the era. The GTR was using its Atlantics in 1911, with their 84-inch diameter wheels to whisk the light wooden coaches down the speedway to Montreal. They were the C.A.R.'s 618 type and they fought on a reckless time card, first the CPR's fast stepping 209-210-211s and later the 1000, 1001, and 1002. Those legendary days vanished when the big-wheeled 4-4-2s were demoted to the Parry Sound Line. In their place came the svelte 300s with classy varnish and plush. Alongside them at the coal stop would be high-stacked and mid-Victorian relics, still running, such as 2344, and the tiny moguls of the 1890s like 2200s and 2500s. The coal chute's finest hour came the spring before the Great War when the Grand Trunk decided to match the CPR 2500s with the famed Pacifies. These magnificent engines only went out of business in the late 1950s. Later the GTR "imported" new freight behomoths, the 600s and 700s. They seemed to darken even the sky when they rolled up to the coal by the old roundhouse. Railway buffs had to wait almost 15 years before their next thrill, Sir Henry Thornton elongated, powerful 6000s. Later arrived their younger but stronger brothers, the 6200s, the 4-8-4 Northerns. Then the diesels came. It was oil they wanted, not coal. The crowning humiliation came when hoarse diesels honked derisively at the rusty old steam locomotives, near the coal chute on a siding, dead but not buried. The coal shed was sold in I960, and the final chapter was written this week, by the wrecker. Nostalgia On Rails, 4 February 1961 By Austin F. Cross Citizen Staff Writer The present was blended with the past, when the treasures, of. the Canada Atlantic Old Boys Association were turned over to the Public Archives. This historic donation took place in two parts first in the Union Station, and second at the Archives building, where Dominion Archivist Kaye Lamb accepted from J. H. P. (Peg) MacLeod, first chairman of the Canada Atlantic Old Boys Association, and permanent guardian angel to the C.A.R. Old Boys Association, two big bundles of railway lore. Safe In Black Box These precious and irreplaceable mementos had been resting in a black box and a , battered old suit case in the Union Station store room. Formal turn-over of the memorabilia took place first in the office of Station Master "Sam" Bertrand. But final rites were observed in the Archives on the third floor, where guardian angel MacLeod, after having posed at D'Arcy McGee's desk, doffed his derby hat reverently at an oil painting of J. R. Booth, turned over his precious papers, and after a long, lingering look, left the Archives with C.A.R. Old Timer Val Sear, 44 Second Avenue. It closed a historical chapter. Greatest Ottawan? The old Canada Atlantic Railway was built by the late J. R. Booth. There are many who believe that J. R. Booth was the greatest man who ever lived in Ottawa. Steamship operator, grain elevator entrepreneur, lumberman and railroader, he ended his days in a magnificent home at the corner of Metcalfe and MacLaren Streets. In order to get his vast supply of white pine from his Opeongo Limits (Booth's private C.A.R. car was named "Opeongo") he built a railway through the Opeongo, with a spur into Pembroke, while the main line crept west till it finally met Georgian Bay at Depot Harbor. Meanwhile, eastwards his line ran to Coteau Junction, and down to. a Central Vermont Railway connection through New England to tide water at New London, Connecticut. It is an ironic factor that J. R. Booth could before 1889, offer you a through sleeper ; from Ottawa to New York, a luxury you cannot enjoy some 70 years later. Gobbled By Grand Trunk This road in due course was gobbled up by the Grand Trunk Railway. Then it was re-digested again by the Canadian National. It was not, however, till about 1935, or 30 years after the Canada Atlantic went out of business that the "boys" .and "girls" became so sentimental about the C.A.R. that they got together, more than 600 strong, at the Chateau Laurier in August 1935 to form an Old Boys organization. At first indeed, there was some gestures toward transacting business. But by 1940, the old boys and girls fell into a never-varying routine. The high point of course was the pilgrimage to the graveside of their patron, J. R. Booth, at Beechwood Cemetery. Annual Picnic Equally important to some was the annual picnic at the Experimental Farm, under the convenership of Mrs. James Conley, and aided by Mrs. Tommy Ashe. Equally unforgettable was the poignant and moving annual dinner. Melting moment .was when they joined hands and remembered the "departed." The 24th annual dinner was the last one attended by C. Rowley Booth, who had succeeded his father C. Jackson Booth as honorary president. But Rowley Booth was not at the silver anniversary; he had died some time before. The 25th was more like a funeral rite as "Peg" MacLeod announced in his own sentimentally brusque way that he was "packing her up." Few Wisecracks Left No more talk from mothers who simultaneously filled the baby' bottles and packed her man's lunch in the long ago; you heard few cracks about that he-man joint at Depot Harbor which rejoiced in the name "The Red Onion." Wisecracks got more scarce about a "corn field meet" on , the long-vanished . Rockland division. Boasts about beating the CPR with the high-wheeling C.A.R. 618 on the Montreal run, were all but stilled. Now the last line of the last chapter has been written, down at the Archives where Archivist Lamb Is mortician and embalmer to great tradition, a great railway, a great body of Canadians. Station Master Bertrand Retires After Career Of Almost 50 Years, 3 May 1961 By Austin Cross Citizen Staff Writer Hermas (Sam) Bertrand. Station Master of Ottawa Union Station, is retiring after almost a half century in the service of the railway. A longtime resident of Hull, Mr. Bertrand has worked his way up from a newsy on the old Grand Trunk Railway to station master of the capital's historic Union Station. He became station master on March 1, 1955. Officially he retires on June 30, 1961, but will be leaving the station on special leave this month. Station Master Bertrand has in his day been an educationist and carried out a million dollar school improvement scheme when he was Chairman of the Hull Catholic School Board. Though officially he has been mum in recent years, he was active in the Union Nationale and sat on the platform with Premier Maurice Duplessis when he came to Hull. He also had a private audience with Governor-General Massey when His Excellency called in Station Master "Sam" at Rideau Hall to say goodbye and thank him. He takes with him into retirement the honor of being a Justice of the Peace. Hermas Bertrand was born on June 27, 1896, and thus has lived through the modern era of railroading. When he was born, the air brake was a novelty, trains were switching from oil lamps to new fangled gas light. Air conditioning was unknown. The world had neither seen nor smelt a diesel train. Railway stations were jammed and it was hard to find a seat on a train on weekends. The public either took the train or stayed home. When Hermas Bertrand started the risky life of a news "butcher" for the Canada Railway News on the beloved old G.T.R., he had to cross open vestibules on icy platforms and in blizzards on trains going at 50 miles an hour. Many brakemen had lost thumbs and fingers making couplings with the old link and pin. Many Interests The remarkable thing about this slim blond railroader is that he found time to do many things outside his railroading. He was active in First Aid in the early days and he holds a letter from the first aid examiners citing his "special aptitude". Bertrand was created a Justice of the Peace on October 25, 1951, the order being signed by His Honor Gaspard Fauteux, the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec. In the District of Hull, he is still entitled to sign "JP". Mr. Bertrand is proud of his 11 point education manifesto which was adopted during his tenure as Hull Catholic School Board chairman He is specially gratified that he saw built the English Catholic School, Our Lady of the Annunciation. Although an active U.N. party worker, his brother "Cap" Bertrand, with whom he worked every day of his life at Union Station, was an equally staunch Liberal! Election day they voted together, but separately! Giant Reunion It takes the Hull Armories to accommodate all the Bertrands when they get together. At the last reunion 454 assembled there. The railroading Bertrands were famous and had been publicised in national magazines. They were Donald (Cap), at the station; Arthur, in the government; Lucien at the station; Edgar, who worked at the depot before he died; and Hermas (Sam) himself. Sam in his turn has five sisters; Anna, Mrs. Frank Bilodeau; Sarah, Mrs. Hector Renaud; Julia, Mrs. Alphonse Roger; Grace, Mrs. Henri Cadieux; and Irene, Mrs. Jules Mongeon. Mr. and Mrs. Hermas Bertrand have five children; Mrs. Frank Galipeau; Giles, Claude, Mrs. Madeleine Lajeunesse; and Jacques. Among his children, in contrast to his brothers, there are no Canadian National employees. The station master had plenty of friends. These varied all the way from Governor General Massey to a little kindergarten child from Lower Town. His Excellency gave the stationmaster a private audience on September 14, 1959, before he left Government House The little girl sent Sam kisses crooked X's written on kindergarten paper. With Churchill Scrap books show Bertrand with Churchill and a plethora of celebrities. Greeting George VI and Queen Elizabeth when they came to Ottawa in 1939, he regards as the highlight of his career. In all his working days, Sam has never lost a day's work through illness. Cross Rolling Home, 27 April 1955 He Finds Continental a Super Train, In and Out By Austin Cross Citizen Staff Writer SIOUX LOOKOUT Here I am, riding east on the Super Continental, the Canadian National's new cross-Canada gold and green streamliner. Reputed the fastest scheduled run between Winnipeg and Ottawa, the CNR's No. 2 left Winnipeg at 8.05 standard time this morning and is due in Ottawa tomorrow at 2.50 standard time. This seems like an elapsed time of 30 hours and 45 minutes. Actually the time in transit is really an hour less since we swing at Armstrong from Central to Eastern standard time. Thus Winnipeg is now only 29 and three-quarter hours from Ot tawa. No Time At All Its gold and green gleaming in the clear prairie air, the Super Continental was a handsome string of sumptuous coaches as it moved easily and slowly across the Red River before it began to pick up speed and shake off the prairie. It seemed no time at all till the trees closed in around us, the prairie had vanished, and we were beginning to roar through the woody wilds, Ottawa-bound. If the Super Continental has any particular commodity beyond speed, it is comfort. Here the railway is really stressing things. Whether it Is something extra you want in this fascinating new dining car, or if itiIs helping a tired mother pick up her children's toys in the sleeper, depend on it, the Canadian National is there on the job. Speed And Comfort The Super Continental thus seems to stress speed and comfort. Once inside its green and gold exteriors, one is fascinated by the cheerful brightness of the buffet lounge, and as for the diner, one is all but dazzled by its brightness and beauty. Again, those magnificent new day coaches catch the eye and cater to comfort. Finally, if you will forgive an old man his memories, this Super Continental really travels. In the old days, when I took the same trip I had to go to bed three times before I got to Ottawa. On the Super Continental, I sleep but once and awake to be in Ottawa the next day. The Super really rolls. |