CPR 1960 Montreal - A First and Last Steam Experience

While researching a Lachute-based piece, I was going through ancient family photos. It probably wouldn't hurt to have this little vignette of railway history preserved.

When he was almost 33 years old, and I was 2 1/2 years old, my father decided I should have a ride behind a steam locomotive before they were all gone for good. Of course, the future is always difficult to predict. Probably no one could have foreseen CNR's supportive corporate culture for steam excursions into, and far beyond, the 1960s.

Knowing my paternal grandparents' interest in recording events through photography, perhaps the main 'longterm desired outcome' for this trip was my father's desire to document the event with photos. Whether I remembered the experience or not, at least we could both look back and see that it had happened. In other words, here was proof I had been exposed to an important, historic aspect of my father's lifelong interest in railways.

... or maybe ... he was doing my mother a favour by getting a two year old out of the apartment, and he was getting to go for a train ride. You be the judge.

According to his notes in the photo album, the date was Monday, February 15, 1960 - during my father's mid-winter school break. Our trip was from 40th Avenue, Lachine to Windsor Station. The day was cold and blustery and we took a morning train. We returned by Provincial Transport bus.

Most of the morning commuter trains would be eastbound to downtown Montreal (Windsor Station). To return westbound by train ... we might have had a long wait. And perhaps he chose a Provincial Transport bus which dropped down from the '2 and 20' (the four-lane highway) to return us closer to the lakeshore of Lachine where we lived.

Before the train's arrival, my father photographed this westbound passenger train with his snapshot camera.

I have no statistics on the effective range of a 2 year old bundled for cold weather operation.  However, I just measured the distance from our apartment to the CPR station at 40th Avenue, Lachine. It was 1.7 kilometres. We may have taken a taxi to the top of 40th to facilitate our mission.

Our engine was Pacific 2412. The era's dress of zippered rubber galoshes over lace-up Oxfords, and Fedoras (and similar classic hats useless for winter wear in Canada) can be seen. In about a year, President John F. Kennedy would attend his inauguration bare-headed - changing men's fashions forever. 

I had wondered whether a north wind had caused the passengers to turn their backs to the train. If one looks at the clean, almost vertical stack of the engine, perhaps they were not sheltering from the wind. It seems possible that they were avoiding the oily mist of blowing steam, and the mini-blizzard from the 'bow wave' of the train as it rushed in. 

Steam or diesel, these commuter trains didn't really operate in 'the company notch'. It seems likely the experienced engineer is working steam against the train brakes to stay on schedule and to facilitate a precise stop.

And here we are at Windsor Station. We don't know any of these people. They must have been wondering why someone was using a flashbulb at them within the semi-sheltered trainshed at Windsor.

CPR 2412, a 4-6-2 built by the Canadian Locomotive Company in December 1942, was scrapped in April 1961.

Dressed to avoid frostbite and/or 'getting a chill' during our adventure, I am standing inside the gates protecting the trains from unauthorized and unpaid access. These heavy gates were built to last and you'll notice the wire-reinforced glass - designed to survive decades of sliding open and closed.

Postscript: In the years which followed, my father revised his photo album description of the event in light of the fact that all five of us had experienced steam fantrips. This was 'my only trip behind a steam locomotive' in scheduled service.