105 Years Of Steam Engines Ending For Ottawa, Published 3 September 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. |