Bruce
Ballantyne
I've lived in the Ottawa area all my
life and
can recall the more active days of the railways in the Region in the
late 1950s and 60s. I can even recall the dying days of steam
having lived near CN's
Beachburg and CP's Prescott Subs in the Alta Vista area. In 1992,
I began a project to create an inventory of railway stations
across Canada regardless of present location or use. This has
culminated in the publishing of the Canadian Railway Station Guide
by the Bytown Railway Society. Consequently, I am continuing
to do research on stations, particularly in eastern Ontario and western
Quebec.
I am also interested in the
history of CP's
Maniwaki Sub for which I have done quite a bit of research, although
not too recently. This interest comes from many years spent at
the family cottage at Blue Sea Lake watching the passenger trains pass through the village of
Messines.
I enjoyed Colin's account of the
history of
the Thurso and Nation Valley Railway which has spurred my interest in
what can be found about other logging railways that were built up the
Ottawa River Valley (primarily, I think
in what is now Algonquin Park). This could make an interesting
and perhaps challenging research project. For example, there was
the McCauley Central near Barrys' Bay which was owned by JR Booth and
connected to his Ottawa Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway. There
were others farther west but I don't recall any names. Anyone
interested? Pat Brennan
I
am a dreamer. I dream about time travel back to an age when
the
railways were at their peak in the Ottawa area but more specifically
Aylmer, Quebec.
Since I haven't figured out a technical solution to time travel I
am
following the path of research and modelling of former
railways. I love
to talk to people who have experienced life on the rails, whether they
were passengers or workers on the railways. I also love to look at
pictures from days gone by and study the many changes that have taken
place over time. I am keen on actually setting foot on some of these
locations in order to imagine what life was like before my time.
This feeds into the modelling, currently in HO Scale, of past Aylmer
scenes when the train passed my house at least 4 times a day. Current
projects also include modelling a future rail line to Aylmer (and
perhaps beyond) from Gatineau, Hull and Ottawa.
P.S. some people call me the Aylmer Train Nut.
Colin Churcher
The railway scene in Ottawa has
changed
incredibly in the last 40
years or so. I came to Ottawa in 1968 after the changes had been
made and I have had great difficulty trying to undertand
how it used to be. I feel it is important to preserve information
on the part played by railways in Ottawa. To this end, I
have gone through the orders issued by the Board of Railway
Commissioners and its successors and picking out all orders related to
the railways in this area. This represents a very rich historical
record because just about everything the railways did was regulated (opening of lines, closure of stations
and lines, relations between railways, crossings etc). The Boards
issued about 160,000 orders between 1904 and 1988. I have also
complted a similar search for Orders in Council.
Eventually I will produce printouts showing this regulatory
history by line, by location and chronologically.
I have defined my study area as being
bounded by Waltham, Maniwaki, Marelan, Rigaud, Coteau, Cornwall,
Prescott, Brockville, Kingston, Tichborne, Sharbot Lake
and Whitney.
Other projects currently under
way are:
- a thorough review of the Merrilees photo collection
in the
National Archives (some 339,000 images).
- preparing a database of all pictures identified in my study
area.
- cataloguing the Aubrey Mattingly picture collection housed in the
Canada Science and Technolgy Museum.
- reviewing the local papers and
extracting all local items into a database.
- completing a data base and then preparing a manuscript on industrial
locomotives in Canada other than BC (BC has already been covered by
Mervyn T. Green). This covers locomotives before 1990 (since
1990, the Canadian Trackside Guide by the Bytown Railway Society, is a
useful reference for industrials). Paul DelamereThe purpose of my mapping project is to offer the user a comprehensive
collection of geographically and historically accurate Canadian class 1
steam and diesel railway maps as well as all manner of
electromotive street and interurban systems. Also included are American
railroads within Ontario, independent railways and industrial tram
systems. With the technology that is avaliable today scale is no longer
an issue. This map is also fully useable in the field with the aid of a
mobile GPS that runs the .kml/.kmz file format. You must have Google
Earth, ARCGIS or ARC Globe on your computer before you can view our work.
Map files are avaliable free here:
Ontario - http://ontariomap.webs.com/
Quebec - http://quebecrailwaymap.webs.com/
All Canadian electric systems - www.cermc.webs.com
Nikola Delja
I am (2023) a fourth
year University of Ottawa student currently studying History and
Political Science. At several points in my studies I’ve used railways
and rail transportation as part of or as a focus of papers for classes
both in the historical and analytical context.
My interest in railways began with the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield Steam
Train during the early 2000s both on the train and observing its
operations at Wakefield during family day trips. During the late 2010s
when trackage and eventually coach stock of the HCW were being
dismantled, I observed any developments that occurred, which included
my documentation of the removal of the HCW coaches which occurred in
May of 2019.
Another area of interest that I have looked into and am interested in
exploring more is that of public transit. I had volunteered from 2014
to 2017 at the Streetcar 696 restoration project (hoping to return to
it in the near future) and have been following the developments
regarding the Ottawa LRT and the future of rail transit in Ottawa. I’ve
also read literature on the subject of urban transit such as Michael
and Brian Doucet’s ‘Streetcars and the Shifting Geographies of Toronto’
in regards to the social impact and change public transit brings as
well, which is another area that I am wanting to learn more on.
I’m interested in learning more about the aforementioned subjects, in
addition to rail operations in and around the Ottawa region. My current
projects in regards to rail history have been assisting Colin in the
conversion and uploading of several DVD transfers of Video8 recordings
of the Ottawa area during the late 1980s. In addition to this, the same
channel hosting Colin’s tapes has other footage, mostly from VHS, of
primarily Canadian rail operations, several of which are within the
Ottawa Valley. I’m always looking to expand my interest in these fields
as well as in others, and I’m interested in sharing in addition to
discussing findings with the Ottawa Railway Historical Circle.
Raymond Farand
I’m an Ottawa Valley
born and raised ‘railfan’, and a resident of the City of Ottawa since 1971. I think of myself mainly as a photo archivist
of all things railway related, with the historical aspect of my photography an
important element in my image-making philosophy.
In the early '80s as my chosen career path led me away from the business of
railroading I became serious about having an arm’s-length relationship with the
industry in the form of a hobby. I used
the good will of an established family name (there were three career
railroaders in my family) to introduce myself to those who worked in the
business. It has served me well over the
years. I am comfortable around train
operations and employees at the local level are accepting of my presence. Over the years I have been told by several of
the running trades that they think of me as one of their own. For me no greater compliment can be paid by
those who serve.
Even though I have benefited handsomely from my position of acceptance, for a
time I felt that I had arrived at the party too late for my images to have much
historical value. Much of the steam-era
architecture surrounding railway operations (stations included) had been
removed leaving the right-of-ways appearing relatively barren. Then the focus on short line creation and
leasing hit the industry, and with it came photographic diversification like we
had not seen in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec
since the early days of dieselization. I
was fortunate to find myself in a position to photograph a wonderful cross-section
of this spin-off activity.
As the short line era began to whither here in Eastern
Canada with companies such as the Ottawa Central disappearing
entirely, images from the previous 10 or so years now became more historically
important. Soon a downturn in the world
economy resulted in the re-evaluation of regional leasing operations,
ultimately leading to the demise of lines of railway such as the Chalk River
Subdivision and a portion of the North Bay Subdivision east of Mattawa ON.
The seemingly unimaginable was occurring
right before my eyes, making the removal of trackside structures in the '60s
and '70s appear secondary compared to the actual dismantlement of the lines of
railway themselves. Suddenly pictures of
operations on these impacted subdivisions, along with those taken of the
Beachburg Subdivision prior to its dismantlement through Algonquin Park
in 1996-97, took on a whole new sense of historical importance, and I was there
to record the final 'curtain call'.
Over the past 30 years I have done my best to record the changing face of contemporary
railroading here in the Ottawa Valley so that future railfans and historians
might look at what once was and dream of what could have been had more
favourable circumstances prevailed.
I am pleased to be a member of a collective known as the Ottawa Railway History Circle
.
Bernie
Geiger
Areas that I have an interest in and
have
collected some information on include:
- Ottawa, Hull and Kingston
Streetcars
- Rail lines around Kingston
- the NYC line to Cornwall
- the "plank" railroad from the
nearby
quarry to Hogs Back used to build the canal/dam around 1829
- lines into and around the Uplands
Airport
I also have some experience with
the
National Air
Photo Library at 615 Booth St. which is an amazing source of aerial
photographs of much of Canada from the 1930's onwards. These
photos often show lines, rights of way, yards and railcars. In
some Ottawa series you can see the streetcars moving along the street
from frame to frame as the plane flew over!
Brian Gilhuly
I
grew up above the CPR telegraph in Perth, leading to a life long
fascination with communications technology and networks. Hanging
around the station in the steam era pretty much sealed the deal.
Travelling by tyrain, modelling, study and collecting
railroadiana have been lifelong pursuits.
Now
living in
Arnprior, I undertook as a volunteer at the Arnprior &
Braeside/McNabb Archives the development of a presentation to
commemorate the
sesqui-centennial of the arrival Brockville and Ottawa's arrival in our
town in 1864. The presentation used maps I drew to illustrate the
development of regional steamboat and railway networks. Out of
that grew my book, Tracing the Lines, Eastern Ontario & West Quebec
Railway History in Maps, available as a free download from the
Archives' web site.
https://search.adarchives.org/media/tracing-the-lines/tracing-the-lines.pdf
Current particular interests are the
Brockville & Ottawa, Canada Central and Temiscouata Railway and the
history of the CPR car shops in Perth. Rene
Gourley
While I currently live in British Columbia, I had the good
fortune to
grow up in Ottawa,
which explains my interest in railways of the area. While
researching is, needless to say, difficult from this distance, I do
manage to steal the
odd day in archives or museums when I go home to visit my family. My
interest is focused on the Canada Atlantic Railway, its
subsidiaries and leased lines. I have been researching this line
since 1988 and have accumulated a reasonable, but by no means complete
body of information. I have put some of this on my home page at https://sites.google.com/site/canadaatlanticry/
Chris Granger
I've been interested in railways since I was a
child. My earliest
memory of seeing a train was when I lived in Petawawa and my dad showed
me some military trains. I lived in Calgary for a number of years
and I can still remember watching the trains
run along Ninth Avenue and on CNR's Drumheller Sub. I returned
to my birthplace of Cornwall in 1981 and my interest in railways
continued to progress. I grew up watching the CNR spur activity
here
and my backyard was right beside the former NYC line to Ottawa.
As I matured, my curiosity in learning more about these lines
increased, but it wasn't until 1997 that I began to research thoroughly
on the
subjects. I began with my family tree where I found that I had
past relatives who were railroaders. From what I have learned,
various members of my family worked for/at:
-CNR: McGiveny Junction, NB (great-grandfather on father's side in the
late 1920s)
-CPR: Ottawa area (great-uncle on father's side)
-GTR: Aultsville (great-great-uncle on mother's
side, whom took employment a year later with...)
-O&NYR/NYC: Crysler, Newington, Cornwall Junction and Cornwall (on
mother's side, great-great-grandfather; great-great-uncle and
great-grandfather)
Needless to say, my main focus is on the NYC's Ottawa Division and I am
currently involved in extensive research with Colin Churcher and Tony
Burges, as well as help from Douglas Smith in hopes to publish a book.
Also involved on this subject is my work with Heritage Cornwall (the
city's LACAC) in raising of a swing wheel from the St. Lawrence River,
an artifact from the 1908 bridge/canal accident. One of the side
projects I am
involved in is expanding the extremely thin railway history files that
now exist in the Cornwall History Room. This will involve
railways as far west as the K&P, eastwards into Montreal, as far
north as the QMO&O and southwards into
the States to the Rutland's Ogdensburg line, all focussed on the
basic important dates and events as well as what remains today of
the lines encompassed in that area. I have also been writing
articles, one was printed in Branchline, while others have been and
continue to be featured on the Cornwall LACAC web site.
Phil
Jago
My interests are the rail lines of
eastern
Ontario western Quebec - roughly in accordance with Colin Churcher.
- Of strong interest are the CPR
Brockville
Subdivision, the CPR Prescott Subdivision, the Brockville and Westport
Railway and the GTR/CNR trackage which was removed during the St.
LawrenceSeaway project.
- I have
secondary interest in the rail plant in and around Belleville,
GTR line relocations between Trenton and Toronto.
- I have
tertiary interest in the CNoR - especially the L'Orignal
Subdivision and would love to see examples (photos) of track plant from
the various stations on that pike.
Andrew
Jeanes 
My interest in railway history has led me into the perils
and pleasures
of graduate school. I'm currently completing an M.A. in
Canadian Studies at Carleton University, with a focus on Canadian
railway heritage. I'm interested in studying the effects of
railways on the landscape, in a purely geomorphological sense as well
as
in the obvious economic, social and political senses.
I've lived most of my life in Ottawa, but my interest in the
history of the city's railway lines often takes me to a place that
disappeared long before I was born, a place I can only experience
through old photos, documents and the shared recollections of those who
were there to see things firsthand.
My many current research interests include the development of Walkley
Yard, the history of railway station preservation in Canada, and
the history of passenger train service into and out of Ottawa
from the 1850s to the present day. In addition to the
Circle, I'm also a member of the CN Lines Special Interest Group, the
Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders, and yes, the Ottawa Valley HOTrak
modular model railroad club.
David
Jeanes
My specific interest areas are
- Union Station, from its
building in 1912,
as Grand Trunk Central Station, to its closure in 1966.
- The 1960s railway relocation program,
particularly the excavation of the Dows Lake Tunnel and the rock cut to
Ottawa West.
- The CTC signalling system created in
1967. Eugene (Gene) Kirkham 
Growing up in Sharbot Lake, Ontario started me off on my
railroad journey. I come from a C.P.R. railroad family: section men and section
foreman all along the Havelock Subdivision and Belleville Subdivision. So
that’s where my interests lie, especially the railroad heritage of Central
Frontenac. For two years, 1976/1977, I worked on the railroad at the CWR plant
at Smiths Falls, Ontario. After that a pursued a career in high tech, retiring
in 2015.
I am a member of OVAR, the IPP&W Railway and the CFRHS
(Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society) where I’m involved in local
railway research and maintaining the Heritage Park and CFRHS web page.
David
Knowles
My research interests range fairly
widely often
being sparked by the inquiries we receive. However, more specifically:
1. Historiography. i.e. the
history of
Canadian railway history.
2. The development of Canadian railway
management.
3. Ottawa Car Co. the manufacturer.
4. Main line electrification
5. The Bytown and Prescott Railway and
its
successors.
6. Railway heralds
Bill Linley
From
the Bay of Fundy to the Pacific Coast, Bill Linley has been
photographing and writing about trains for over fifty years. He
was introduced to train watching by his father in his native Toronto in
the early 1950s and began photographing trains on the Quebec Central in
1959 while living in Ste Foy, Quebec.
Bill shot the first of
some 100,000 colour slides in April 1962 with a photograph of the
Canadian Pacific’s Ottawa West Station. He began to focus on the
CPR and particularly on the changes to railways in the Ottawa region,
which he photographed extensively until 1970.
While
studying geography at Carleton University, Bill worked as a message
router at the Sparks Street Office of Canadian Pacific
Telegraphs. He later worked as a reservations clerk and ticket
agent for the CPR at Ottawa Union Station selling their train travel
experience. Bill made trips across Canada in the late 1960s
trying to catch the last of traditional railway operations in PEI,
Newfoundland and British Columbia. Always a fan of MLW/Alco
locomotives, he pursued these engines far and wide, notably the FPA-4s
on VIA in the 1980s.
Following graduation from Carleton
University in May 1969, Bill began a 33-year career in economic
development with the governments of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia. His career took him across Canada where he often
managed to photograph trains in the off-hours. He moved to
Fredericton and Halifax where he was a director and oft-times treasurer
of church and volunteer organizations.
For a dozen years
he owned CN caboose 79510 and a boxcar that continue to welcome guests
as part of the Train Station Inn in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia.
The caboose and a boxcar were re-modelled to provide first-class guest
accommodation for persons seeking a unique railway experience. In
2009, Bill was featured as a waiter in the Train Station Inn’s dining
car in an episode of CBC TV’s serial The Week the Women Went.
Morning
Sun Books published his first book: Canadian Pacific in Color: Volume 1
– Eastern Lines in 2003 and it sold out in 2008. He has recently
released the sequel, Canadian Pacific in Color Volume 2, Western
Lines. Bill describes the period 1948 through 1968 when steam
engines gave way to diesels across the country.
His
photos and writing have appeared in a variety of magazines in Canada
and internationally. As well, he is keen to contribute to the
work of others engaged in the preservation of railway and industrial
heritage. In 2002 he completed a brochure and contributed the
text and photographs for an award-winning website on railway heritage
for the Nova Scotia Railway Heritage Society of which he was a founding
director. He recently stepped down as a director and treasurer of
the Orangedale Station Association that owns and operates Nova Scotia's
oldest railway station.
Current interests include
completing another book for Morning Sun and cataloguing thousands of
his colour slides and digital images taken over more than fifty
years. As well, he serves on the Finance and Investment
Committee of Pine Hill Divinity Hall in Halifax and is actively
involved in the rejuvenation of Fundy Hall, a former Temperance Society
facility, in Port Lorne, Nova Scotia.
For over thirty years he
has operated a home-based business, Signal Graphics, which deals in
quality Canadian railway books, DVDs and images. He and his wife,
Marilynn, live in the historic Captain John G. Charlton house in Port
Lorne on the Bay of Fundy near the Dominion Atlantic Railway.
Bill Linley, Port Lorne, Nova Scotia bill.linley@gmail.com
Rian
Manson
My
Name is Rian (pronounced Ryan) Manson. I have lived in Smiths Falls all
my life. I was fortunate to belong to a family of railroaders. The
stories and trips with my uncle to the CPR yard
in the late 80’s in my PJ's and slippers introduced the affairs of
iron
and steel into my blood. It was only a matter of time that I began
volunteering at the Smiths Falls Railway Museum and eventually met
Steve Hunter and Bob Moore who influenced me to start documenting my
railway interests. To simplify the aforementioned railway interests, I
have narrowed them into three categories:
1) Railways in Smiths Falls
(The entire spectrum) B&O, O&Q, and the CNoR, stories,
pictures, employees, unions, and train operations.
2) The Canadian
Northern (CNoR) in Canada, and the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway
(CNoOR). My CNoOR interest is the Smiths Falls Subdivision which is an
elusive line to research.
3) The Kingston & Pembroke Railway.
My
interest is the “Movers & Shakers” of the railway line and the
physical growth and decline of the railway. My purpose is to
eventually, perhaps put out a publication on Smiths Falls’ railway
heritage. I also have a motivation to educate our youth in the
importance of their railway cultural heritage.
Bob
Meldrum
I grew up
in a railway family in Stratford Ontario where Canadian
National had arguably its best steam locomotive repair shops. My great
uncle, both grandfathers, uncle, father, and cousin all worked in the
"shops". It was
assumed that I would join them but the
end of
steam came as I was in
high school. With a pass to ride trains, I was fortunate to
go with my Dad often for trips to such places as Toronto, Chicago,
New York, and Detroit. After graduating from the University of Toronto
in 1964 with a degree in mathematics, I became a computer programmer.
Some of my first work was with a transportation consultant in
Toronto. Some of that work was part of a study showing that GO Transit
was a good idea.
My main interest to this day is
travelling
on trains.
I have been fortunate to ride every railway line in Canada that has
passenger
service including the Quebec, North Shore, and Labrador. In other
years,
I have travelled
around the world to ride trains in
Europe,
Asia, Africa, and Australia. Photography was incidental to the thrill
of travel. A souvenir rather than a goal.
I came late to historical
research and have
only recently found myself becoming more interested in historic lines.
It was a thrill to find in a nineteen-forties "Railroad Magazine" in
the Bob Craig Memorial Library, that a line had actually been surveyed
from the area around Rouyn-Noranda to Maniwaki - a line that had the
potential to make "our" Maniwaki route as heavy-duty as the Quebec,
North Shore and Labrador. It is gems like this (often uncovered by
members of the Circle) that make this hobby so fascinating.
Fred Mills
I
was born and raised on Drolet Street in Montreal, and at ten years of
age, my family moved to Ottawa. My father was very supportive of
my introduction to Railroading, in the late 40s and
early 50s. Later I was off on my own seeing, hearing and in
other ways, other than being employed by any railroad; experiencing the
railroad industry. I can safely say that I have been able to ride
the "Front end and/or the tail end" in every province in Canada except
Newfoundland, and the Yukon but including Vancouver Island.
I
have never taken a picture that I felt was worth showing to anyone, but
I have made a point of enjoying the company of people that make the
railroads work, and remembering a lot of their tales, and experiences.
My grandfather was a foreman, in charge of the exterior/interior
decoration of the original Ottawa Union Station when it was built, and
have in my possession a momento of his work, from the official opening.
I
hope that I will be able to join in discussions of the history of
railroading in our area, and be supportive of it, through research and
preservation.
Ronald
Newby
A little background on my interest in
the Canada
Atlantic Railway system is as follows. It all started when my
wife bought me a book for christmas (many moons ago) called "Over
the Hills to Georgian Bay". I found this book to be an
interesting read as it also was about logging in Ontario (another
interest) and thought it would make an interesting subject to
model. The more I
found out about the line the more interested I became in it.
It has now turned into a project on its own. At
first my research was only in the OA& PS portion of the
line. It has now expanded into the entire Canada Atlantic
Railway and JR Booth other logging lines and JR Booth himself.
Peter Newgard
After
spending 28 years with OTC-OCTranspo, Peter’s biggest transit interest
is in buses, the history of OTC and OER, and other Ottawa and North
American based bus operations. In the 80's and 90's he worked
with the late Michael Iveson over streetcar 696 while repatriating it
in 1989 from Delson/Exporail back to Ottawa where OCTranspo was
involved early on in providing space and some facilities for the
restoration of the car. With help from others he has researched
local bus fleet history and earlier garage and terminal locations for
the OER, OTC and for Colonial Coach Lines. He is continuing to
work on local transportation history with others.
Having saved and restored some older OC buses Peter is an HO model bus designer and collector.
"Railway
Bob"
I'm interested in the history of Railways of Eastern
Ontario . My
website address is
http://www.railway.bob.com
I am interested in the history of the small railway
lines in
Eastern Ontario - before they were swallowed up by
Canadian National or Canadian Pacific. My objective is to have a
site that not only informs but also entertains. This includes
lots of historical photos and maps of the specific railway lines,
timetables, the shares and
bonds that they issued. My
personal goals are two-fold - to learn about railway history
and to learn about Internet technology. For the moment, I am
concentrating on the Brockville & Westport, and to a lesser extent,
on
the Brockville and Ottawa, the Bytown and Prescott. We'll add
more railway lines to our website as time and motivation permits.
Railways have played a large role in the creation of
Canada.
Uncovering this history is lots of fun and exciting. If it
wasn't, I wouldn't be doing it. Each discovery answers a question
about who, when, and why. But it also raises more questions -
like who were the promoters, why did the line go bankrupt? I've
had fun travelling the highways and byways
of Eastern Ontario visiting local libraries and museums, talking to the
people who remember when they took the train to go to school. I'
ve been fortunate in obtaining a lot of information from these people
and from the official sources like the National Archives and the
Archives of Ontario. So, our objective is to arrange this material in a
way that will tell the story of our local railway lines,
and publish it on the Internet so that others can share in my enjoyment
of the history of the Railways of Eastern Ontario.
Doug
Smith
Like most
of the crowd, I grew up near a rail line (well actually
two - CN and CP served my home town). Almost everyday my
father received express shipments on the Maritime Express and until
I started school, I often went with him. Out of these trips came a
fascination which remains to the present with passenger trains and
their equipment and railway stations.
I also am very interested in the
reasons why
things happen - most rail historians are nuts and bolts type, i.e. a
rail line was built to town X in 18xx or a locomotive was delivered in
19xx. I am much more interested in why the railway went to town
X, the changes in technology which made the locomotive purchase a good
thing, and why the railway choose to make the purchase.
Given the interest in passenger
trains, my
side interest in interurban lines is probably understandable.
Doug Stoltz
CNR
steam and GRR-LE&N trolleys left a big impression on me growing up
on Ottawa Street in Kitchener. A move to Montreal’s west island opened
up the world of main-line and big-city railroading. Steam and diesel
excursions brought me into contact with the organized rail fan
community and their publications revealed fascinating episodes and
developments in railway history. I came to Ottawa as the massive rail
relocation project was changing the landscape dramatically. My interest
in train operations, timetables and rules got me curious about the
regulatory framework and railway legislation. A trial balloon sent to
Transport Canada led to a contract to revise the department’s statutory
history of railway companies. When rail passenger services appeared to
be headed toward extinction, I became active in the formation of
Transport 2000 and in its early campaigns. I enjoy going to source
material for information of all kinds about railways past and present.
The ORHC is a great forum for the collection and sharing of suchinformation in relation to this part of Canada. Jacques ValiquetteMy
interest in the railways of Ottawa consists of the period from 1950 to
1986 when I was working as a car inspector with CNR, at the "old
station" center town, and Bank St repair track.
Then the "new station" on Tremblay Rd, Walkley yard repair track and freight yard inspection.
I
came back in service with Hull Chelsea Wakefield in Hull from the
start in 1991 as master mechanic of the fleet of 8 cars, 909 steam and
244 diesel locomotives to 1996 when I retired after a fall in the cab
while repairing the glass tube boiler water level, breaking my right
shoulder.
I have a good memory and I am ready to assist in questions or details in the future in that range. Malcolm Vant 
I have been interested in trains ever since I can
remember. I have lived in Ottawa most of
my life and being born in the early 50s, experienced the dismantling of rail in
the area. I recall vividly leaving on
trains with my mother from the old Union Station and riding on streetcars. I do recall seeing the Ottawa West yards and
roundhouse near the end of their lives in the mid-60s, as I rode by on the
number 52 bus to Carlingwood, and I remember visiting the coal sheds that lined
the hill near Mann Ave with my Dad. Unfortunately, during
those early years, I was too young to have a camera and take photos. My earliest photos are in 1967, taken with a
Brownie, of the tracks of Union Station just after it closed, and then of the
museum train as it arrived at the former Morrison Lamothe Bakery, now the
Museum of Science and Technology, bringing several of the locomotives now in
residence there. I was, and am again, an
avid model railroader, interested in particular in prototype modelling of the CNR
and CPR branchlines that once radiated out of Ottawa. Since retirement in 2009 from a busy career
in Research and Development, I have combined my interests in railroads, local
history, and cycling, and have cycled parts or all of the rail trails that line
the former railway spokes out of Ottawa and the surrounding area, such as the
Maniwaki, Waltham, Carleton Place, K&P and M&O subs of the CPR and the
Cataraqui sub of the CNR. I love trying
to imagine what was there and in some cases finding traces of what
existed. I have been reading online,
following fora, and participating in the Bytown Railway Society to learn as
much as I can about railway infrastructure and operations in the area and I am
excited about joining the Ottawa Railway Circle to contribute and to learn
more. Mark Walton I was born in Montreal, and lived there until I was 5. My parents and
grandparents often took me everywhere on the transit system, which still
had streetcars (until 1959) and trolleybuses (until 1966). I suppose
that’s how “the bug” bit me. We moved to Ottawa in 1959 when my dad
joined the RCAF; he later was posted to Germany, Winnipeg (I was on its
last trolleybus in 1970), and back to Ottawa. Everywhere we went, I
followed the rail and transit scene, but was always far more interested
in electrics than steam or diesel.
I'm a member of Bytown Railway Society, OVAR, CRHA, and Transport Action
(formerly Transport 2000). In the 1980s I and 2 others published Transit
News Canada magazine. When traveling, most often to Calgary nowadays, I
keep a keen eye to rail and transit. My travels have also included
Montreal, GTHA, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Vancouver. My special interest
is Montreal’s Mount Royal Tunnel, on which I have given a presentation
to BRS and OVAR. That included my experiences on the day of the last
runs of the old trains June 2, 1995.
Doug Wilson
 I've spent my whole life in the company of
trains. I'm a second generation railroader, being the son of a Lieutenant in
the CN Police Department. My father joined the railway the year that I was born
and as a result of my father's career, I grew up next to the tracks in such
railway towns as Jellicoe, Stratford, Fort Erie and Hornepayne.
I'm a career railroader, joining CN in 1969. I held unionized positions such Crew
Dispatcher, Engine Watchman/Hostler and Train Order Operator. Having acquired
that grounding, I moved into management working in the Personal and Labour
Relations Department in Montreal and Toronto. I found I wasn't getting enough
exposure to trains, so I went through CN's Operations Training program and
worked as a Trainmaster in Capreol, Toronto Union Station, Don Yard, Sarnia and
Fort Erie. I later became Manager Special Projects, working on projects such as
the new St. Clair Tunnel in Sarnia. My final position at CN was Director of
Interline Management, where I was involved initially in network rationalization
studies and then in the creation and sale of 20 of CN's partner short lines in
Canada and the United States. I retired
from CN at the end of 2000 and accepted a position as Vice President of
Trillium Railway, operating short lines in the Niagara Peninsula and south
western Ontario.
I've
enjoyed collecting railway antiques along the way, ranging from Dining Car
China all the way up to a Track Motor Car. I'm a relative new comer to Ottawa
having moved here after I retired from
Trillium in 2009. Since coming to Ottawa I have been on the Board of Directors
for the Bytown Railway Society and a member of Ottawa Valley Associated
Railroaders. My interests include modelling in HO and I have an extensive
railway photo collection.
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Have actively studied Ottawa railway history,
usually through the publication of articles, books or presentations, or;
