Paul Charland labelled an aerial photo of Brockville to show CP-served industries. This was initially posted to Facebook, with considerable input from Steve Hunter, Philip Jago and Chris DeVries. Having been to Brockville only occasionally during the heyday during the 1970's-1980's, I'm interested in trying to document the busy rail activity there. Like Kingston, much of this rail service is gone, likely never to return, and seems worth preserving.
1 Clarke Transfer. Shipped LCL freight in CP 40-foot boxcars, after the wye was removed the shipped some reels of cable for Philips in gondolas. Received the occasional foreign boxcars, some that come to mind are C&O and B&O cars for Black and Decker, CV, GB&W, and odd CNW car.
2 The pallet mill, received BCOL bulkhead flats and 50-foot combination door boxcar of lumber on the southern most siding. The used Taggart Transport to move finished pallets to local industries but occasionally shipped boxcar load out.
3 The Dominion (now Giant Tiger) store. The last time I saw a car in there was in the early seventies, a freshly repainted CP 40-foot insulated boxcar. The siding was removed by the time I moved here in 1977.
4 The Ramp, off the south end of the passing siding at the Field.
5 The Field, passing siding, run-around and team track. Master Feed in Addison received feed in 40 foot boxcars. In the mid-80's Motor Coil had a contract with CP to rebuild traction motors and received them in covered gondolas.
6 Nestle Canada received food in CN and CP insulated boxcars and reefers. Occasionally there would be a C&NW car there as well.
7 Coca-Cola, received syrup in 40-foot tankcars, bottles and cans in CN 50-foot boxcars.
8 Electrolux Canada, only cars I saw in their siding were CP gons collecting scrap metal.
The Coca-Cola and Electrolux siding had a diamond near the mainline and both had rather tight curves leading to the buildings.
9 Henderson-Barwick, made corrugated culverts. Legend has it that the first time they shipped by rail the car was heading to the west coast. Their car or one of the adjacent cars developed a hotbox and the group of cars was set off in a mountain siding. Before the car was repaired the straps snapped on the loaded flatcar, sending the culverts down an embankment. Henderson-Barwick was told that they loaded the car so recovering the load was their problem, Henderson-Barwick said CP's car had the hotbox and if that hadn't happened that car would have completed it's journey. They never came to an amicable settlement and that was the first and last time Henderson-Barwick shipped by rail.
10 MacDonald's took liquid sugar and transformed it into carmel coloring that breweries use to color beer, other food industries use it too but the breweries were theur big customers. They received liquid sugar in 50-foot tankcars and shipped the finished product in CN 50-foot insulated boxcars. Both types of cars usually sat in their siding for a week.
11 Selkirk Metalbestos, maker of metal chimney's for fireplaces, shipped coast to coast but I believe a lot of smaller orders were shipped through Clarke's.
12 Alcan Canada. I talked to the general manager one day about a year after they opened (1985ish). She said the received 6 CN PD covered hoppers a year from Jonquiere PQ and shipped six carloads to Kingston. They have since added a second siding and I'd imagine they are using the railway more.
13 Proctor and Gamble, first four tracks are two bulk terminal tracks receiving tankcars and covered hoppers. Mostly CP covered hoppers but occasionally CN and even talc off the GMRC in private cars.
14 Also P&G, two tracks entered the building, they could put four 50-foot boxcar inside the building on each track and close the overhead door. When I was in it it looked like a ton of Tide boxes had been unloaded and were on the shipping dock.
15 Shell Canada... don't know a lot about this one, lots of tankcars sitting around.
Between the Shell sidings and Proctor and Gamble sits three sidings that appear from a modern Google Earth shot to be a trailer loading facility, but I'm not really sure to be honest.
On the CN side, Phillips Cables received cars of copper, the team track in the yard received loads of lumber and more, Hodgins Lumber later Beaver Lumber, and Selkirk Chimneys was also served by CN.
Running extra...
Thanks to Erika and Dustin for Finding this Fine F-unit Fortuitously at Bed Bath & Beyond! (above).It came in handy while replacing couplers on a small fleet of freight cars I picked up at last Saturday's Kingston Railfair 2019. More coverage on the show here. Marc and the elves did a nice job on the Christmas layout:
Regal Eagle-Eye! Where I parked (yellow rectangle) across Montreal Street from the show venue was mere steps on the red carpet from where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's train waited while the Royal Couple visited Kingston in 1973 (Vintage Kingston Facebook photo):
On the CN side, Phillips Cables received cars of copper, the team track in the yard received loads of lumber and more, Hodgins Lumber later Beaver Lumber, and Selkirk Chimneys was also served by CN.
Running extra...
