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| from: Montreal, Then and Now; Bryan Demchinsky; 1985; Montreal Gazette. |
The CPR's Montreal headquarters were originally referred to as the Windsor Street station (the contemporary name of the street extending to the right). For the purpose of the rules, the station is Montreal in the employee timetable which follows.
The photo above was taken circa 1910. Notice the photographer's note between the rails of the streetcar track in the foreground. The distant section was opened in 1889. The extension in the foreground opened in 1913.
For the train schedules, I've preserved the 15-inch span of the timetable as it maintains the flow of the original document. Be sure to slide all the way to the right to see everything.
If you are a regular reader of employee timetables, you are probably missing the mileages beside the station names. As the trains go west (Lachine), south (South Junction) and north (North Junction), respectively, after reaching Montreal West ... there are different subdivisions involved with their own mileages.
On page 22, the Winchester Sub - where the lakeshore commuter trains run - is tucked in like this: without trains or footnotes.
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| from: Canadian Railway Atlas; 1990; Railway Association of Canada. |
Above, is a map from 1990 which shows the CPR in red.
If you follow the line west from Montreal (oh! ... OK ... 'Windsor') you can see the lines splitting south, west and north.
Below, Montreal West station is at the blue transit symbol in the top right corner
... Windsor station is far beyond that.
The Winchester Sub goes west over the bridge.
The other branches curve: north (left) and south (right).
The photos are extracted from 3x4 inch prints taken by LC Gagnon circa 1961.
Looking east, with Westmount station and the interlocking tower at the left,
and Glen Yard to the right, you can see some switching taking place.
The car at the right margin seems to be a New York Central car.
Again at Westmount, the westbound Canadian is seen.
You can see braced pipework extending above the lead unit.
This was designed to knock down tunnel icicles before they damaged the domes farther back.
Two novelty spotlights - to light up features ahead at night for passengers in the domes - can be seen between the horns and the pipework.
Perhaps their final act before permanent removal was lighting up icicles in the centre of a tunnel.
Eastbound CPR Dayliners are seen at Lachine station.
This station was reached by walking across Highway 20 at the 40th Avenue intersection,
then crossing the CNR tracks (foreground) on a pedestrian overpass.
On the sheet immediately below, if you check 18 Winchester Subdivision, footnote C,
you'll see an instruction to cut freights which are stopped here 'to allow passengers to get across to reach their homes'.
You can see the platform lights,
but the north platform was still a cold and dark place to be stranded on a winter night.
Montreal West station looking east toward Windsor.
The grade crossing gatekeeper in the tower in the right distance was often kept quite busy during peak commuting hours.
This was a favourite spot for childhood visits, as seeing a train up close was virtually guaranteed.
Summer evening intercity trains attracted many passengers and agent-drawn baggage wagons.
My father speculated that this power is reversing from the St Luc diesel shop.
Given its characteristics and the time of day, it will probably lead the Canadian.