Just Rusting Away, November 10th, 1959   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. |