We took a one-day trip along part of the former NTR.
Maps and timetables are used to provide a few details about the line.
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| from: Road Book; 1958-9; Ontario Motor League. |
Our route is shown by these old triptik-style maps.
We're travelling west from Cochrane to Hearst and on to Nipigon.
Recapping from our last 1993 vacation segment (there's a link at the end) ... we were resuming our trip west to Portage la Prairie on the more level 'truckers' route' via Cochrane, Ontario. We were there early enough in the morning to see an Ontario Northland train and a crew member on the cab ladder. It was at the south side of the 'union' station which was used by both the CNR and ONR in recent history.
The 1520 was an FP7A built by GMD in 1953 for the Ontario Northland.
By my calculation, it is timetable southbound.
By my calculation, it is timetable southbound.
At the Cochrane Railway and Pioneer Museum, the steam locomotive was built by CLC in 1913 and used by the Canadian Northern Railway - which had no track here. It is painted for the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario.
The 4025 and 4032 were working on the north side of the Cochrane station.
The were facing westbound as I shot into the morning sun with my snapshot camera.
Historical note:
A 1990s 'snapshot camera' is snapped exactly the same way as a
modern fully-automated DSLR camera 'costing thousands more!'
... except you have no hope of ameliorating any adverse results from your framing decision,
... and the consequences of any errors are only seen a week after you return home from vacation,
... and without GPS in your camera, you wish you had maintained a 'shooting log'.
The were facing westbound as I shot into the morning sun with my snapshot camera.
Historical note:
A 1990s 'snapshot camera' is snapped exactly the same way as a
modern fully-automated DSLR camera 'costing thousands more!'
... except you have no hope of ameliorating any adverse results from your framing decision,
... and the consequences of any errors are only seen a week after you return home from vacation,
... and without GPS in your camera, you wish you had maintained a 'shooting log'.
Above and below you can see Cochrane from the air circa 2020.
During the era of our trip, the CNR and ONR routes reached the station from the southeast.
At the west end of town, the ONR turned north. The CNR continued northwest.
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Here are pages from an old Ontario Northland employee timetable showing the approach to Cochrane and the route beyond to Moosonee. The timetable images which follow won't be formally 'sourced' with a caption. You'll find them among the photos taken along the route.
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Below, is the whole route of the National Transcontinental from Moncton to Winnipeg. You can see a dip south to cross the St Lawrence at the NTR's Quebec Bridge. After Cochrane, it runs through places which include Kapuskasing, Nakina, Sioux Lookout and Transcona on its way west. This federal project - intended to be operated by the Grand Trunk after completion - was designed to get western grain to 'tidewater' as directly as possible.
As an oversimplification ... only Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1841-1919) really wanted to see the National Transcontinental Railway built. Because: reasons!
... The NTR's genesis was head games being played upon the Canadian Northern's William Mackenzie by the Grand Trunk's Charles Melville Hays. This occurred during the early stages of the Canadian railway building boom - just before 1910. If the CNoR thought the GTR was going transcontinental (perhaps we'll call it the Grand Trunk Pacific), then maybe the CNoR could be bluffed into being taken over by the GTR for a discount price. They didn't know it at the time, but both these railways' game theory reactions to each other ended in mutually assured destruction ...
World War One began - to the railroaders' surprise (not including Hays) - and British and US private capital was rushed into profitable war goods production .... and government bonds so governments could afford to buy war goods. Savvy investors could make money coming and going!
Selling urgently needed artillery shells, tin hats and tinned provisions to the British government produced a much higher return on capital than transporting ... something, something ... thousands of miles ... at a future date ... over rickety tracks ... from the Canadian backwoods ... or from former buffalo pasture.
By 1920: Charles Melville Hays had died on the RMS Titanic (1912), CNoR went bankrupt, the Grand Trunk was bankrupt, the NTR could never be profitable ... and these and other railways were eventually tipped into the Canadian National Railways system.
Historical what if? ...
Had the Grand Trunk's well-established eastern network combined with the Canadian Northern's western network, perhaps a strong privately-owned competitor could have emerged to balance the CPR.
... The NTR's genesis was head games being played upon the Canadian Northern's William Mackenzie by the Grand Trunk's Charles Melville Hays. This occurred during the early stages of the Canadian railway building boom - just before 1910. If the CNoR thought the GTR was going transcontinental (perhaps we'll call it the Grand Trunk Pacific), then maybe the CNoR could be bluffed into being taken over by the GTR for a discount price. They didn't know it at the time, but both these railways' game theory reactions to each other ended in mutually assured destruction ...
World War One began - to the railroaders' surprise (not including Hays) - and British and US private capital was rushed into profitable war goods production .... and government bonds so governments could afford to buy war goods. Savvy investors could make money coming and going!
Selling urgently needed artillery shells, tin hats and tinned provisions to the British government produced a much higher return on capital than transporting ... something, something ... thousands of miles ... at a future date ... over rickety tracks ... from the Canadian backwoods ... or from former buffalo pasture.
By 1920: Charles Melville Hays had died on the RMS Titanic (1912), CNoR went bankrupt, the Grand Trunk was bankrupt, the NTR could never be profitable ... and these and other railways were eventually tipped into the Canadian National Railways system.
Historical what if? ...
Had the Grand Trunk's well-established eastern network combined with the Canadian Northern's western network, perhaps a strong privately-owned competitor could have emerged to balance the CPR.
The particularly helpful and illustrative published map below was produced by taking a modern map of the CNR and running a black marker along the route. Notice there is also a supplemental route connecting Sioux Lookout (Superior Junction) with the lakehead ... maybe 'tidewater' isn't always everything it's cracked up to be?
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| from: The National Transcontinental Railway; Ron W Layton; 1979; Upper Canada Railway Society. |
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Below, you can see the routes as the Canadian government presented them in map form in 1915.
Cochrane is at the top right corner - the lakehead is at the bottom left corner.
Cochrane is at the top right corner - the lakehead is at the bottom left corner.
There is no connection between Nakina and Long Lake - for reasons you have figured out.
A couple of 1993 photos of the Kinghorn Subdivision will appear below as well.
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Back to our trip ...
At some unknown mileage, here is the mighty National Transcontinental Railway ...
which we altered our vacation route to experience and photograph!
This particular section was just part of the NTR dream.
Eventually the CNR did find other sections of the line quite useful.
which we altered our vacation route to experience and photograph!
None of the track structure seen here is original, of course,
(notice all the rail anchors - here, for a descending grade),
but this was the NTR route.
This particular section was just part of the NTR dream.
Eventually the CNR did find other sections of the line quite useful.
The bridges at Fauquier.
At Kapuskasing, we see the S-13 locomotive number 108.
It was built in July 1967 and has been here for its entire service life.
The railroader can be forgiven for wondering why his picture is being taken.
Because of 'free trade' and the 'death of print' (newsprint to digital news) ...
paper mills up here were changing corporate hands every couple of days,
so the paint scheme does not necessarily reflect the current owner in 1993.
Because of 'free trade' and the 'death of print' (newsprint to digital news) ...
paper mills up here were changing corporate hands every couple of days,
so the paint scheme does not necessarily reflect the current owner in 1993.
The back of Kapuskasing station.
I think the illuminated CNR signboard
- that white panel over the main door -
faced the highway before the change to VIA.
CNR steam locomotive 5107 was built by MLW in May 1919.
On the 'St Jean' in 1962, 5107 operated on a doubleheaded fantrip to Garneau with the 6153.
This was my first fantrip and I felt a kind of 'duty'
to check on an 'old friend' at Kapuskasing 31 years later.
Other retired engines don't always fare so well against the elements
as a result of the sin of outdoor 'preservation'.
Other retired engines don't always fare so well against the elements
as a result of the sin of outdoor 'preservation'.
Above is a typical northern Ontario image.
The rail is lighter than the CNR mainline.
The bolt pattern of the siding track and the snowplow target suggest a non-CNR line.
With a CNR snowplow target and probably a passenger 'station'
here is another light-railed set of tracks.
... It is quite possible that I quickly photographed both directions at an interesting crossing
and that the two previous images go together.
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Having left the NTR route, we will now have sporadic contacts with the Kinghorn Subdivision. This was the Canadian Northern's main line west through the lakehead, which then dipped below the US border to abide by the CPR protective 'monopoly clause' before it arrived at Winnipeg.
The meandering eastern route of the CNoR was one factor in the decision to seek a more direct route to ...
[say it with awe] ... Tidewater!
At or near Longlac, you can observe that this route gets more use than the NTR.
Between Beardmore and Nipigon, the topography changes into the familiar
'north of Lake Superior' format.
Again, this may be a north-south view of the same crossing.
This would be the Kinghorn Subdivision.
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Our vacations were often very busy and timed to take advantage of every spare minute we could be away on the road. After two days of driving while trying to find photo spots, one gets kind of tired. The final day between Thunder Bay and Portage was always the longest for us.
If you haven't seen our first day along the ONR,
when we were simply 'really work-tired',
here is the link.
ONR 1993 Temagami to Cochrane