Thunder Bay 1979, Part 1

In April 1979, we made a school trip to deepest, darkest Thunder Bay, Ontario. We made known to our billets that we were interested in seeing some of the grain elevators and CN and CP action there. Billet Rob Lucy obliged, transporting us in his, um, "grey ****box" car down to the yards upon arrival. We immediately encountered both railways' gamut of grain cars, plus CP switchers 8122-8120 (top photo), vans 434587, and 437032 and yard set 6563-B102-7081, with B102 still in  CPR 'steam' lettering (below). The B102 was photographed in Vancouver by July, 1979; B101 received script lettering, as well as B100 at Coquitlam in script in 1977.

On April 23, we'd headed north on our Wagar Coach Lines bus. We met the southbound Canadian with two of three units in VIA paint: 1414 and 1416 (both painted in Feb/79) a CN-painted steam generator unit, a VIA/CN Dayniter and largely CP consist. April 24 - we visited Thunder Bay yard after arrival. We were offered a cab ride by the engineer of CN switcher 7034 as it bunted brown boxcars about the yard. (Drew Makepeace photo):

At 1200, an eastbound CP freight behind 8745-8736 burbled by...

...with CP hoppers, Procor and CP tank cars, and end-cupola van 434065. A few days earlier, I had observed sister 434064 at the CN-CP interchange in Kingston.

 Also switching on CN were GMD-1's 1913-1912, one of several yard sets we would observe:

CN 1913 was still working the Lakehead in this 1986 Vestibule View post. Kingston railfans had infested the yard, with the trainman perhaps pondering the plethora of those trackside.

Later that afternon at 1515, a five-SD was eastbound with  high multimarks: 5606-5749-5549-5518-5911 hustled CP piggyback traffic, stock cars, and van 434136:

Now called the Pac-Man, at the time we were still playing stand-up Pac-Man games at the arcade. Wokka-wokka-wokka. These black-and-white things we called multimarks.

On April 25, we drove around the yards in the evening. CP MLW's 4740-4249 (below) were eastbound, CN 7034 still working, as was CN 7030, CN 1907, 1908-1917, 1900-1916, 4414-4410, 4498-4409, caboose 79804, transfer vans 76564 and 76565, 1910-1911 on iron ore, end-cupola 78246, and vans CP 434562 and CP 437015. Lakers Richelieu, Ottercliffe Hall and Frankcliffe Hall were moored nearby. 

On April 26 we toured a towering terminal grain elevator and Mount McKay. On April 27 on our way home, we checked out ONR yards in Cochrane. Photos of these visits can be found in Part 2!

Running extra...

The gestation period of this post is among the longest for anything published on Trackside Treasure. My original scribbled draft dates from the Christmas holidays of December, 2008! Six years? Better late than never. I have to credit Drew Makepeace for posting the cab ride photo on Facebook, which prompted me to publish this puppy, loosing it from its long-languishing laxity.

I had a really cool tacky-Christmas-sweater-with-model-train video but Youtube said not available. In its place, for American Trackside Treasure reader Bill Staiger, I'd like to include your humble blogger Turbo-watching in December, 1980 (L.C. Gagnon photo - below). This was 12 years to the month after CN instituted Turbo service, and less than two years before the end of Turbo service:

Best Jeopardy categories ever, this past Monday: Toothpaste - Crest - Closeup - 'AIM' - Rembrandt - Aqua, Fresh. Respectively, they dealt with yes, Toothpaste, then heraldry, partial photos of famous people, words containing the letters a-i-m, the European masters, and water terms. (Dude who got it wrong - free-flowing water from limestone is a SPRING, not a STREAM and certainly not an AQUA-STREAM. Alex, I'll take Desperation for 400!!)

Kingston's CP-Served Industries

In addition to the industries served by CP in Kingston located along their former Kingston & Pembroke line linking Kingston with Renfrew, CP served a few other Kingston industries until their line was abandoned in 1986. Bruce Chapman snapped a caboose hop at Glen Tay, ON in December 1970, with RS-23 8035 in the background, heading for Kingston via Tichborne with a tank car likely heading to Superior Propane in Kingston.

Keith Hansen kindly shared a photo of CP RS23 8030 with a northbound train north of Harrowsmith, (above) and CP S-3 6591 heading into Kingston through the joint trackage with CN in Harrowsmith on October 28, 1977:

A CP Dayliner was operated as a Bytown Railway Society excursion in 1974, technically the last CP passenger train to arrive in Kingston, arriving at Harrowsmith on joint trackage, from Ottawa - see bottom photo for the excursion's final destination at CP Express in Kingston. In this background of this photo (below - courtesy Jakob Mueller collection) the CN line to Smiths Falls diverges to the left in the background, and CP's line to Kingston diverging to the right in the background.

While CP had its bridge crossing over CN's Kingston Sub near Division St and Elliott Avenue, a spur branched off the trackage leading downtown to switch jointly-served industries on Maple Street: Gould Battery and Frontenac Floor & Wall Tile Co. Ltd. (Vintage Kingston Facebook photo):

Gould Battery(1) and Frontenac Tile(2) are visible in this aerial view via a joint track (arrow) linking CN and CP. Frontenac Tile was on CN track KK30 - 1000 feet in length, and Presland Iron & Metal, 1483 feet. D.A. White Co Ltd (Dago Siding) KK15 was also located here, though I need to learn more about which spur served which company in which era! ADDITIONAL INFO DEC 2015:On a 1924 insurance map, (1) was listed as the Collie Ltd. Woolen Mill.  CP served industries farther down the Hanley Spur. 

Keith Hansen photographed Trenton Works-built CP covered gondolas spotted in the area of this joint trackage in the mid-60's:

Just north of Kingston, CP spurs led to the Hydro-Electric Power Commission (HEPC, later Ontario Hydro) transformer station at Murvale. This transformer station was at Mi 89.5 of CP's Kingston Subdivision, along Murton Road off Highway 38. HEPC was one of the last two CP customers cited in the 1986 permission to abandon order from the Railway Transport Committee, the other being a feed company in Harrowsmith, Mi 84.8. Neither generated enough traffic to justify continued retention of the line, which in 1984 lost $137,357 according to CP. A current satellite map view shows the former location of this spur leading to the transformer station:

Two 1987 views of Murvale, Wilf Coombe photos showing the rail partly lifted:

The spur to the transformer station can barely be seen, at right:

A CP spur also served the oil tank farm south of Highway 401, east of Sydenham Road. A 1937 aerial view shows the tank farm served by rail before Highway 401 was built:

A 1966 aerial view also shows the rail-served tank farm, now visible from Highway 401:

Just east of its run-around track near Dalton Avenue, the CP line continued to the CN-CP interchange at Queens, A Keith Hansen photo taken in May 1978 shows CN and CP both working the interchange, with CP handling a healthy mix of covered gons, CP Rail, International of Maine and Chessie System boxcars:

Here's another photo taken the same day during those same switching manoeuvres that appeared in January 2019 on an online auction site. Notice how CN appears to be helping CP with their manoeuvres, possibly moving that Chessie boxcar and CP gons:

This online auction site photo shows CP 8030 the same day, with the same Chessie System boxcar, three covered gons and CPR International of Maine boxcar in the consist. It's taken just north of Jackson Mills above Highway 401 before the sweeping curve near Cordukes Road:

CP served two customers between Division and Dalton Streets: Superior Propane and CP Express. Superior received tank cars of propane, spotted at an unloading rack in their fenced yard. CP Express' operation moved from downtown locations in mid-1967. In his book Just Plain Bill, Bill Robertson outlined some of the details of the move:

• the City of Kingston was involved in negotiations with CP to acquire all CP lands within city limits: the K&P passenger station was to become the Chamber of Commerce office, and the city was to acquire piggyback ramp/trackage at Ontario St/Place d'Armes as well as the roundhouse property at the foot of North Street.
• in exchange, the city would provide the CP with a large tract of land on Dalton Ave, and pay for construction of a terminal to incorporate CP's Kingston offices and CP Express operations  as well as the cost of laying trackage into the terminal and Superior Propane
• the new site was isolated and subject to repeated thefts!

Two Keith Hansen photos of a CP Express piggyback TOFC car spotted north of Ontario Street in the late-1960's. Note the limestone walls of Fort Frontenac (below) and the coal sheds of Anglin Fuels (above) in the background of the photos:

A 1974 RDC (flying white extra flags and one illuminated white classification light) fantrip over the former Kingston & Pembroke, included a stop for fans to board Kingston city buses at the CP Express property, for a bus tour of downtown. The warehouse/truck loading point is the blue building visible in the background of this Bruce Chapman photo:

Here's a look at the runpast locations planned by Bruce Chapman as published in the BRS Branchline:

In the early 1980s, I observed several interesting boxcars spotted at the CP Express timber platform for unloading, many likely carrying lumber. The last cars I observed spotted at CP Express were CP double-door boxcars in January, 1986

Today, the area is occupied by a new Canadian Tire, No Frills and other commercial development, with a large earthen berm separating the area from CN's Kingston Sub. My thanks to Bruce Chapman, Keith Hansen and Jakob Mueller for sharing their photos in this post.

Running extra...

Also in the area, Panera Bread! Opening December 9th! Having just enjoyed some of this chain's bottomless in-store china cup dark roast coffee, whole grain and pumpkin pie bagels, I am looking to my first visit to the north-end Kingston location! I like Panera's day-end dough-nation idea!

Trackside Treasure reader Malcolm Peakman kindly sent some photos of some new Parrish & Heimbecker PHLX 100-series covered hoppers on CN train No 371 in Belleville ON's yard.

In the company of CN(WX) covered hoppers, I surmise that these consecutively-numbered cars were on their first trip west empty after their first trip east loaded. Nice photos, Mary!

Christmas music moment: Whitney Houston on The Tonight Show, singing Do You Hear What I Hear?  Hear five backup singers and awesome control of her powerful instrument - that's what I hear.

Black Friday 2014, Syracuse NY

Journeying south to Syracuse and Watertown NY for Black Friday weekend, I found myself trackside around CSX's DeWitt yard on Friday, November 28, like Black Friday 2013 and Black Friday 2012 while retail therapy was administered elsewhere in stores nearby! A minor snowstorm descended upon the area in the lee of Lake Ontario. Hashtag snowbelt. Undaunted, Amtrak Empire Service train No 280 edged eastbound, with 716-82711*-82607-82645-82xxx-48173** at 0720:

An eastbound CSX freight with a leaser and five CSX units as the skies cleared after an hour-long lull at 0820: HLCX 8174-3053-602-2548-7614-8343 made (what I humbly consider) a TRAINS magazine cover-worthy photo (top photo) which quickly turned to mush as the lead unit and succeeding units entered the shadow of a Berkshire bank building.

A sneaky westbound slunk stealthily out of the back of the yard behind two units with an assortment of containers, boxcars and tank cars. Fresh show sintered off some Procor tank cars on the tail-end at 0830.

With only a hint of activity at 0830, cash registers called. This westbound intermodal was likely being attended to in the yard, behind CSX 809 and another unit. Notice the ex-UP-looking Geep just to 809's left? It had CEFX letters in each numberboard and remained stationary throughout the day.

A westbound Empire Service train No 63 hustled westward at 1245: 201-82805-25019***-25015-25094-82618-28170:

Then the eastbound Lake Shore Limited, train No 48 appeared, with a long Thanksgiving consist: 151-203-1701****-62025*****-25105-25039-28018******-25095-25064-25113-25006-25004-8521*******-62037-62000-1750.

Amfleet:

Full diner 8521:

Viewliners:

Tail-end baggage:

Leaving town on bypass Interstate 481, we passed CSX's expansive yard: blue arrow-intermodal yard; white arrow-locomotive set; red arrow-incoming westbound freight (sure, after we left town!)

During another retail therapy session in Watertown on November 29, I visited the interesting Afgritech feed mill (watch for an upcoming post) and positioned myself at CSX's Coffeen Street crossing, hopefully but perhaps in vain. No! A quick bleat of an air horn led to this sight - a southbound CSX freight with 5274-7842 which then triggered the crossing protection at about 25 mph. Hauling double-stacks, a CSX boxcar, a tank car, and Canadian lumber loads: Resolu aboard TTZX 866927, Arbec aboard TTZX 866962 and Chaleaur from Belledune NB aboard TTZX 861288.

 Lumber lumbering southward:

Running extra...

Amfleet car types included in this post (in order shown):
*82500-82999 Amfleet push-pull coach
**48160-48197 Amfleet club dinette
***25000-25124 Amfleet coach
****1700-1764 Heritage baggage car
*****62000-62091 Viewliner sleeping car
******28000-28024 Amfleet diner lite conversion
*******8501-8559 Heritage dining car (8521 is ex-Southern Railroad)

Some Watertown industrial archeology along the Black River:

And an end-of-post train. In-camera 'Painting' setting!