Trackside Treasure's Fourteenth Anniversary

This blog and this blogger are now another year older since Trackside Treasure's last anniversary. Who says you can't teach an old dog new trains? Although wallowing in nostalgia is permitted and encouraged here, it's also good to try to stay current.

Thanks to a heads-up from fellow VIAphile Matt Soknacki, I was able to catch VIA's inaugural Siemens trainset returning to Montreal from testing in Southwestern Ontario last Saturday. A new second set arrived twelve hours earlier, in pitch darkness, behind UP 5275. Boo! Darkness! 

This sighting speaks to me about blogging. First, it's good to make connections and foster community. That's what social media is for, but that often becames seeking likes and views, and fostering less positive things and attitudes. It's also good to get and give good information that's useful. Most importantly, it's about showing up and completing the loop. So, off I went to Mi 180 Kingston Sub, trying to avoid multi-lane traffic and wild parsnip (above photos). Another thing I like about blogging - its adaptability and spontaneity.

Fortunately, this first set stopped for a signal just after it passed me at a sunny 1430, so I was able to get it a second time, one mile to the east!

One of each of these pairs of photos is from a tripod iPhone video screenshot. The other is good ol' point-and-shoot. Just like blogging, we have to try to maximize the technology we have available to get good results.

And, just like VIA, Trackside Treasure is held together with duct tape. Patched at the last minute, whatever it takes, and it can always be revised and improved later! 769 posts so far, and counting!

Each year, it's important for me to take a moment to thank you, the reader. And you, the commenter. And you, the spreaders-of-the-message. Anything you do to take part in the Trackside Treasure community. Also, thank you to my current sidebar blog partners: Stephen, Dave, Steve, Chris, Michael, Don-George-Peter, Edd, Bernard and Marc. I enjoy following their blogs from my sidebar, and I trust you do, too.

THE CONTEST!

Now it's time for Trackside Treasure's annual anniversary contest. This is a yearly 'thank you' to readers for staying engaged. I want to make this really easy and fun. You don't have to be a train expert to participate. In fact, you don't have to be an expert in anything! There are three ways to win, and if you win, you'll receive the Trackside Treasure Fourteenth Anniversary Prize Pack!

• Tell me your favourite railway and why. Be quite specific, but keep it to twelve words.
• If you don't have one, what is your favourite colour?* Please keep this to two words. Bluish-greenish and greenish-bluish are the same thing, really.
• If you don't have one, what is your favourite bird? If answering swallow, please specify is that African, or European?*

*The contest is now closed.*

The winner will be randomly chosen from all entries received and announced in the next post. Thanks for playing!

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Now, to keep the lawyers happy.

Not valid in Nepal, Namibia or Newfoundland. May cause horripilation, obdormition, photalgia, acute ioannaroumeliotis, sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia (if taken with ice cream), and the condition known as hot-dog fingers. These are verifiable, actual medical conditions. I didn't even make them up. Well, except one of them. (We did do the nose, and the hat.*) If this happens at knight, it's merely a flesh wound.* Do not even think about operating aircraft. Ever. Unless you're a skilled pilot, then go for it. Hey, what's the worst that can happen? Do not read if you're allergic to reading blogs. Not to be taken with grapefruit. Or, very seriously. 

*also an obligatory Monty Python reference. Oh, and thanks for reading this far for the asterisk. You're a star!

Archiving CP in Kingston

In a previous post, I published some photos of CN operations in and around Kingston. The images are from the Queen's University Archives. Now, it's time to explore CP through archival photos. Although Kingston is on the CN Montreal-Toronto mainline, CP only reached Kingston via the former Kingston & Pembroke line that terminated in Kingston and ran north to Renfrew. CP trains coming to Kingston originated in Smiths Falls in later years. So in some ways, Kingston is arguably a 'more CN' city. Despite that finding, there are still many intriguing CP-based views worth discovering in the Archives.  - and now shared in this post.

October, 1951 collision with CPR 437 (top photo) at an unknown location north of the city. CP station on Ontario Street, showing station gardens and Southern Pacific ice reefer, undated:

CP depressed-centre flat car 309948, loaded with Canadian loomotive Company export engine. Photographed September 21, 1948 at CLC:

DuPont strike on Front Road, April 1965 with OPP cruiser nearby - Canadian Pacific Express truck is held up on the picket line.

On July 21, 1966 CP's waterfront freight shed at its Ontario Street station yard is being demolished to make way for Confederation Park in the upcoming Centennial year. 

Can't people read? Apparently disregarded, this sign was installed on the cab windows of the 'Spirit of Sir John A', also known as CPR D-10 1095 near the former station. July 11, 1966, just ten days after the 4-6-0 had been dedicated by MP Edgar Benson, MPP Syl Apps and Mayor Bob Fray, who also hand-lettered the tender!

CP conductor Clarence T. Barr retires with 45 years of service on January 1, 1966. Kingston CP freight agent W.M. Robertson is photographed with the conductor, the last to retire from the Ontario Street station:

This CP train has collided with car at Montreal (crossbucks) and Rideau Streets (right background), on December 11, 1964. This little oopsie may not even have made the daily paper because of a five-car CN derailment at Collins Bay on the same day.

CP conductor G. Giff attends to paperwork on June 15, 1957 just before the last run of 'K&P' mixed train service behind CPR 485. The final Kingston to Renfrew day mixed trains, designated Mixed 612/613 operated on June 17-18, 1957

It's not the majestic dome of Kingston City Hall nor the huge lineup of foot traffic for the Wolfe Island ferry that catches my eye in this July 6, 1963 photo. No, it's block-lettered covered CP gondola 344119!

In Kingston for one day, CP baggage car 4222 hosted displays of modern office equipment, billed the 'Executive Express'. The car was on a four-week tour, and was actually spotted at the CN Outer Station before being picked up by a CN that night for furtherance to Belleville. Though one account states May 6, 1964 was the date of the visit, this photo is dated August 28, 1964:

Its bridge windows boarded over, the self-unloader Bayswater Shipping self-unloading collier Baygeorge looks over CP eight-hatch reefers 37106 and 39580 on CP trackage near Canadian Dredge & Dock on the sunny afternoon of April 4, 1968:

'Preliminary Design 4-6-2 Pacific Locomotive - CPR Mechanical Department G5d blueprints dated April 2, 1948:

Running extra...

Speaking of archiving, here's a 2009 article from the Queen's University Alumni Review magazine on Canada's most profilic modern railway author, Ian Wilson. Ian is a Queen's Sci '84 alumnus. Interestingly, the article states that he spent a lot of his time reading the bound technical journals in the archives section of the Douglas Library!

A nice 1970's CN Passenger Services video from Montreal Turbo to Toronto, mountains and Edmonton, on Youtube.

Just around the bend, it's Trackside Treasure's 14th Anniversary! Will there be a contest? 

Archiving CN in Kingston

One of my first exploits after retiring in April, 2019 was exploring the Queen's University Archives. The important work of the Archives and its staff has preserved archival materials from a wide variety of Kingston sources: newspapers and photographers, local industries like locomotive builders and shipyards, Kingston's city archives and materials donated by individuals. I was immediately impressed with the depth and breadth of material that was soon at my fingertips. The Archives staff were most helpful in making suggestions and retrieving the requested heavy boxes of negatives and paper material. At the time, I was sure that I was interested in Kingston's industries and railways, though I was not sure where this research would lead, My Kingston's Hanley Spur blog contains more of my research results and how I've used them for my HO-scale layout of the same name.

While copies of photos or materials cn be purchased by researchers, we are permitted to make our own photographs (though no flash photography and no placing materials on the floor -  oh, and no recording caption information in pen - pencil only!)  Along with interesting information I had filed at home, these photos found their way into two books I created during the pandemic. It was just one year ago that I published my second book - Stories on the Waterfront and two years ago that I began my pandemic project, my first book - Smoke on the Waterfront. Copies of both books are in the Archives' local history book collection. I came across them this past week during my nearly-weekly visit!

The varied nature of the photographs reveal their original purpose - news photos for the morning front page, or corporate photography for posterity. As such, they may not be typical railfan photographs! To illustrate that fact, I've presented some in this post. For instance, the top photo, taken at the  Counter Street crossing in 1964 as well as the photo below taken in July, 1964 - it shows Collins Bay Public School and the Bath Road speed limit (50 mph, not 50 kph as it is today! - part of a campaign to get the limit reduced to 30) but way in behind past that old now-gone elm tree is the old CN station! 

This post just might give Trackside Treasure readers an idea of what may be held in local archives where you are. And if you have the time, they are definitely worth exploring! Sure, old newspapers show some of these photos, but for every photo printed, there are several negatives still preserved that were never selected by the city news editor! The Archives have kindly permitted me to share these photos for publication. Although they are safely preserved, time to digitize and post information online is precious. I would like to raise awareness about archival collections in general by sharing some of  Queen's University Archives' holdings.

An unattended baggage wagon on the tracks at the Outer Station at 3:50 a.m. resulted in 16 cars leaving the track between two trains involved, on July 16, 1965:

Wintry February 19, 1970 views of station operations at Gananoque Jct. (above) and Iroquois (below) showed two of five stations that would close within CN's Rideau Area the following month, announced on February 4. The others were Cardinal, Prescott and Morrisburg.

The aftermath of a June 10, 1958 collision at Counter Street crossing between a westbound CN freight and the truck of Hidie Earl, a Cataraqui carpenter. Just after 8 a.m., CN 3018 was leading six cars at 57 mph when the collision occurred, not injuring the fortunate driver.

From the Canadian Locomotive Co. fonds, CNR 6015 with proud CLC employees posing for the photographer. This CLC product eventually replaced CNR 6060 on static display in Jasper, AB.

CN crew in the cab of a U-4 CNR 6400 leading the Royal Train bearing Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh to Kingston's Outer Station on October 12, 1951:

An August 30, 1951 a collision at Cataraqui Crossing with CNR 5158 colliding with a car and its four occupants -  CN 9046 stopped heading the other way. Belleville engineer A.G. Bishop gives his account to Constable Walter Alexander of how one car was stopped at the wigwags when another car approached from behind, pushed it clear and then ended up on the tracks itself!

On a snowy Dec. 11, 1964 a CP freight collided with a car at Montreal at Railway Streets. A CN Express truck passes through the scene:

On Sep. 28, 1970 photographer George Lilley was waiting for the arrival of the LNER Flying Scotsman at the Hanley Spur switch on the CN Kingston Subdivision. Fortunately, he photographed a westbound CN passenger train and a Hanley Spur switching consist that needed to get out of the way for the preserved English steamer's transit to the waterfront.

On January 15, 1962 the last Thousand Islands Railway passenger train was at the Gananoque umbrella station behind CN 8494:

On Nov. 26, 1963, CN's new 1961 image implementation, replacing the familiar maple-leaf herald, was discussed by J.K. Fleming, Passenger Sales Agent at Belleville, and Rideau Area manager K.E. Hunt, at the Outer Station:

Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Louis St. Laurent with Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, Defence Minister Brooke Claxton and Brigadier D.R. Agnew,. The PM spoke at the NCCU conference at Royal Military College after arriving in Kingston on his private train (car 100 behind?) on June 5, 1950.

Other non-photographic documents can also be interesting like these two documents from the Davis Tannery Fonds. CN telegrams from 1962 with messages about boilers and supplies:

And a 1947 siding agreement with CN for the tannery's spur:

Watch for an upcoming post on archiving CP in Kingston! 

Running extra...

Discovered LA Flights with live take-offs and landings at LAX. At the 5:33 of the linked video, a blown tire causes one of two main runways to be taken out of service, with lengthy line forming for take-offs. Narrator Peter's patter keeps it informative with positive vibes.                                         

UPDATE: A kind subscriber gave out 50 one-month memberships. Thank you, 'Dolly Madison' for being such a generous 'Hostess' and you make great baked goods! 

We visited Hickory Lane Alpaca Farm on the north shore of Hay Bay (aptly named, I mean, look at all that hay!) this week with our two young grandsons. Aside from the older one being convinced they were going to bite him, it was no prob-llama!

The Blue & Red Cushions Construction Co.

Instead of building my annual front-porch/front-patio layout this year, I'm going to do some outdoor model-making, just as I did in 2018. But now, I have two outdoor venues in which to work some model magic. The front patio (with its blue cushions) and the sunroom (with its red cushions). This post will include whatever I manage to accomplish, photographed against those two primary-coloured backgrounds.,My good wife thought it would be a good idea to snap a photo of the B&RCC Co. work in progress in the sunroom (top photo). Furnished with table and chairs, as well as cushioned patio furniture, I brought in a third, portable table to get a work surface at a comfortable height in the sunroom.

My first project was some scrapyard fencing for a newly-enlarged scrapyard on my Kingston's Hanley Spur HO layout. Here is my initial test-fit, showing where the fences will eventually be installed. The CP line is at rear, with CN in foreground. I've added a scrapyard spur in between them, and I want to keep accumulated scrap metal within the fences.

To produce these, I copy/saved some rusted metal designs online. I re-sized them and pasted them, purposely alternating them, into a Word document, four per 8x11-inch page. 

After printing them out, I glued them onto various leftover kit parts and sprues. I painted the backs, though I don't expect them to be visible. I also cut some of the metal for some variation, because nothing would make a more boring and potentially unrealistic scrapyard than to have all the fence the same colour and un-rusty!

I took the build outside. Incorporating the fences, it became a project that I didn't really want to end! More on the build here. The scrapyard was taped to a build-board that I eventually slid the completed scrapyard off, and into position. Here's an outside, overhead view of the scrapyard nearly complete, on the build-board:

 And a post-installation view: 

An ensuing outdoor modelling project  - the scrapyard crane, I used a Life-Like (remember them?) Browning 2136 rail crane. I removed the crane cab and boom from the underframe, then glued it onto a pair of tracks from a Majorette (rappelez-vous cette compagnie??) excavator. I can never pass up purchasing a Life-Like rail crane at a train show. Such an inexpensive, and operationally-/poseable model. I painted the cab orange, tracks black and weathered, then printed 'Browning' lettering for the back of the cab. Two metal figures were found, their dungarees drybrushed, and they'll make good scrappers!   

I'm spending a lot of time and attention on scrap this summer! Just because it's scrap doesn't mean it can't be special. I decided it was time to screen the crap out of my scrap. I had a chocolate-box full of it! Some was simple hardware; there were a lot of unuseable styrene cuttings that I sent for recycling. I chose some choice pieces that were interesting but not scrappy enough: 

Then the Dollarama craft paints came out: browns, maroon, orange, grey and black. There was some mixing and some thinning, some brushing and some dabbing. The end result:

Sure, this could be done in the basement, workbench or layout room. But this scrap selection was enjoyably done during an evening straight-down drizzle on the sunroom roof, with the windows open and VIA horns blaring in the background. Heaven! 

I painted some small scrap segments, adding them to the box while on the Blue Cushions and a blue bus in the background

Moving on from scrap to a Really Big Thing (RBT). I've been setting aside some larger interesting-looking parts. This one is a thread spool, two reels from my wife's craft tape runners and a detailed miscellaneous toy piece. I added a printed sign or two to the wooden end-bracing of this locally-built CLC product::

As summertime marches on, and "the livin' is easy", check back here for more cushion-time projects. This is a good way for me to share what I've been working on, potentially provide some inspiration, and most of all, get out and enjoy our beautiful summer weather when we can! Here's my lap-top Pepsi pop-skid that contains tools, paints for each project, paint-mixing palette, and many scrap pieces that come in handy! I use it outside or inside, as it also works in the family room when the TV is on!

Two projects to fill a newly-created space on the layout. I must admit though, it was too hot on either set of cushions, and these were modelled inside where it's cooler. To suit this space of urban decay, I added a de-constructed industry and a homeless encampment. Both were typical of the Montreal Street stretch. The figures and thrown-together shelters (above) were made hurriedly from the scrap box and some detail parts. I set them in the former industry location (below) although they can be picked up and positione anywhere on the layout:

It's nice to have a range of venues to commit construction as the sun, shade and onshore breezes work their summertime magic. Campsite, picnic table, balcony, cottage, cabin and canoe (there's a modelling challenge!) would work equally well for you?

Running extra...

Speaking of cranes, my son-in-law shared this photo of a CN SpeedSwing and Holland rail welding truck near Mi 184 of the CN Kingston Sub:

Speaking of in-laws, we were able recently to convene our first family gathering in several years. Currently a G-11, the summit photo-for-posterity was taken in our backyard: