In the mid-1960s there was a refinery fire in eastern Montreal and an AM radio host commented that it looked like the area had 'received a megaton', i.e. the massive cloud of black smoke suggested a nuclear attack.
Formal awareness of "pollution" in school began circa 1970 in a Grade 7 Science class and water pollution in the Great Lakes was our first focus.
Each era has its own priorities and zeitgeist. The Second World War had cast its own shadow over the future existence of its schoolchildren, too.
I found this transcript of an Ontario legislative committee during a routine search on the GTR/CNR's "Turcot Yard" - my own lost world of wonderful pre-school childhood memories.
I was surprised to see the term 'Air Pollution' used before the 1960s. Probably, professional civil servants on the cutting edge of industrial hygiene were already looking at the broader environment and how we were altering it.
... Certainly, the longstanding nuisance of finding soot particulates on laundry hung out to dry (see Page 3568, search: "clothes" or "fallout" [!] ) had been a longstanding problem caused by smoke.
While I am emphasizing only the railway-related testimony, other industrial operations are also considered. As we know from historical hindsight, 1956 was very late in the Canadian history of railway steam locomotives to be worried about their smoke.
The excerpts I have reproduced below came from an excursion taken by this Ontario committee to Montreal. In the course of their sessions, they discuss current operations at Turcot and explore the projections of change from dieselization.
Accessible by a URL at the end of this post, the CPR President's testimony accurately predicts the end of steam - about five years in the future.
The entire document (633 pages):
https://archive.org/details/31761114665508/page/n6/mode/1up
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| Turcot Yard roundhouse, circa 1942. Photo by LC Gagnon. |
Some time around 1942, student LC Gagnon was avoiding being too obtrusive behind the late summer grass as he photographed a transportation asset which was among the many things which were not to be photographed during the war.
There was a war to be won: With competition from local shipping and trans-Atlantic convoys for coal, and with shortages of spare parts and skilled labour, Turcot roundhouse was creating great clouds of coal smoke.
Over on the Ready Track beside the heated water tank (with the globe high on the mast indicating it is full of water), the white plume of steam from a raised safety valve can be seen.
After each run, most engines required maintenance, or at least an inspection, in the roundhouse. A trip to the ashpit (beyond the right margin) was also necessary. After servicing, in preparation for the next trip, fresh coal would be thrown into the firebox of an engine. The resulting inefficient combustion of the developing fire caused unburned flammable gases to escape out of the smokestack, along with small particles of soot.
... With railways playing the most important land-based role in the transportation of troops, military equipment, food, civilian workers, and commodities ... the idea of reducing air pollution for the sake of the environment, or even for the sake of human health, was not a factor which would be considered.
The vantage point is Upper Lachine Road and the St Lawrence River exists somewhere in the distance.
Coincidentally, the community newspaper of my father's childhood home put this piece of corporate boiler plate into the public record to fill out its usual column-inches of text. It provides a nice contemporary overview of the operations pictured above. The Axis spies don't read the local papers, so don't worry.
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| from: Westmount Examiner; 11 December 1941; BANQ. |
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Back to 1956 and ...
Proceedings of the Select Committee appointed by the Ontario Legislature
to enquire into certain matters and legislation
regarding smoke control and air pollution in Ontario.
The whole section discussing Turcot and local industries starts here:
https://archive.org/details/31761114665508/page/3556/mode/1up?q=%22Turcot+Yard%22
end of first selection
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Turcot in 1908
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| from: Montreal Daily Witness; 15 October 1908; BANQ. |
From another archival source, comes this nice newspaper space-filler from 1908. At this point, Turcot roundhouse was a modern wonder in Canada. The yard was planned and the roundhouse was built circa 1903 to 1905. The air is almost smokeless.
The archived scanned image was almost black - very dark. In this lightened version, above, you'll notice the relatively small size of the locomotives. Their tenders bear the large Grand Trunk numbers.
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If you have been following Eric's ongoing chronicle of today's CNR lawyers dealing with VIA's implementation of the new Venture equipment, you will recognize the style of some of the practices used to protect the railway's operating preferences:
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In this second section of 1956 testimony, below, my favourite railway lawyer response to a smoke complaint is:
"They would not admit that the locomotive was operating."
The attempts to reject the Ringelmann Chart (today, it is all over the internet) perhaps suggests buying time through feigned ignorance of 'the industrial standard'.
Pertaining to the Ringelmann Chart 'document' used in measuring smoke darkness ...
(Everyone works from Upper Lachine Road!)
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If you've ever wondered what CPR President Norris R 'Buck' Crump (1904-1989) was like,
the Committee questions him at Toronto, starting at the link below.
https://archive.org/details/31761114665508/page/3489/mode/1up?q=Crump
He talks about:
Dieselization at length, mentioning the 'DCs' (I assume Rail Diesel Cars: CPR 'Dayliners'),
Pool Trains, Lambton roundhouse smoke, his personal experiences as a railroader,
the smoke he sees from the 16th storey of the Royal York,
and he also discusses other railway systems he has visited.
In the record, he is referred to as The Witness or 'A.' (answer).
Later, the Commission took him out to lunch.
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end