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...
2 comments:
Where to begin!
I think it should at least be mentioned that CP also had industries on the Loop Line, and of course at Blockhouse. I know the Brockville Sub is the focus of this but for nitpick's sake, I will mention the above.
1. Gone.
2. Gone.
2.25. Gone. Lumber spur. I don't know much about this but there used to be a stub track alongside where Howard's Travel now is. It was used for interchange traffic during the time of my childhood but I am wondering if it at one time was an actual transloading facility and/or if it had any relation to #s 1 and 2.
2.5. Gone. The Canada Carriage Company. CP had a spur into their facility off the Brockville Sub by Front Ave., where the switch to the tunnel lead was also located. I do believe they were jointly served by CP and the Grand Trunk. This facility was where the ball diamonds are.
3. Gone. I remember there being debate as to whether this actually existed. I believe it may have been Phil that had doubts as to a Dominion spur ever existing. It's long before my time so I have to go with the memories of you guys.
4. Gone.
5. Gone. This was also the location of the roundhouse after the one on Blockhouse was demolished.
5.5. Gone. Phil mentioned to me there used to be a propane facility where the Brockville Police station now stands; across the tracks from #s 4 and 5.
6. Currently Wills Transfer. Wills also unloads cars interchanged from CN to CP in Brockville at the ramp in Smiths Falls. I have no idea how many of those cars, if any, are being spotted in Brockville. Might be zero or it could be a mix.
7. Gone
8. Gone
9. Gone
10. Gone
11. Gone
12. Now called Axens. Still very much alive and served quite frequently.
13. My only knowledge of what goes on here is through the odd video or CP sighting in Brockville. Of the four tracks #13 would encompass, the two easternmost tracks I don't believe are being used and the two to the right of those are for the time being. CP still infrequently spots hoppers to those tracks. Based on what I can see from observing outside of Brockville, none of those cars come from CN and based upon Google imagery, there can't be too many being placed at a time. Soon it will be zero as P&G closes the facility.
14. Those tracks, no longer going into the building, have no current use. I will also mention the three tracks mentioned between PG and Shell. They were used as P&G's internal storage yard when they had different product lines, and much higher amounts of rail service, in previous times. They aren't used now.
15. Shell. VERY active facility seeing large amounts of traffic.
Axens and Shell are they only two places on the CP side of things seeing regular switching. Most, if not all, of Axens' cars are interchanged from/to CN to CP. CN and CP interchange many Shell cars as well but unlike Axens I believe CP spots many cars from their own lines there as well. There are other cars interchanged between CN and CP not having to do with Brockville operations as.
Thanks for the very informative updates, Chris.
Much appreciated!
As with Kingston, the number of shippers has understandably declined with the shift to trucking, but some very hardy customers seem to survive.
Eric
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