Renewal, Roadswitcher, Rust Retrospective, September 2020

Grubbin' in da Crib! Sounds like a rap number. Actually, it's what I found this pair of Railavators doing in the concrete cribs lining the tracks at Kingston's VIA station on August 29. Previously, the foreground north track had been done - new ballast, ties and rail. Now it was the south track's turn. John Deere articulated dumptrucks carried the old ballast and dumped it at the edge of the swamp landfill that the station sits in. When doing the north track, without room to manoeuvre on the platform, and wanting to dump the ballast on the south side, the dumptrucks drove on the south track, receiving the old ballast there. Elsewhere, renewal in the form of a new parking lot arrangement, with a new access road leaving John Counter Boulevard, itself rising over the CN Kingston Sub on a new overpass!

The old rail was sawed up with ties still attached and stacked on both sides of the tracks. Now contractor OWS is disassembling it with two boom trucks. Notice the CN Rule 42 foreman perched on the overpass, at right of photo - the eye in the sky to clear approaching trains through Foreman Dan George's Mile 178-174 working limits:

The same boom truck disgorging its creosote-crunchy load on the south side:

The final results. Imagine the impossibility of dragging old ties laterally from this confined space. No wonder CN just left them to rot in place. Until now. (The previous tie program in 1995 was firmly in the LRC era!) The contractors did dislodge a few top rails of the 'tween-track 1974-vintage chain link fence. We'll see if it gets repaired. It's vintage and this is Kingston!

A side-trip near home took me through the Gardiners Road underpass, where GMTX 2264-CN 4761 were stopped, having exited the Cataraqui Spur. Waiting for the trainman to regain the cab after closing the electric lock at Mi 178 Kingston Sub, their head-end was at Home Hardware (formerly rail-served as part of the Industrial Spur, now lifted, as Weldwood). 

Starting to head west past the pedestrian-only crossing at Canatara Court, CN No 518 was heading for Ernestown then Belleville. Go!

From renewal and roadswitcher, we turn our attention to the Rust of the story. The former site of Kingston's Outer Station is now the new home of Krown Rust Control. This is hallowed ground. The old alignment of the Kingston Sub at the CN Outer Station until the mid-seventies. Still-standing is the Grand Trunk Terrace at 1-3-5 Cassidy Street, home of Grand Trunk Railway and CN workers until the 1970's. Rear view:

Front view. In Kingston, there are a lot of grey areas. They're limestone buildings. (Actually, often referred to as blue-grey limestone! Rust never sleeps and neither does history. In my ongoing research on the CN Hanley Spur, it is easy to picture the historic aspects of the treasure found trackside in this part of town. 

The 1895 addition to the Outer Station, the latter slowly dissolving into its own limestone dust at far right, is just visible behind two Canadian Forces Logistic Wheeled Vehicles LVSW's (following the American example of abbreviating VRYthing) on Krown land, to paraphrase my son. Our tax dollars at work!

Farther down Montreal Street, a brownfield site representing Cohen Steel still stands. A favourite haunt for taggers and ne'er-do-wells. This was a large, untamed land full of battery acid, rusty scrap and making money from other people's discards.

Speaking of batteries, at Maple and Cassidy Streets, the remnants of the Gould Storage Battery plant (painted tan, below) remains as part of Presland Iron & Steel. The other major industry here, Frontenac Floor and Wall Tile, has been demolished.

The large covered travelling crane was clanking its loads up and down:

Shooting into the sun, rays entered my point-and-shoot lens as a rusty retrospective of Kingston's industrial past percolated into my mind. Sounds like a good subject for a book!

Running extra...

FOB/B is my new designation. That's Father Of Bride/Blogger! On a sunny Sunday, our daughter Erika and Dustin began their new life together. My wife and I were pleased to share the day with the government-mandated 50 guests (out of a preferred 130), mostly masked except for in-bubble groups, procession and photography. Re-scheduled from June when guest list was a tenuous 10! The only train I observed that day was the one I was careful not to step on!