Here are some CNR freights pounding through Portage, as well an employee timetable for that era.
Here is East Tower circa 2014 via a Google image. Originally, an interlocking tower controlled the junction between the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk Pacific at this site. After the Canadian National Railways settled in, it was still the site of crossovers between the North and South main tracks of the CNR line from Winnipeg as they reached Portage.
In the 'middle' of the CNoR yard at Portage were significant steam locomotive maintenance facilities. Probably this postcard - now over a century old - was photographed from one of them (or a grain elevator). Looking south, you see the historical orientation of non-CPR lines in the Portage railway yard area. From the north: Canadian Northern, Grand Trunk Pacific, Great Northern. I recently sent a copy of this postcard to my uncle (a resident of Portage for about half a century) and he noted that none of the cityscape in the postcard is recognizable today.
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Inserted after this post was assembled ...
As someone who is never smart enough to stop researching something hopeless ...
After I finished most of this post ... I think I found the postcard location ...
As seen via Google from Portage la Prairie circa 2020 at Tupper St N and Saskatchewan Ave W ... here is a good match for a steeple/church roofline in the postcard (it is the steeple nearest to the right edge of the postcard) ... today's Trinity United Church. The street with the well-treed sidewalk at the right margin of the postcard may be today's 1st Street NW.
... so the boxcars in the postcard are located somewhere to the west of the location of the today's CNR station (ex-Grand Trunk Pacific).
end of insert
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At the west end of the traditional CNR yard area is the switching plant at Kearns. This view is via Google from 2018 or so. The yard lead, at the left, blends into the two main tracks through Portage. The track in the left foreground is the first few feet of the Gladstone Sub - it goes west to Dauphin. The track to the right carries on as the Rivers Sub, through to Melville, Saskatchewan.
Above is my photo from September 1989 showing the area of CNR West Tower at Portage. Kearns is just behind the camera and the camera is facing west. The tracks, left to right, are: VIA connector, Rivers Sub, Gladstone Sub. You can see the CPR Carberry Sub crossing the CNR tracks westbound from right to left.
A forest of absolute signals! Let's go through them from left to right ...
- 1. VIA connector protecting its switch and showing switch alignment/occupancy via Kearns.
- 2. Rivers Sub protecting the VIA connector switch.*
- 3,4. Rivers Sub, protecting the CPR on both sides of the diamond.
- 5. Gladstone Sub (eastbound), protecting the CPR on the diamond.
- 6. Gladstone Sub (eastbound), protecting Kearns.*
- 7. Gladstone Sub protecting the CPR on the diamond.
- 8. CPR Carberry Sub westbound protecting the CNR on the diamond.
(*The signals for eastbounds located east of the diamond also show switch alignment/occupancy via Kearns. And some of the 8 signal masts shown are certainly designed/wired to protect the rear of preceding trains. Imagine the fun of being an engineer who designs railway signals!)
Before supplying an employee timetable which is nearly contemporary with the photos, here are a couple of freights ...
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On September 8, an afternoon freight is westbound at Kearns ...
On September 9, a refreshing vacation rain meets a morning eastbound intermodal as it is about to pass by the Portage CNR station. Bonus points if you spotted a problem with the class lights.
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Below is the employee timetable. A Portage vacation photography binge generally involved the two miles of track between West and East Towers. As the CPR/CNR diamond (with a 20 mph speed limit) was also where the rival lines converged, one could argue that Kearns was the place to be.
Below, you'll notice the First Class trains - the Supercontinental, 'the train to Churchill', and the Canadian. As mentioned in Part 1, the Canadian departs the Rivers Sub via the VIA connecting track to the CPR Carberry Sub.
Above and below: Also, you'll see that the CNR still maintains an operator at Portage for clearances, etc.
Below: Items 2.2 to 2.6 cover operations at Portage ... and Item 3.3 .
Under 7.1 you'll notice Great Northern RG 42. I once heard a crew refer to having put something into the 'old Great Northern'.
The VIA connecting track comes up in 7.2 .
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Above and below, on September 9, a westbound coal empty crosses the CPR at West Tower.
Above: On September 9 at 14hr, an eastbound potash train is seen at Kearns.
Above: During the late afternoon of September 10, an eastbound grain train passes by the Portage station.
September 13, 1989
After a race to Moose Jaw and a sweep east along the border, we're back!
(To see half a dozen posts on the history of that area, old maps, and our trip, just press the Portage Interlocking 01 radio button at the top and click on anything with 1989 in the title.)
These three photos show a westbound on the afternoon of September 13 at Kearns.
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No doubt being amused at how some people from Ontario choose to spend their vacations,
this equipment move was kind enough to pose on the Rivers Sub for a portrait of both sides ...
... Actually, he was probably waiting for the CPR to release the diamond.
In the background, I think you see the Gladstone Sub ... in the foreground, the VIA connecting track to the CPR Carberry Sub.
Finally, we have a westbound at Kearns, with the CNR maintenance of way equipment located just west of the station.
Dare we suggest that it is on the roadbed of 'the Old Great Northern'?
