CNR 1985 A Visit to Guelph & 6167

We were vacationing in south-western Ontario and after our early morning departure from Burlington, we stopped in Guelph to see 'an old friend' of mine.

Grainy old prints remain of this reunion ...

Built by Montreal Locomotive Works and added to the CNR roster in March 1940, 6167 was put on display at Guelph in 1967.

This was a beautiful and highly-detailed cosmetic restoration - perhaps employing all the paint embellishments seen only on CNR excursion engines of the 1960s. A touch that I found particularly clever at the time, was the use of silver paint on the head of the rail and on the treads of the wheels.

Sadly, there is never a permanent civic endowment to ensure a roof is kept over 'civic locomotives'. Consequently, they spend a lot of their static outdoor careers as boarded-up ugly black hulks - in the eyes of local citizens. All of this careful and sensitive restoration was washed away by the elements.

The CNR Guelph station is at the left edge of the photo.

This headlight-equipped bike must have been on the road before we were!

Looking left from the view of the station is the local switcher and a train order signal.

The local armoury (that castellated building) was constructed in 1906 during the height of the Canadian volunteer militia period.

from: Dent's Canadian School Atlas; 1936-1956; JM Dent & Sons. 

Above is a circa 1956 map of south-western Ontario showing Guelph - west of Toronto.

Government of Canada topographic map, Guelph 1935 from: Historical Top Map Digitization Project, https://ocul.on.ca/topomaps/collection/

Above, a 1935 topographic map shows the railway lines serving Guelph. 

The abandoned right-of-way east to Acton is probably the 'financially hopeless' Toronto Suburban (interurban) Railway which was abandoned in 1931. 

At one point the TS was owned by Sir William Mackenzie for its 'franchise rights'. 

There is an excellent Wikipedia page about the line if you are interested!

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My original childhood encounter with the 6167 can be seen via the links below.

CNR 1963 CRHA Excursion: 6167, Montreal to Victoriaville

CNR 1963 CRHA Excursion: 6167, Montreal to Victoriaville, Part 2

CNR 1963 CRHA Excursion: 6167, Montreal to Victoriaville, Part 2

In this post, our excursion reaches Victoriaville, gets serviced, and runpasts occur afterwards. 

We also look at contemporary local employee timetables and a CRHA account of the trip.

If you want to see Part 1 of the trip, here's the link:

CNR 1963 CRHA Excursion: 6167, Montreal to Victoriaville

Below is the official schedule once again.

from: Atlas of Canada; 1915; Government of Canada.

The map above shows our route in Grand Trunk territory -
running east from Montreal through St Hyacinthe.
At Richmond, we headed north to Victoriaville.

Our excursion train is at the Victoriaville station before going to the wye.

My father does a pan shot with 6167 and includes my grandfather.

... and off to the wye.

We pose at an eastern Canadian grain elevator.

Rather than the customary clamshell bucket for coal loading,
a proper 'elevator' is used at Victoriaville.

Townspeople and excursion riders mix.
I had forgotten how these excursions gave leave to people to climb to the top of equipment.

At around 16hr we do our last two runpasts.
My father uses colour for the reverse movement.

I think it is safe to conclude that the communicating (air) signal is being used by the conductor.
Portable radios were probably not in widespread use on Canadian railways then,
and it would have been a challenge to mount an effective radio of the era in 6167.

... And, I think, radios had yet to be approved by regulation for communicating passenger train signals.

The runpast is captured with black and white film.
People often stood very close to the track.

At the second runpast, the mechanical stoker is working hard
to produce black smoke for photos.
A safety valve has also lifted.

*  *  *

Below is the November 1963 CRHA summary of the trip.
It provides interesting insights into how an excursion is crewed.

Notice the use of a 'work extra' order.
I assume this is to provide flexibility for runpasts etc.

In December 1963, the CRHA published this photo - taken from the motorcading bus.

In the CRHA account I was interested in the operational details. The '1960s main line steam excursion era' was made easier by the fact that virtually every engine crewman (and they were all men at that point) had experience with steam locomotives.

The CNR, then a crown corporation, had an interest in its history and its relationship with Canadians. That was another key condition during an era when most North American railroads were happy to be finished with steam.

Below are the employee timetables applicable to our route from the late 1950s. First you'll see Victoriaville to Richmond, then Richmond to Montreal.

During the engine cut-off, or perhaps as we entered Central Station,
my father took the last photo of the day.

My grandfather died two months later.

CNR 1963 CRHA Excursion: 6167, Montreal to Victoriaville

This post travels on a CRHA fantrip with CNR 6167 to Victoriaville QC during the last month of John F Kennedy's presidency. Below, inside a photo album, is the schedule for the day.

My father's note on the right margin refers to the flyer's cover, showing a CNR 6200-class locomotive accelerating out of Shawinigan. 

The name Charlie Hardy was mentioned many times over the years, but I never met him and we kids had only a child's red wooden rocking chair ('That's Charlie Hardy's chair.') as proof that he ever existed. For my siblings, at the end of this post are my father's notes - from my grandfather's notes - on the obscure Charlie Hardy connection. An Intercolonial engineer also figures into the story.

from: Atlas of Canada; 1915; Government of Canada.

The map above comes from a government atlas from 1915. We'll be staying mainly in pink 'Grand Trunk territory'. From Montreal, we'll be travelling east to St Hyacinthe and Richmond, then north to Victoriaville.

An 80mph runpast! 

Before we're done, you'll see another way we lived 'on the edge' in the carefree 1960s!

During this era, my father carried two cameras for his snapshots. 

Here you'll see square format colour slides and rectangular black and white prints.

Above, my father and I are photographed by my grandfather at around 08hr on an sunny late-October day. 

Engine 6167 has just backed onto its train at Central Station.

Using both films gives a measure of redundancy.
This view of 6167's nose shows better detail in the low light condition.

... with my grandfather.

Freed from any temptation to stake out a crowded dutch door or baggage car door,
we were among the few cognoscenti to be invited into the cab,
as we had already 'saved' our sealed-window seats with personal effects,
and had walked up to see our power.

... Just don't ask for a cab ride ... you've already been told!

The passenger in the cab door has exactly the same camera being used here by my father.

The cab above and below - taken by the two cameras.
Above, you can see this is a coal-burning engine with a mechanical stoker -
the coal is augered up that hump.

In colour, you can see a lot of extra painting has probably been done on this special excursion engine.
Notice the warming shelf with the long-necked oiler and the valve oil.
Veteran locomotive firemen can tell you the temperature of the fire by looking at its colour.

Scroll right and you'll see the engineer's side water glass and three red 'try cocks' to its right.
The try cocks tap into a column of boiler water at different depths.
Their discharge of hot water (and not steam) is a better check on
the critical coverage of the crown sheet than the convenient water glass.

You can also see cut-out cocks at the water glass.
If the glass breaks on the road, the crew will change it themselves.

Above, a CRHA motorcading bus getting photos and 8mm film of the train.
Back in the 1960s everybody lived on the edge like this ... Shoulda been there, dude!
Most of these guys are probably smokers, too.

... and I think the bus driver has been drinking.
The 'Quebec Provincial Police' didn't have breathalyzers back then.

Runpast at Otterburn Park.

Otterburn Park runpast continues.
This looks like a fairly typical railfan of the era.

Compare the stack with the previous photo and notice how quickly the fireman
stopped over-stoking the fire to produce black smoke to make the fans happy.

*  *  *

St Hyacinthe stop - above and below (to show train length).

Still at St Hyacinthe ... my father gets a nice unconventional photo of the engine, while a clear signal beckons us over the Yamaska River.

Notice the master mechanic, assistant superintendent, or other official - 'in uniform'.
There was always a trench-coated officer supervising these unusual operations.

Map is repeated below for your convenience ...

from: Atlas of Canada; 1915; Government of Canada.

Here's the high-speed run at Upton QC.
The fan near the station may be working with reel-to-reel sound equipment

Above, sitting in a 'cafeteria car' at the Richmond stop after the phone call to Charlie Hardy.
Whenever I smelled coffee, cigarettes and bleach - it spelled 'adventure'.

From the Richmond station, my father called Charlie Hardy at nearby Melbourne.
If it was on the map, Melbourne would be just southwest of Richmond - near Kingsbury.


Making a phone call:

1. Look up the phone number in the phonebook or dial zero and ask the Operator ... in English.
2. If it is a local call, drop a dime into the phone slot for dimes. The coin hits a bell to tell the system the call has been paid for. Dial your local number. (You have to do this to get the Operator, too. When she answers, the dime is refunded in the small coin drawer below.)
3. If the call is long distance, the Operator asks you to classify the call as Station-to-Station, or Person-to-Person. The latter costs more because she gets the actual person on the line before the call timer on her end starts. She tells you the price for the first three minutes and you insert nickels, dimes and quarters into their slots - different bells ringing for each type of coin. When the system indicates to her that you have fully paid, she dials the number the call begins.
4. After three minutes, the Operator cuts in and asks for more money for the next time period.
5. You can say 'No thanks. Bye Charlie!' and then she'll disconnect you.
6. Of course, you can hang up at any point before your time is up.

The call on this day went on for some time and there was lots of shouting. This was partly due to the fact that there was often a lot of noise on the lines when compared to the volume of the voice in your ear. And there was shouting because of the surprise and the excitement of making this rare connection to a distant relative. My family didn't call people long distance often - because it was very expensive (the cost varied as the distance between callers). My parents in Lachine would spend hours per month on written correspondence to relatives at Lachute, Lac Saguay or Vercheres ... and perhaps telephone briefly only a couple of times per year when finalizing details of an imminent visit .

*  *  *

Victoriaville and the return trip is here:
CNR 1963 CRHA Excursion: 6167, Montreal to Victoriaville, Part 2

*  *  *

If you have read this far,
you are obviously forgiven for not digging into the
Mystery of Charlie Hardy!