Canadian Pacific Water Facilities in the Ottawa - Smiths Falls Area
These notes have been prepared by Andrew Jeanes and Colin Churcher with input from many members of the Ottawa Railway History Circle| Winchester Subdivision | ||
| Vaudreuil, QC |  Wooden trestle base (1st) Cheminots du Canadien Pacifique devant la gare de Vaudreuil-Station le 7 novembre 1898. À l’arrière-plan, la tour d’eau pour alimenter les réservoirs des locomotives à vapeur. © Joseph W. Heckman – Exporail. Fonds Canadian Pacific Railway Company, P170-A_1384. |  Enclosed octagonal (2nd) L’ancienne gare du Canadien Pacifique, vers 1925. © Centre d’archives de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Fonds Centenaire de Dorion, M01. https://circuitvd.ca/circuit/batiments-et-lieux/ancienne-gare-du-canadien-pacifique-gare-dorion |
| St. Clet, QC |  Enclosed octagonal C.P.R. Station, St. Clet, QC, about 1910, gift of Mr. Stanley G. Triggs, MP-0000.936.7, © McCord Museum http://collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca/scripts/large.php?Lang=1&accessnumber=MP-0000.936.7&idImage=245593 | |
| Soulanges QC | No photos, employee timetable reference only | |
| Dalhousie Mills, QC |  Stone masonry base (with concrete ring) Ken Goslett photo, http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=16532 | At Dalhousie Mills 40.000 gal tankon masonry uinderstructure (Canadian Railway and Marine World November 1899) |
| Monkland, ON |  Stone masonry base (with concrete ring) LBC Collection photo, found on RMEO Facebook page |  From Craig Stevenson via Bruce Chapman |
| Chesterville, ON |  Stone masonry base Arnold W. Mooney photo, http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=28513 | Chesterville Record 8 December 1897 Owing to the large amount of travel the CPR authorities have found it advisable to erect another tank at this station and a large number of men are busily engaged in laying the pipe to the tank. When it is completed they will have a tank at each end of the station and will often avoid delay with the freight trains at this station. Malcolm Vant writes June 2020 It appears from the height of the base that the water tank at Chesterville also had a concrete ring added. I read somewhere (I think in CP Tracks) that this was necessary for the water spouts to line up with the taller tenders added post early 1900s. It's interesting that this wasn't done at Bedell. Perhaps even in the earlier days at Bedell, the water was delivered by standpipes not from the spout. |
| Bedell, ON |  Stone masonry base Mattingly Collection MATT-6547, | Ottawa Citizen 1 May 1900 Fire at Kemptville. Kemptville, Ontario, April 30 (Special) The fire brigade was called out this morning at 115, for service at Kemptville Junction, the large water tank having caught fire, in the roof, from a defective chimney. After Station Agent W. Hadden had secured the consent of the reeve to have the fire apparatus go outside the town limits, six or eight of the brigade were quietly awakened, and, with the engine and one reel, were at work with one heavy stream at the Junction, to miles distant, over very, very bad roads, in twenty-five minutes. The tank roof was badly damaged, but the efficiency of the of the supply apparatus was saved. See Malcolm Vant's comments under Chesterville |
| Smiths Falls, ON |  Canadian Pacific Railway Archives/Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario a1305 http://rmeo.org/wp-content/uploads/a1305_edit.jpg |  Clear photos of the two steel tanks located behind the roundhouse at Smiths Falls have been hard to find. This is a Ken Chivers photo from 1952 at the CRCML (C01_BW_00279). |
Perth Courier 15 February 1861. (excerpt
from B&O superintendent’s report) The want of water supply at
Smiths Falls and Franktown is a cause of considerable detention to the
trains in winter as it is not unusual that it is necessary to run five
or six miles expressly for water. Were there tanks at these places, the men at the stations could do the pumping and therefore save the expense of keeping a man at Montague Ballast Pit. A statement of the various works necessary to be done during the present year, with the estimated cost of the same is hereby appended. 1861 Estimated Expenditures Tank Houses and fixtures at Smiths Falls and Franktown………………..$1000 Ottawa Citizen 26 January 1885 On 24 January 1885 there was a fatal wreck at Smiths Falls in which the water tank was demolished Ottawa Journal 11 June 1887 A water tank of unusual size is being built at the railway yards [Smiths Falls]connecting with the line of water pipes at present being laid. Ottawa Journal 24 January 1970 TENDERS Offers to purchase will be received until 12.00 noon February 10. 1970, for one 40,000 gal. sleel water tank and one 20.000 gal. sleel water tank ot Smiths Falls. Ontario. The tanks are to be removed flush with the ground on or before April 5. 1970, and the site left in a neat and tidy condition. Offers are to be addressed to: W. C. TRIPP, Division Engineer, Canadian Pacific Railway, Smiths Fails, Ontario. Further information con be obtained by writing the above or telephoning 283-0209 Smiths Falls | ||
Updated 18 June 2020
