The Home of Canada's Hooterville Cannonball

... that's probably the best shorthand for the Minto Subdivision in the 1950s. 

The unique status of 'Chipman - Norton' was in my head before there were two digits in my age. This awareness was contemporary with having to get paternal permission (only possible when my mother was out) to stay up late to watch Petticoat Junction. ... Its 4-4-0 was always in danger of being retired by the railroad. There are numerous parallels between these two railway operations. However, from this point on, I will only present the Minto Sub and leave it to interested readers to agree or disagree with my premise.

When we couldn't be riding behind the four or five large CNR steam engines in excursion service out of Montreal, there were at least steam sound effects long-playing records I could listen to on my portable record player. The record below offered this photo ... and that's all I knew about the Minto Subdivision. Of course there were railway books like Canadian Steam! to read ... but something more dynamic like an audio recording was better suited to my early interest in railway technology and operations.

Both 144 and 136 were featured individually on this record. The 136 was actually recorded in vivo on the Minto Sub. 

The only other Canadian band on this two-record album was an excursion recording of 6167. On that UCRS trip in February 1964, the train had reversed for a runpast. However, safety volunteers with bullhorns were forced to repeatedly implore railfans to move a safe distance back from the track for their photographs. Eventually the runpast did take place, and the train is finally heard reversing to its original position to pick up all those uncooperative railfans.

from: Sound of Steam; circa 1965; North Jersey Recordings.

There was an entire generation of railfans who made repeated trips to the Minto Sub to see the last of the 4-4-0s ...

from: CP Rail News; November 1987; Canadian Pacific Railway.

And this included railfans from the United States ...

from: LC Gagnon, files.

It is not entirely clear why anyone thought this railway project was worth building. Ultimately, there was wood and coal on part of the line. However, the line started from Norton - not Fredericton. Coal was the 'fossil fuel of choice' back then to power everything, so perhaps that was enough of a reason to build a railway.

In 1871, the Central Railway Company was incorporated "to build from Fredericton to the head of Grand Lake and to a point between Apohaqui and Salisbury on the European and North American Railway." 

from: A Statutory History of Railways in Canada 1836-1986; Dorman & Stoltz; 1987; CIGGT.

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In the March 1996 Branchline, in his article "Minto Memoirs", Ron Ritchie wrote an excellent detailed article on the Minto Sub which summarized the major corporate events ... which are further boiled down for your quick reading below.

• 1888 The Central Railway of New Brunswick completed a line between Norton to Chipman - that railway is actually labelled on the map below. The CPR is colour-coded green.

• 1903 The New Brunswick Coal & Railway Company built from Chipman to Minto. The latter is near Newcastle Bridge below. (Newcastle-on-Tyne in the UK was in a legendary coal mining area.)

• 1903 The New Brunswick Coal & Railway Co. (new owner of the Central of NB) conveyed the Norton to Minto line to the provincial government. 

• 1912-13 The Fredericton & Grand Lake Coal & Railway Company built between South Devon (Gibson) and Minto.

• 1914 The CPR leased the whole thing - the Fredericton & Grand Lake Coal & Railway Company and the New Brunswick Coal & Railway Company for 999 years.

Ron Ritchie's article gives lots of excellent detail about the line and those who went to visit it during the last steam years. Essentially, the line between Norton and Minto/Newcastle was not really worth building or owning. There were those two light bridges ... and skillful but cost-effective civil engineering ensured that the line was a continuous series of difficult hills and curves. These limited what a light engine could pull.

However, on the part of the line from Minto/Newcastle to Fredericton, one could actually use something which was not a 4-4-0 and be serious about hauling trains of coal.

from: Canada Descriptive Atlas; 1932; Minister of Immigration and Colonization. 

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Features of the Line

Here are those legendary 60 miles of railway which the railway enthusiasts flocked to see. The weight-limiting bridges which were never replaced during the life of the line were at Mile 0.2 and Mile 20. You can find photos of them on the internet and through YouTube.

From this perspective, it seems that they were after the coal because that was where the line stopped.

From 1901

from: Altitudes in the Dominion of Canada; 1901; James White, Geological Survey.

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From 1915

If you went to the trouble of drawing a line profile from the 1901 elevation data, the first thing you'll notice is that most of the altitudes of 1915 are different. I believe that most organizations surveying a transportation route were required to submit their data to the federal government to jump-start a central national database on the contours of the land. Better techniques and more time to measure things more accurately probably presented themselves before/as the CPR took over the line.

from: Altitudes in Canada; 1915; James White, Commission of Conservation, Canada.

And here ... is the new ... 1912-13-built ... segment of the Minto Subdivision which actually had the capacity to pay for its own journal oil. Here, heavier steam locomotives could be used to pull proper coal trains loaded at and near Minto.

from: Altitudes in Canada; 1915; James White, Commission of Conservation, Canada.

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1 December 1940 CPR Public Timetable

You can ride a combine behind steam between Norton and Chipman, probably scheduled as a mixed train. However, it seems you'll be put on a self-propelled gas car once you reach Chipman. 

Upon arrival at North Devon, you will enjoy the finest in bus transportation to reach the capital of the province - Fredericton. 

CPR public timetable, 1 December 1940. Trains 155, 156 are 'motor trains' - circle reference mark.

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CPR 1950 Employee Timetable

As we saw with the Gibson Subdivision (an earlier post) the mileage numbering scheme has been reversed since the 1915 data was submitted. 

Of course those permanent slow order bridges are still where they were. The footnotes are unique to me in the sense that the drawbridge (perhaps that's a term defined by regulations - it was a 'swing bridge') at Mile 69.5 is not interlocked. I suspect the bridge was manually cranked around by a bridge tender working at its central pier ... and ... significantly ...

The trains are approaching that bridge so they can cross at a speed not exceeding 8 MPH. Railfan accounts state that the ends of this bridge clanked up and down ... like a small turntable does as an engine runs onto it.  

In terms of schedules, notice that the only meet on the whole 90 miles of subdivision is between two freights at Minto. And notice how short the passing tracks are on the east east of the subdivision, between Chipman and Norton.

In his article Ron Ritchie notes that in 1957 the employee timetable began to indicate that HS-5 Diesel Hydraulic units could be used between Chipman and Norton - preparing for the end of steam.

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Why were all three locomotives saved?

A student of museology might ask why all three locomotives were worthy of being saved. They weren't 'original' like The First Ford Mustang deliberately taken off the assembly line and immediately placed in a museum with all of its original parts intact. (In fact, the 'first Mustang' was sold in Newfoundland because of an oversight ... before it was eventually preserved by Ford.)

... Each steam engine would have been rebuilt numerous times. Modern appliances would have been added ... like turbo-generators, electric lights and headlights, air brakes and automatic brakes, Janney-style couplers, superheaters, updated cabs which would include more modern gauges. There would be no limit to, or record of, the number of remanufactured parts installed which came from other engines. 

136 was Rogers builder's # 3332 and built in September 1883 (road number 140; 196; 115; 136) 

144 was CP New Shops builder's # 1030 and built in March 1886 (road number 351; 230; 144)

29 was CP New Shops builder's # 1065 and built in September 1887 (road number 390; 217; 29)

Even though each was not in original condition, each locomotive could be argued to be unique because of its builder or its design. The railways hadn't ordered any new 4-4-0 locomotives for their own use for decades and there wouldn't be any manufactured in the future.

Around 1960, there was great nostalgia for all of the steam locomotives being taken out of service - particularly because of their 'personality' ... their apparent animation while in use. There were so many moving parts and clouds of vapour or smoke issuing from them ... depending on their 'state' at any given moment. They were external combustion engines with many exposed moving parts. In 1960, many adults wanted to ensure some of them were saved ... as many as possible. In hindsight, too many 'preserved' engines were allowed to rust outdoors and become eyesores in municipal parks.

The 4-4-0 has been argued to have been the most perfect of all the steam locomotive designs - being well-balanced and efficient for its size. These small locomotives were easier and cheaper to move, restore and operate in museum-type settings. They were ideal for giving members of the general public a short, cost-effective 'steam train experience'. 

To summarize: These engines were simply in the right place at the right time.

Engine 29 in operation at the Salem & Hillsborough Railway, New Brunswick. A 1988 vacation photo.

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from: YouTube, The National Dream

Engine 136 (in period costume) appears with Pierre Berton in one of the final scenes from The National Dream (1974).