CPR Glen Yard in Archived Journals 1906-1967

Inspired by Jim Christie's researching skills over the years, and his generosity in sharing what he found, I decided to see what I could find in the archive.org journals on CPR's Glen Yard. 

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Between 1935 and the early 1950s, LC Gagnon's family home was half a mile from the CPR's Westmount station and Glen Yard. Although many extended-family photos survive from that era, there are relatively few showing Glen Yard. 

... In the 1930s there probably wasn't a lot of spare money for train 'hobby' photography. 

... Between 1939 and 1945 - World War 2 - there were prohibitions on photographing trains, essential services or anything of military value. This also included railway facilities such as bridges, stations and yards. 

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While the yard would have been less exciting after the end of steam in 1960, we can imagine how much activity went on there during the time my father lived nearby as steam locomotives were reaching their highest level of development.

Most CPR long distance passenger trains used the Windsor (Street) Station. In the first 1.5 miles of their journeys, they climbed the length of a boxcar of that era (about 40 feet) and then made a station stop at Westmount. 

... While this is certainly not a continental divide 'Big Hill' gradient, this trip segment began from a dead stop at Windsor. 

With some pride, engineers would accelerate smartly from the World's Greatest Transportation System's headquarters. The passenger equipment of those days was 'overbuilt by 200%' - as an acquaintance once described it. This sturdiness was mainly the result of government regulations which were reactive to decades of horrific passenger train tragedies in North America.

So the weight of the train and the need to maintain momentum up the hill (just imagine traction problems on wet rail or in snow!) created quite a show as these prestigious trains began their trips.

There were also well-patronized commuter services which ran all the way out to, and beyond ... the west end of Montreal Island. Originally these reached as far west as Pointe Fortune, Quebec. 

Finally, international trains from Windsor Station ran through Westmount. 

The 'Central Station' trains shown below were Pool Trains - government-mandated 'code sharing' and equipment sharing between the CN and CP to help the railways avoid pointless competition and financial losses in their operation of regulated passenger services. CN steam power found its way into Glen Yard because of this arrangement.

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Visible from Westmount station was all the activity of Glen Yard. Here the rolling stock was switched and serviced, the motive power was maintained, and intercity trains were often looped around the perimeter of the yard to keep their consists in the desired order. 

... First came the baggage, express and mail cars at the headend ... then the day coaches ... then dining or food service cars, separating the basic-fare passengers from the extra-fare passengers ... and finally came the premium-priced accommodation on the tailend - away from the smoke, cinders and noise of the locomotives.

Adding to the entertainment value of all this traffic, and doubling the number of moves watched by a young spectator ... 

Each train passing Westmount station either started or ended its trip at Glen Yard. 

First, the empty passenger equipment was backed into Windsor. Then the train made its passenger run to its destination ... and subsequently returned to Montreal as a passenger train via the same route. After its return, the empty equipment was backed up the hill to end its trip at Glen Yard.

Here, in the 1940s and early 1950s, most of the motive power work was performed by steam locomotives. Each of the many types of engine had its own unique extroverted personality. The elaborate displays of steam and smoke, and their fascinating exposed running gear graphically showed exactly how they were accomplishing their work. 

Whether they were confidently taking their important work in stride ... or whether they were unfairly being forced to struggle against tons of inert steel ... their circumstances were obvious to a young observer. 

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All of the activity described can be pictured as you look at the Windsor Station 'arrivals and departures board' printed on one page of a pocket-sized timetable folder. 

from: Montreal Folder 'D'; 28 September 1947; Canadian Pacific Railway.

from: The Romantic History of the Canadian Pacific Railway; John Murray Gibbon; 1937; Tudor Publishing.

A passenger train departs Windsor Station. The number of tracks and signaling are discussed in some of the journal articles and news paragraphs.

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All of the images of print, below, come from journals which had been bound and held in various libraries. They were digitized and I accessed the publications at archive.org .

In all cases, the images are captioned with the link you can use to see the whole publication. To save labour and to avoid dead links in the future, I have not actually linked through the URLs - they are text only which can be copied and pasted to see the original. 

The articles are presented here in chronological order.

When interesting off-topic paragraphs were nearby, I sometimes succumbed to temptation and you'll see some unrelated bits of text which some may find interesting.

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1906 May

from: Canadian Transportation, 1906 May
https://archive.org/details/canadiantransport1906/page/263/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

The St Phillippe paragraph, above, is an example of unrelated text.

Many extended family photos come from a dairy farm near here. 

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1906 June

from: Canadian Transportation; 1906 June
https://archive.org/details/canadiantransport1906/page/327/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

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1909 July

from: Railway Age Gazette; 1909 July
https://archive.org/details/sim_railway-age_1909-07-30_47_5/page/208/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

It is nice to have this comprehensive data presented in a compact form. Some may be interested in the status of the lines in New Brunswick on which engines 29, 136 and 144 operated throughout the 1950s. Light, vintage bridges dictated the necessity of using these light, vintage locomotives.

This chart appeared from my search because of the solitary Glen Yard reference pertaining to a Rutland engine's speed limit between Windsor and the Glen - which you can see in the footnotes under the chart. 

The date of the right-of-way fencing directive is interesting to find. Very early steam locomotives were relatively light and they were sometimes derailed by livestock standing on the track. DB Hanna noted that farmers' requests for railway compensation always identified the loss as their most prized animal. 

The first elaborate wooden cattle guards (wooden fencing sloping down to a grid of parallel boards which interfered with hooved feet) are often seen in old photos which show road crossings. 

... Before truck transport, herds of livestock were often driven down country roads. Some animals would be tempted to stray along the tracks when they spotted the luxuriant grasses growing from the standing water in the railway right-of-way ditches. The typical drover would not have access to enough labour to retrieve all of the insistently-straying animals before the passage of a train.

... In the modern era, these universal page-wire fences were the sturdy barriers which young steam excursion travellers of the 1960s learned to climb over at an early age in preparation for steam photo runpasts. Getting clear of the right-of-way was important for safety ... and for getting a good photo. 

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1909 December

from: Electrical World; 1909 December
https://archive.org/details/electricalworld54newy/page/1386/mode/1up?q=Westmount

The amount of respiratory disease from tobacco smoking and coal smoke in cities must have been considerable. The CPR never electrified this section of track. 

Montreal Junction was later renamed Montreal West. 

'Junction': Using a highway system analogy, Montreal Junction is the interchange you use to reach Montreal. (map below!)

Originally purchased for use through the Canadian Northern's Mount Royal Tunnel, the CNR actually used electric locomotives with overhead catenary for passenger equipment and passenger train transfers to and from Central Station. 

These electrics were still in use for this purpose when coal-fired locomotives pulled railfan excursions which used Central Station in the 1960s. On the trip itinerary, these delays were often presented as photo opportunities and passengers were allowed to detrain and photograph the changing of power from electric to steam - although this was not permitted when safety could not be assured on the return trip because of evening darkness. 

And, in spite of some thrilling high-speed steam running on our return trips (with our coach windows open), some of these railfan trips ended up returning much later than the printed itinerary predicted.

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1915

from: Canadian Engineer 1915 (reprint) 
https://archive.org/details/someimportanteng00cana/page/3/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

Blocked from entering the city of Montreal from the west by the pre-existing CPR and Grand Trunk lines, you can see the upstart Canadian Northern Railway is busy tunnelling its way into Montreal via its Mount Royal Tunnel. 

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1915 December

(article: Electric Car Lighting)

from: Railway Electrical Engineer; 1915 December.
https://archive.org/details/railwayelectrica07unse/page/211/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

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1922 March

from: Canadian Transportation  archive.org
https://archive.org/details/canadiantransport1922/page/n272/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

from: Canadian Transportation; 1923 March
https://archive.org/details/canadiantransport1923/page/262/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

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1923 March

from: Canadian Transportation; 1923 03.
https://archive.org/details/canadiantransport1923/page/262/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

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1929 April

from: The Chronicle; Carbon, Alberta
https://archive.org/details/TCR_1929041801/page/n2/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

Glen Yard: Famous in Carbon! 

Carbon, Alberta is about 30 kilometres west of Drumheller.

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1931

from: Transactions of the Engineering Institute of Canada  archive.org
https://archive.org/details/transactionsofen14engi/page/22/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

ABS used electrically-operated signals 'actuated by track occupancy' ... to protect the train on a defined section of track against collision. 

..... Point A ..... My Train ..... Point B .....

Signals at A and B automatically guard My Train.

An important function of ABS was preventing a following train from striking the rear of a train which had stopped unexpectedly. 

They also maintained a safe interval between moving trains. They provided automatic 'separation'. 

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1932 January

from: Railway Engineering & Maintenance; 1932 January
https://archive.org/details/sim_railway-track-structures_1932-01_28_1/page/34/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

Always working on behalf of the shareholders, resourceful techniques were used do more with less - even if it meant laying off workers during the Depression.

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1944 April

from: Railway Age; 1944 April.
https://archive.org/details/sim_railway-age_1944-04-15_116_16/page/754/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

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1967 May

 Board of Transport Commissioners for Canada

Montreal to Rigaud Commutation Services

This last excerpt is rich in detail. Anyone who has been interested in the recent history of CPR Montreal commuter services might enjoy reading the whole investigation by the BTC. The text link appears just before the first page, below. 

This investigation also gives us interesting historical insights into how Glen Yard functioned, the equipment used and the staffing required.

This type of study was done in the era when transportation safety, freight rates, line abandonment, passenger ticket prices, the termination of passenger service, etc were all under government regulation. 

As suggested above, the previous safety hazards and abuses of unbridled 'free enterprise' resulted in these huge, critical, national transportation systems being supervised by a quasi-judicial body.

https://archive.org/details/judgmentsorders57cana/page/185/mode/1up?q=%22Glen+Yard%22

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CPR 1953 History of Canadian Pacific Scenic Dome Cars

From the CPR Spanner employee magazine comes this article with no byline. However, when you get to the diagram of Car 515, many will instantly know the author. This article was clipped by 26-year-old CPR employee LC Gagnon.

I tried several 'treatments' of the photographs of older rolling stock which I enlarged to hopefully provide more detail. The best outcomes came from minimal adjustments. Some of the originals are light enough that the under-car detail can be seen.

LC Gagnon had just travelled on his third vacation - partially paid for by an employee pass - to the west coast. He ended up waiting a few decades before he finally had the opportunity to ride in NR Crump's stainless steel dome cars. 

His 'hard luck' late-summer open-air exposure to creosote, Rocky Mountain brake smoke, locomotive smoke, steam whistles, stack noise and bolted rail is partially documented at the link below. 

CPR 1950 Banff to Field

Additional trip segments are available for viewing on the Short Subjects 02 index page (click the 'radio button' on the title bar). Just look under 'CPR 1950'.

Considering the full period of time since the CPR last spike until today ... 

The survivors of the CPR Budd stainless-steel purchase have been in continuous service on Canadian rails for more than half of that period.

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