THE RAILWAYS OF BROCKVILLE DURING THE 1950s.
© by Don McQueen, 2013 (all photographs by the author or from his collection)
PART THREE
25: Motive Power Evolution
It was only between 1948 and 1960 CNR main and branch line assignments were shared by both steam and diesel-electric locomotives. It was a remarkable era which had not occurred before, although the experimental use of oil-electrics 9000 and 9001 between 1929 and 1939 and the increased use of diesel yard switchers after 1941 might be considered exceptions. Other than on steam excursions, it was never to occur again. In the early stages of dieselization, the builders of steam locomotives also supplied the new motive power technology, but that was not to last. In a setting possible only in this period of transition, Kingston-built CFA16-4 8700 (CLC, January 1952) and Montreal-built Northern Type 6259 shared tracks on the west side of the William Street running shed on February 19, 1955. Ironically 6259 had been part of the last order for Northerns built by MLW, whereas 8700 was from the first lot of ‘Consolidation’ (or C-Liners) built by CLC-FM for mainline service. [Don McQueen photo]
26: The Union Station at Perth Street
CNR 4-8-4 Northern Type 6228 (MLW, December 1942) on the second section of Pool No.5, The La Salle, was being serviced at the Perth Street crossing on December 23, 1958. Waiting for the passenger train to clear was an extra east, led by London-built GP9 model 4464 (GMDL, March 1956). Although GMDL passenger cab FP9A models had become increasing common on this assignment, the seasonal rush brought back steam assignments. The first appearance of diesel- powered passenger trains through Brockville occurred on February 7, 1955, when units 6504 & 6604 (GMDL, November 1954) were used on No.5. It was the first of five runs scheduled for the pair during the following week. They subsequently worked through Brockville on nos. 5, 6, 14 and 15. Behind the Northern Type steamer, the brick ‘Union’ station, built to serve both the GTR and the Brockville and Ottawa Railway, has been on that site since 1863, and is still in use. It replaced an earlier 1854 GTR structure believed to have been located on the south side of the right-of-way at the north end of Buell Street. [Don McQueen photo]
27: Return to Ottawa
CPR Pool trains terminated at the end of steel on the north side of the ‘Union’ station, a practice long established by the CPR acquisition of the Canada Central Railway in 1881, through the purchase of the B&ORR by the CCR in 1878. For an excellent view of the CPR side of the station, see Bob Sandusky’s photo either on this website or in Greg MacDonnell’s Signatures in Steel, on page 85. CPR 4-6-2 Pacific Type 1261 (CLC, November 1946) had arrived with No.563 to meet CNR’s No.5, The La Salle earlier in the morning on February 19, 2025 (see photo 14). Once its passengers or first class cars had been transferred to the CNR train, the steamer and head-end equipment backed out of the spur north of ‘Union’ station and proceeded west and then south on the ‘Loop Line’ to reverse direction on the wye at Church Street. In this photograph, the locomotive and head-end cars, now as train No.562, had completed the move by reversing into the spur track north of the station. It would make the return trip to Ottawa at 14:55 after another interchange of equipment and departure of CNR No.14, arriving in the capital at 17:35. [Don McQueen photo]
28: The Loop Line at Perth Street
During the late spring of 1960, warm rainy weather melted the winter’s plentiful snowfall in eastern Ontario resulting in flooded sections of both CPR’s Kingston and Brockville subdivisions. Levels in the flooded sections were deep enough to prevent operation of the diesels’ traction motors, but there was enough steam still in service to wade their way through the high water spots. On this occasion in late March, CPR 4-6-2 Pacific Type 2219 (CPR at its Angus shop in February 1910) had brought No.563 safely into town and was heading west on the Loop Line to turn on the Church Street wye. The concrete culvert carrying the flooded creek was immediately west of Perth St, north of the CNR main line. CPR had built the spur in 1882 to reach industry and wharfage in the west end of town - notably the ‘Gas Works’, James Smart Manufacturing Company and The Central Canada Coal Company. To do so it crossed Butler’s Creek at this location, again at Elm Street, Beecher Street, and finally at King Street West. To the west of where the creek was bridged by the GTR-CNR main, the Loop Line ducked under the competitor, cutting their embankment with a short deck girder bridge. (See photo 30)
Although the day of the month was never recorded by the photographer, CPR 2219 is believed to have been the last operating CPR steam locomotive active in Brockville. [Norman E.Newson photo/Don McQueen coll.]
29: CNR No.5 on Butler’s Creek bridge
CNR Kingston-built CPA16-5 models 6702 & 6704 (both CLC in January 1955) accelerated the second section of No.5, The La Salle over Butler’s Creek deck girder bridge on the last day of December 1959. During the 1950s trains powered by the same locomotive builder were common, even as in this instance, when a ‘pure set’ of units built in Kingston were entrusted to a premier passenger train during a holiday crush. After 1958 power assignments of diesels using two or even three builders’ models became much more noticeable and in the early 1960s had become standard practice. The creek to the St.Lawrence River whose valley was used by the Loop Line right-of-way (see CPR 2219 in photo 27) has apparently been known by several names - 1907 GTR records have it as Hubble’s Creek (likely from Hubble’s Mill Pond which existed northeast of this location in 1853), in the 1950s it was known locally as Buell’s Creek, but 1853 maps, current cartography and CN documents use the name Butler’s Creek. [Don McQueen photo]
30: CNR No.5 on the Loop Line overpass
Thirty minutes before the passage of the second section on December 31, 2024 (see photo 28), a pair of CNR road switcher RS18 models 3122 (MLW November 1959) & 3108 (September 1959) and a London-built GMDL steam generator car (SGU) powered First No.5, The La Salle, over the Loop Line’s cement-encased deck girder. At the time of the photograph the 3122 had been in service only six weeks, and represented a departure from CNR continuing to order additional steam generator-equipped cab units, such as those in photos 2, 15 and 37.
Road switchers, coupled to SGUs when on first class trains, or with freights, provided increased motive power utilization. Brockville’s post-war water tower on Schofield Hill still remains a landmark in many railway images taken in this part of the city. Unless one is familiar with its history, the use of the Loop Line by both CPR and CNR is confusing. After CPR built the spur in 1882, a friendly connection was made at the Church Street terminus of the Brockville, Westport and North Western, which had built into town from Lyn by July 1888. In 1889 a wye was built at this location and running rights over the Loop Line between the two roads established. This agreement remained in effect until the lifting of the line in October 1990, even when the Canadian Northern Railway acquired the BW&NW on December 14, 1911, and after the 1919 formation of the CNR. For a complete background of the Loop Line see Curtain Call for the B&W by Philip Jago which appeared in the September 1988 issue of BRANCHLINE. [Don McQueen photo]
31: An aerial of Manitoba Yard
This post-war mid-day view of CNR’s Brockville ‘Manitoba’ yard, looking northwest in 1948, was taken at the same time as the aerial of CNR William Street terminal (see photo 17). Dominating the east end of the yard for a half century was the gravity feed coal plant, built by the GTR in 1904. The timber structure was 216 feet in length and 51 feet high, its 30 chutes having a capacity for 600 tons of coal.
Located south of the main line, it provided fuel for all through passenger trains (thus the reason for the double stop at Brockville) as well as freight and local motive power. The dismantling of the complex was completed during the week of April 11 to 15, 1955 and a Redler Coaling unit (see photos 32 & 33) supplied fuel until the end of steam in 1959. Elm Street homes were visible in the lower left, and the east end of Manitoba Street, from which the GTR took the yard’s name, was opposite the beginning of the ramp. The Brockville Yard office, at the north end of Cedar Street was in shadow at the first bend of the yard. The BW&NW embankment which led to bridging the main line at the west end of the yard appears at the top edge of the photo. The location of the present-day CPR interchange yard is hidden by the exhaust of the CNR 0-6-0 steam switcher working the north tracks. The same aerial image found in Ten Cate: Brockville - A Pictorial History, page 82, was printed in reverse. [The George Eland Studios Ltd. photo; Don McQueen coll.]
32: A CNR way freight at Manitoba East
On September 9, 1960, a four-car way freight trailed behind CNR RS18 model 3711 (MLW, August 1958) at the east end of Manitoba yard. During the 1950s this morning eastbound way freight was a Cornwall turn, but as traffic increased to the Maitland chemical plants (C-I-L, Dupont, Genstar, Brockville Chemical, Liquid Carbonic) at what is now CN Brockem, the assignment became a Maitland turn, and service further to the east was handled by Cornwall turns. The train may at first glance appear to be a mixed, but the baggage express car was used to continue LCL service to the smaller towns lost when trains Nos.25 and 26 (the Mocassin) were terminated in August 1958. A report of the last run of the Mocassin, is part of Don’s article A Tale of Two ‘5280’s in the January 2009 issue of BRANCHLINE. The sand house on the south (left) side of the main, built in 1904 by the GTR, was the only part of the original plant to remain after the removal of the coal chute in 1955. On the south side of the drying shed was an outside braced boxcar in OCS sand service. Partially hidden behind the sand house is the Redler Coaling unit (see photo 33). [Don McQueen photo]
33: The Redler Coaling Unit in Manitoba Yard
In the early evening of June 6, 1958, CNR 4-8-4 Northern Type 6204 (MLW, June 1942) had arrived light from Turcot to balance power at Brockville. The stop for coal at the east end of Manitoba yard was mandatory before the Northern was reversed eastward to William Street. The Redler Coaling unit with a 50- ton capacity had replaced the 1904 coal plant in April 1955. It remained in service until 1959 and was removed along with the sand house in 1961. The sand house on the left was the only part of the original fuel dock which survived the 1955 dismantling. Its 700-ton storage bunker is directly behind 6204′s Vanderbilt tender, and the drying shed rises above the tender’s water tank. The east side of the building is shown in photo 32. Coal at this time was being supplied from Pennsylvania in PRR hoppers, rather than from Illinois using ICRR equipment. [Don McQueen photo]
34: A CNR westbound freight at Manitoba West
During the Easter school break, on April 5, 1956, the visit Don McQueen made to the Brockville yards turned out to be a very rewarding day for photographing railway traffic. He arrived at the Buell Street locomotive office just in time to arrange a ride to the west end of Manitoba yard. While the crew did their final paper work, he was still uncertain what type of power was assigned their train - would it be the steamer, a 4-8-4 Northern Type 6156 (MLW, May 1929) or a pair of diesels, London-built F7A units, 9140 & 9108?
The crew ordered me up into the steamer’s cab and we moved forward for water from the tank just east of Perth Street. Another stop was made at the coal plant at Manitoba East, and then along the main to the west end switch. He detrained at that point and climbed the fill on the north side of the B&W ‘gut’ to record Extra 6156 West leaving Manitoba yard about 13:00. On the right of the photo was the road access from the BW&NW embankment to the switchman’s shanty. As luck would have it, another westbound about 16:00 brought yet another surprise, a pair of Montreal-built diesels, nos. 9404 & 9405, to take him back to William Street (see photo 36). As he walked home toward Park Street another westbound appeared with 4-8-4 Northern Type 6146 (see photo 5). [Don McQueen photo]
35: A CNR Westbound cut off in the B&W ‘Gut’
On another mid-morning visit to the BW&NW ‘gut’, this time on September 9, 1960, RS18 units 3666 and 3661 (MLW, December & November 1957 respectively) had dropped their westbound freight at the west end of Manitoba yard. In the photograph they had begun their reverse move along the north main to the locomotive shop at William Street. Within the year this time-honoured practice of cutting off the power and running to the shops would cease with the effective closure of the William Street terminal to construct the overpass, and with the economics of train operation after full dieselization. Gone too, was the practice of having diesel suppling protection for road failures as diesel traction proved capable running long distances without change. Despite the presence of a forest of wires, the photographer chose the top of the south side of the BW&NW embankment which cut across the throat of Manitoba yard to record the action.
Don got to know this area several years before a camera was in hand. In the late 1940s & early 1950s, his Cub and Scout leader encouraged his pack to hike and camp, and one of the favourite spots was to overnight in the field beside the BW&NW ‘Rock Cut’. The cut was located about 1500 yards along the old right-of-way behind the cab of 3666. Each time the pack would arrive home with more ‘fools’ gold’ from pyrite outcrops in the cut, much to the amusement of the railway switch tender. His cabin, in the foreground, was kept warm in the winter by coal thrown from hoppers by crews switching them to the coal plant at the east end. The end of steam necessitated the conversion to fuel oil for heating the shanties. [Don McQueen photo]
36: A CNR Westbound West of the BW&NW ‘Gut’
CNR FA1 models 9404 & 9405 (both MLW, May 1950) had been cut from a westbound freight and were stopped at the cross-over switch at Manitoba West late in the afternoon of April 5, 1956. The location now is CN Lyn, Mile 127.4 of the Kingston subdivision and should not be confused with GTR’s Lyn, later renamed by CNR to Lyn Jct. at Mile 129. Normally these MLW units were assigned to the Maritimes, but each spring for several years they migrated to Montreal’s Pointe St. Charles shop for annual inspection and were ‘run in’ on trains west of Turcot freight yard. It was rare during the 1950s to find them in the area after the beginning of May. Behind the units were the remains of the BW&NW ‘gut’ as it was locally called at the time. Between 1888 and 1926 a through girder bridge spanned the GTR-CNR main line. The north (left) approach was spoil from an extensive 1000-foot rock cutting.
The south side was an embankment which had originally been built as a 700-foot long timber trestle about 21 feet high. As it deteriorated, CaNoR filled it during 1915 with chalky clay spoil believed to have come from the Lake St.John region. The switchtender’s truck sat on the access road of the abandoned right of way. The 40-mile Brockville, Westport & North Western was eventually opened for traffic in January 1886, having been constructed from a GTR connection at Lyn and from Newboro. The BW&NW had planned to negotiate with GTR for running rights over the four miles between Lyn and Brockville, but those plans never came to fruition. Forced to build their own entrance into Brockville, an almost parallel line running north of the GTR main was finally opened in July 1888. Access to a terminal at Church Street was accomplished by building over the GTR at Manitoba West. With the nationalization of the GTR in 1923, CNR operation of this section was shifted to former GTR rails (today’s Kingston subdivision) and the bridge and track lifted during 1925 and 1926 as far south as the new (1921) Phillips Electrical Wire and Cable plant. It wasn’t until 1990 the embankment was levelled during a development project to relocate the Brockville Golf and Country Club. [Don McQueen photo]
37: CNR No.5 from the unopened 401 overpass
About noon-hour on a hazy June 26, 1959, CNR model FP9 6512 and 6612 (both GMDL, London January 1955) with westbound Pool No.5 La Salle, was about to duck under the new 401 overpass at Mile 127.95. The train was working up a grade on a long embankment over Lyn Road to this location which rose 51 feet in the 1.5 miles from Manitoba West. Before the Lyn Road underpass was built in the 1920s, the level crossing was located about the rear of the last car in No.5’s consist. The roadway to the right parallelling the main line was the rump of Hallecks Road which had been cut in 1958 to construct the embankment for the 401 bridge. The road on the left was temporary construction access to work the bridge. Ahead of No. 5 were the twists and turns through the Frontenac Shield until the Kawartha Escarpment was breached along the Cataraqui River at Kingston. Although the single-tracked GTR main to Toronto was built to a 5’6″ gauge, and standard gauged during October 3 and 4, 1873, double tracking wasn’t begun until 1887. Building the second track north of the original wasn’t completed between Montreal and Port Hope until 1892. It wasn’t until 1903 all the routes designated for double-tracking were finished. Then on July 22, 1906, the GTR changed from left to right-hand running on all its double track sections. [Don McQueen photo]
(END)
