Dedication Of Diesel Swanky Kingston Affair, Published 1 August 1951 KINGSTON
Dedication of a new diesel engine here today took place with all the
swank of a ship launching. High brass arrived this morning on special
trains from Chicago and beyond, while Montreal depleted its list of big
shots in the railway business to come to Kingston. The afternoon ceremonies reached a high point with the dedication of diesel No. 7006 by Rt. Hon. C. D. Howe, minister of trade and commerce, while Premier Leslie Frost of Ontario gave the address. The proper tone for diesel dedication was maintained by the presence of two clergy, one Protestant, one Roman Catholic. There is more to the dedicating - that's the word they use - than the mere rolling a big 113-foot-long locomotive off the assembly line. This is a strong bid by Fairbanks-Morse, who now own the plant, to get into the Canadian diesel business. Rivalry is intense, and Falrbanks-Morse.ftankly admits it wants to peddle this big oil-propelled dreamboat to one of the two railways. Canadians Waking Up There's new life in the old Canadian Locomotive Works. It ran under its own power for the first hundred years. Now in its second century, the Fairbanks people of Beloit, Wis., and elsewhere are making a desperate battle for the Canadian trade. Long dubious almost dead - as far as diesel power is concerned Canadian railway heads are at last waking up and are actively in the market for the best diesel. Envious eyes are being cast by the Kingston people, east and west, to rival companies who are beginning to turn out diesel power in almost assembly - line style. President R. H. Morse, Jr., at a press conference last night, got a bit red - faced when he admitted he had an unsold diesel job hanging around the shops. Then pulling himself together, with what passes for a haughty smile, he said: "But I assure you it will not be unsold long." Meanwhile, at Queen's University, it's shady campus lovely with midsummer drowsiness men and women are winding up their summer courses for honorary degrees, for parchments, for prestige. Over across the river boys are toughening up to be soldiers. Younger Generation Happy Here in this picturesque old place, that was not even new when Frontenac settled here, a new force is at work. The fish - horn sound of the diesel is puncturing the decorum of the staid old Limestone City. The older folk still are saying that if this is progress, they wants no part of it. Younger Merchants, however, who think the pleasantest sound in the world is a cash register till working, are happy. Now what is this gorgeous thing we are unveiling today? It is the City of Kingston, a two - unit engine that can haul freight at 65 miles an hour. It can pull passenger trains at 110 mph. How it could do 110 miles an hour up the Gatineau is a problem for Leo Sauve, CPR factotum. It is modestly described by its producers as "113 feet of sheer streamlined beauty." |