Welcome aboard this year-long retrospective series celebrating my Fifty Years Trackside - watching trains and taking numbers. This is the Fourth of a year-long series celebrating those five decades - each month's post is a time capsule; a five-year slice of those fifty years. The previous post covered the years 1986-91 and this month, we continue through the 1990's.
On a trip to Smiths Falls Railway Museum, Andrew was one of the youngest attendees at Dedication Day, September 15, 1991. I'm carrying him aboard with my Dad and Karen about to board, with my brother Dave the congenial trainman (top photo). My Dad hooping up orders to him:
My brother was volunteering there, and I was given the opportunity to hoop up orders to him on newly-dedicated CP van 437183 as it passed the station led by CP S-3 6591. At the very last second, Bytown Railway Society's larger-than-life Duncan DuFresne popped out of the cab of 6591 to snag the orders. Nevertheless, we enjoyed three rides in the van. Returning to the station on the newly-dedicated van:
In the bleak mid-winter months of early 1992, our little family took a trip to Montreal to visit my sister there. On March 18, 1992 we were at the station and our son was yet again getting peanuts and cookies from VIA engineers. All four VIA trains comprised blue & yellow cars, with nary an LRC in sight! This substitution was due to VIA's unexpected Operation Axle and would last until early June. On May 1, the first re-axled LRC trainset operated into Ottawa. Once completed, re-axled trainsets were re-entering service to southwest Ontario, Quebec City and across the Corridor. On May 3, I was trackside at Kingston to observe my last conventional-equipped Operation Axle-era train, VIA No 63. The next time I was trackside on May 12, it was back to LRC cars on Toronto-Ottawa No 46. On June 2, the last of the re-axled LRC cars returned to service.
A vacation trip to Kitchener led us to the station there, notably across from the well-known photo backdrop formed by the H.Krug Co. furniture factory. CN 4136 and International Service caboose 78132 were parked, while a CN switch job pulled in from the east with 1254-79752. The crew tied it down then headed to the station. Kingston's youngest railfan, now Kitchener's:
In November, 1992 after seven-plus years in the Histopathology laboratory, I was transferred to the Hematology laboratory, on the same floor and just prior to its being phagocytosed by the new Core Laboratory in the usual location for hospital labs...the basement!
This change was one of many challenges in life that turned into opportunities. My new Assistant Chief Technologist was a member of the Ontario Society of Medical Technologists' executive and put my name forward as a potential regional representative for the new College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario that professional organizations like the OSMT were instrumental in forming at the time. Two weeks later, I was on my way to Toronto aboard VIA No 63 for the first two-day meeting of the CMLTO Transitional Council on November 24-25.
Over the next two years, until the College was officially proclaimed into being and functioning, I'd make monthly trips to Toronto aboard VIA, usually leaving at the end of a workday. The next day would be a full-day of Council and Committee meetings, returning home the next evening. I almost always travelled home aboard VIA No 68, usually taking Nos 49, 63, 65 or 67 west. Additional trips were made to Ottawa and Timmins to represent the CMLTO and make presentations at professional conventions. Of course, on the way to and from Toronto, I made a point of making whatever train-related observations I could, depending on the available daylight. Yard activity at Belleville, Oshawa and Don, paralleling CP trains from Trenton to Cobourg, plus VIA, and GO Transit action into Toronto.
Once formed, and moved out of potentially toxic surplus provincial government office space, the new CMLTO office was in the new Waterpark Place (no, they didn't feature a water park!), nice and close to Union Station. In inclement weather (do we ever have clement weather, perhaps only on Christmas Eve?) the TTC Harbourfront LRT was a handy option. If time permitted between end of meeting and train time home, I'd watch the nightly parade of GO trains at the end of the Skywalk, or Ontario Northland in November, 1994 (below). At the convention centre/L'Hotel across the Toronto Terminals Railway trackage (now the Union Station Rail Corridor), CN or CP business cars were often parked: CN 92, 94 or Tawaw and CP Strathcona or Mount Royal.
Dave, Andrew and I made a trip to the Smiths Falls Railway Museum on May 12, 1993. A stop at the CP Smiths Falls yard at 1030 revealed CP 1855 switching, and two westbound freights waiting for crews at the station, led by 6053-5539 and 4231-4248.
After our museum visit, an eastbound CP intermodal arrived at the station for a crew change behind 5407-4573-4719. A westbound departed five minutes later with 20 NW, CR, CS and CP double-door boxcars stencilled "GM ASSIGNED SERVICE OSHAWA" and 18 loaded auto racks, likely Camaros and Firebirds from GM's Ste-Therese, QC auto plant that closed a few years later in 2002.
A local and very viewable derailment took place at Collins Bay on May 13, 1993. We made another trip to Pennsylvania with Karen's parents in their [air-conditioned!] Oldsmobile from June 21-24, 1993. A Conrail Geep could be seen switching several covered hoppers near Binghamton, NY. On June 23, we caught CR 5561-6041 leading a westbound freight at Myerstown, PA. We enjoyed Strasburg 90 in excursion service before heading back north. CP 5604-5728-675 (ex-KCS) were at Binghamton. Ex-D&H 5017 was switching, with fleetmates 5022, 5023 and 5009 dead in the weeds nearby:
On September 25, 1993 my Dad, Dave, Andrew and I visited the Halton County Radial Railway at Rockwood, ON. We rode on TTC 2786 and M&SC 107. Returning via Bayview Junction, we observed a seven-car VIA westbound led by 6427 and two CN eastbound: CN 5341-9633 from Hamilton with Expo86 blue & white-striped CN 557417 then CN 2108-2023 from the west toting all empty auto racks.
Attending the Interhealth Seminar for CMLTO at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto on October 14-15, 1993 before returning on VIA No 68, I headed to the Skywalk. There were 19 GO movements, one VIA and light engine CN 7301 all in 50 minutes! I was able to record all the consists except for three simultaneous GO movements during which one train blocked the other. Family visit with our new 1994 Plymouth Voyager van at Kingston station with an eastbound VIA train:
When my layout filled an entire room, I found the prospect of adding scenery to wide swaths of prairie very daunting. Limited areas of papier-maché were begun, with child labour providing the paint coverage:
During an ice storm on January 28, 1994 the CN local derailed caboose 79683 near the Front Road Invista plant. It was derailed that evening, thwarting your humble blogger's efforts at cleanup chronicling.
On February 7, 1994 a rare eastward trip for a CMLTO Registration Committee meeting started on VIA No 40. Ensconced in window seat 33 of LRC coach 3331 with VIA 6419 leading our train, we met VIA No 43 at Smiths Falls with 6425. Stored on the VIA Ottawa station tracks were 30-40 VIA cars made surplus by the severe 1990 cuts. Even VIA 618, an ex-Rock Island baggage car with silver-painted trucks, having been acquired for possible HEP conversion. Domes Algonquin Park, Sibley Park and Riding Mountain Park, not part of the HEP program were the only other stainless steel cars among the otherwise blue & yellow orphans. The cab driver [probably lost] drove alongside Walkley Yard, enabling me to do some brief freight-watching (below). I returned home on VIA No 47 in coach 3345.
Attending the NORONT convention in Timmins from March 1-4, I opted to travel on the ONR's Northlander .
A trip to Toronto on April 4 aboard VIA No 47 included a one-hour delay at Pickering. A train ahead had struck a pedestrian. A short four-paragraph item in the Toronto Star noted the fatality involving a Montreal-Toronto VIA train just west of the Rouge Hill GO station at 2015. Our train and one other were described by VIA spokesperson Dianne Graham as "experiencing minor delays". A follow-up item in the April 6 Star identified the victim as 35 year-old Chris Feczko of Scarborough, according to a friend with whom he'd been walking. Mentioning their destination as a beach "known as a local drinking spot", this seemingly innocuous two-paragraph clipping led to a much-longer letter to the editor published on April 17. Written by a colleague Jack Gibson, the letter took issue with the story's implication that the victim was an unsavoury individual. Mr Gibson noted that Chris had been one of their employer's best-liked employees, and that the most important thing he left behind was the fond remembrance and respect of those who knew him. I found this to be an interesting sidelight that put a human face on the incident, while I could see was passengers dialling their cellphones, asking the crew pointed questions and looking at their watches.
A spring drive led us to the VIA station at Gananoque Junction, April 12, 1994:
With our daughter Erika's arrival in August, a return trip to Paris Jct. coincided with a CMLTO meeting in Toronto. I rode the GO train to Whitby from Toronto to meet my wife, new daughter and in-laws for the drive home. In GO bilevel 2215, we met a westbound GO at Guildwood led by cab car 241, a four-car VIA westbound at Rouge Hill then a westbound CN Freight Ajax: 3503-2339-2320 and an eastbound with CN 9669-HATX 906-9316-9596. The Helm Leasing unit on that eastbound was indicative of CN's power shortage at the time. Another emerging trend at the time was the double-stack intermodal train. During some last-minute shopping, my father-in-law had entertained Erika while waiting, then successfully changed her diaper. His first, after raising six kids of their own!
An afternoon trip to the Amherstview Sports Field, where this whole half-century retrospective started on July 1, 1994 with my Dad and Andrew... 5341-HATX 902-3529 (below).
Belleville shop track summer evening in 1994: 2105-CNNA 6005.
Erika's first trip to the station October, 1994, during which we observed three VIA trains: westbounds with 6401 and 6423 then eastbound with 6421 at 1425 (below).
CMLTO accounting dictated that First Class travel including a meal while travelling was equivalent to claiming driving mileage plus a meal. That translated to VIA1 ticket for my trip to Ottawa on December 2, 1994 for a CMLTO Nominations Committee meeting. I was fine with the idea, travelling in seat 59 of LRC VIA1 car 3472 on VIA No 40. We met VIA No 43 at Smiths Falls, and the three Park cars still languished at Ottawa station. I returned in seat 53 of 3462 on VIA No 47 behind 6420. VIA1 service comprised complimentary coffee and a newspaper before departing Kingston. The car attendant reassured me that the morning departures did not mean it was too early for a drink. White wine and a fruit salad accompanied omelette, sausage and hash brown brunch, with Pepsi and peanuts approaching Ottawa. Heading home, there were bagel chips, then white wine with buttermilk-dill dressed salad, fruit salad and a chocolate tart. At Brockville, pan-fried fish dinner with potatoes and asparagus [a so-called 'loser vegetable'] then coffee, Drambuie and a chocolate. Now this was the way to go! (Business Class 20 years later.) Between May 29 and June 4, 1995 CN replaced all the ties between the north and south platforms at Kingston's VIA station.
Enduring shift-work in Hematology for a few final months, I would often take the opportunity to do some railfanning on the way to work. For 4-12 shifts, that was at Rigney Street at Mi 174 CN Kingston Sub. For midnight shifts, I'd take advantage of the parking-lot lights at the station for an hour or so before heading in to work.
On September 1, 1995 Dad, Dave, Andrew and I visited a new trainwatching spot west of Trenton between Tate and Morningstar Roads. CN and CP joined and paralleled each other, doubling our chances. After picking up lunch at Wendy's in Trenton, Andrew removed a burger from the bag and unwittingly unwrapped (and almost bit into) his uncle's burger by mistake. Dave's spring-loaded hand was out like a shot to reclaim his still-hot and unsampled sandwich. We photographed ten CN freights and seven CP (some detouring over CN east of Brighton due to CP track work at Bowmanville). The burger-save was recreated trackside - the photo is somewhere in the dusty archives. Eastbound CN intermodal at 1600: CN 9507-9577-9574 (L.C. Gagnon photo):
Westbound CN intermodal with GTW unit (above - David J. Gagnon photo) and our tween-tracks trainapalooza hacienda (L.C. Gagnon photo):
On October 13, 1995 five cars of a seven-car wayfreight backing to DuPont derailed on the trestle between Armstrong and Bath Roads. Thanks for being aboard this year-long train of thought as we retrace, remember, and yes, wallow in nostalgia these fifty years trackside.
Watch for an upcoming Fifth Post finishing off the 1990s and approaching the once-dreaded Y2K!
Running extra...
The King's visit to Washington Day Two. Missed the first and second periods (above) "Addresses Us Congress". In his excellent speech, the King quipped, "Two hundred and fifty years ago, or as we say in the United Kingdom, '...just the other day...'" Strangely, after disembarking their aircraft on Day One, the King and Queen stood right in front of their car as both national anthems were played. Looked like an oops in timing.
The US president really doesn't seem to know how to be a host. Don't touch the King's arm and knee. Don't walk on the other side of the Guard of Honour's commanding officer, walk behind your guest. Don't stand in the middle of a tiny White House balcony - there are four of you! Don't salute so much when not in uniform. Nobody else is. The Guard of Honour seemed to adopt the Eyes Right then follow your inspecting party to the Eyes Front as seen in Putin's Russia:
First past the post...
Thank goodness there is a Head of State who can speak in complete paragraphs, express care and concern for his own nation AND others, and convey class and grace and rise above the rhetorical fray.
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