CNR 1964 CRHA Excursion: 6218, Montreal-Coteau-Cantic-St Johns, Part 2

 

When last we saw our intrepid fantrippers, they were near the Coteau station (above).

From Coteau the train will follow the Alexandria Sub, travelling timetable east

through Ayrness, Barrington and arriving at Cantic (employee timetable below).

The Canada Atlantic Railway routing is mentioned in the Itinerary which follows.

Cantic ... Canada Atlantic ... I wonder ...

The map above and itinerary below are repeated from Part 1.

We'll be following the route of trains 730 and 734 on the right side ...

I was curious to see which features of our route remained almost 60 years later. You'll see a number of Google map images of what remains. 

Generally, we were travelling across a fertile plain which was often subdivided into the distinctive long, thin fields originating with New France's surveying and land-granting system. 

*  *  *

Ayrness

Above and below: The runpast preparations at Ayrness. The man at the switchstand may be working with a battery-powered reel-to-reel recorder on the switch ties as he holds the microphone near the reversing train. A CRHA safety volunteer may be watching him with concern, as scalding water or steam may issue from the engine and he is within range. He'll certainly be cautioned to step back on the forward run. There was usually a CN Police officer on these trips as well.

Above: The site at Ayrness as it appears circa 2020. Unless otherwise indicated, all the Google views are oriented with North at the top.

Below: The 10-car train reversing after the runpast. A CRHA safety volunteer actuates the backup air whistle. 

A uniformed CNR trainman is centred on the rear platform of the car as he uses the signal line to help re-spot the train in its original position. The sooner the railfans get back up the same steps of their own coaches, the sooner we can leave.

*  *  *

Barrington

Above: Non-gazeteered place names are often indicated on Google - as well as railway employee timetable 'stations'. The former roadbed of the west-to-east Alexandria Sub crosses the road at the 'ch' of 'Crutch'. The municipal location of Barrington appears to the south. 

Under Barrington in the Alexandria Sub employee timetable footnotes above, you'll see a reference to a crossing of the Hemmingford Subdivision. The old, treed roadbed of the former north/south Hemmingford Sub can be seen better on the oblique view above. 

The same crew of three fantrippers had already travelled on a diesel-powered wayfreight fantrip (i.e. a coach marshalled ahead of the caboose) to Hemmingford on June 6, 1964. The trip departed from Turcot Yard, and returned there after a very long day. The train only left Hemmingford around sunset - which is a little after 2030hr on that date. You can imagine the low priority given to the movement of a wayfreight waiting to travel over the Victoria Bridge and into the Montreal terminals in the evening. 

Above and below: A couple of views at Barrington. 

*  *  *

Cantic and its Location

Above: You can see the green cycling trail along the former Alexandria Sub from Barrington through to Cantic. At Cantic we will turn north-northwest and run in almost a straight line as we head for St Johns (St-Jean-sur-Richelieu) - seen across the river from Iberville. 

Below: The dotted line marks the former Alexandria Sub. The train followed the green leg of the wye to the Rouses Point Sub (employee timetable below).

Below: An oblique view. The train travelled from the top-left corner to the top-right corner.

On the ground at Cantic:

Above: On the Rouses Point Sub looking timetable south toward the junction tracks at Cantic circa 2020. The excursion would have approached on the wye leg from the right and passed by the camera, travelling timetable north on the Rouses Point Sub for St Johns. 

... Circa 2020, you can see that part of the leg of the wye still runs to the right toward the former Alexandria Sub roadbed which led back to Coteau. It is probably used as a back track.

We'll be following the route of trains 307 and 21 on the employee timetable below ...

*  *  *

Grande Ligne

Above: Grande Ligne - where a runpast occurred. 

*  *  *

St Johns (St-Jean-sur-Richelieu)

Our excursion will be swinging by Rue Frontenac, around the curve at the station, and then across the diamond. 

Why is that station always shown at that awkward angle to the curve?

 

The 1890 construction of the Grand Trunk Railway station (above, circa 2020) meshed with an already existing bridge of another railway across the Richelieu River. The first bridge here was begun in 1858 by the Stanstead, Shefford & Chambly Railroad, while the second bridge was built in 1864 and demolished after the line was abandoned in 1956.

Beginning at the station location at 'Alo Richelieu' you can imagine the location of the bridge by lining up the long green tangent, originally of the Stanstead, Shefford & Chambly, as it continues east on the far side of the river at Iberville.

*  *  *

Victoria Bridge circa 2020

The 1964 skyline of Montreal.

The new stock exchange building is being constructed and the reflection of the deputy photographer is seen as he is given permission to take an additional image in black and white as we cross the Lachine Canal. 

We say good-bye to 6218 at Bridge.

The pushpin marks the general location of the steam cutoff point at Bridge Street. The time-honoured process would have involved cutting off the steam locomotive after coming in from the right (off the Victoria Bridge). 

... After cutting off, the steam engine would continue a short distance toward Central Station, but then reverse along the west leg of the wye. (Before the late 1950s, the engine crew would go off duty at the Turcot roundhouse. In 1964 our engine is probably heading to the CNR's new Montreal freight yard.)

... An electric locomotive would back on to the passenger train's headend from a stub track near that pushpin, to lead the train along the tracks enclosed by Central Station. You can see today's Central Station/Place Bonaventure at the top, left corner of the image above. (Even in 2020, you can see shadows of unused catenary east of the wye ... so there would have been flexibility in where to stop the train and how to efficiently dispatch the light steam power.)

Were there other photos?: Given the average age of the kids in our excursion party, I don't think we attended the baggage car or the observation car. After the Barrington runpast, we may have stayed on the train for the duration of the trip.

CNR 1964 CRHA Excursion: 6218, Montreal-Coteau-Cantic-St Johns, Part 1

 

In 1964, CNR 6218 was unique as a CNR excursion engine which had been backshopped (at Stratford, Ontario) after the end (in 1960) of steam. 

The other recently-retired CNR mainline excursion engines (5107, 6153, 6167) had been carried over from their pre-1960 careers on the railway.

On a visit to Turcot Yard a few years earlier, we had seen 6218 - segregated on its own track near the roundhouse. We had arrived by MTC bus and 6218 was the first engine we encountered after descending the hill from Upper Lachine Road - so it was photographed. However, it seemed to be in no better shape than the other locomotives sitting on the Turcot dead line as they awaited scrapping.

A link to Ian Wilson's YouTube documentation of an earlier fantrip to these points, sent to me by Jim Christie, prompted this post about what was probably the shortest and most local steam fantrip we took out of Montreal. Preparing this post was also an incentive to verify that my 'new' laptop would be able to operate my older slide scanner. 

In the lore of our family's fantrips over the years, there were a couple of interesting events which occurred before we even reached Coteau and you'll see them in this post.

from: CNR system map, no date (circa 1960)

It was difficult to find a map which gave a good, detailed view of our route.

However, the key junctions for our counter-clockwise trip from Montreal are all shown above.

The day's program is outlined below.

As always, Central Station provided a good close-up view of the steam locomotive. Sometimes travellers with kids could 'reserve' their coach seats with hampers and items of clothing and beat the crowd to the headend. This was sometimes rewarded with an invitation to enter the cab - a huge, hot, dark, roaring, hissing, intimidating place to visit as a kid - which a person will always remember.

In the view below, the running boards back along the upper tender and the small light at the back of the coal bunker to illuminate watering activities at night are interesting details to observe.

To better understand the lines over which we'll travel, I'm including the employee timetables from just before the end of steam. Not all the footnotes are included here for the Cornwall Sub. 

Notice the Forney-powered CNR suburban service is still operating to Dorval. There are also Pool Trains shown operating in conjunction with the CPR.

As well, the timetables below pre-date the relocation of the CNR mainline from the general alignment of today's Victoria Street in Lachine. We'll be following the current route along Autoroute 20 on the fantrip.

This was probably the first fantrip with which all five of us were involved in some way. Below, our train passes 40th Avenue in Lachine as the newest family member poses for a photo. The four-lane '2 and 20' can be seen between the carriage and the train. The films shot by our three point-and-shoot cameras on October 4 were sent for processing before the plant developing black and white prints had a chance to change the date to 'OCT'.

The photo above shows the location of family members as seen from the train.

(The shutter speed on Brownies must have be fixed at something like 1/60th of a second.)

In the foreground, some enthusiasts may have staked out the shoulder of the highway for photos.

*  *  *

Family Lore, Part 2

The Great Race

I think my father selected the black and white Brownie for this photo because of its 'landscape' (versus square) images.

Not being burdened with knowledge of all the operating requirements which might affect train speed, I was quite impressed by this event. The excitement did build as we began to overtake the CPR power. I recall it being a dramatic seesaw battle - never a sure thing - until we finally 'won' and cheers were heard in our coach.

from: Trains; January 1965; Kalmbach.

Before social media, it might take 2-3 months for earth-shattering news to be fully-documented in writing and published.

With today's technologies, imagine all the jiggly, unedited smartphone videos which could have been uploaded - even before our train left Montreal Island.

*  *  *

Above: The Vaudreuil Hill runpast.

Part 1 of this trip account ends with our stop at Coteau.

'Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.'

As we both reflect on our circumstances, you can see the Brownie loaded with black and white.

Photo-taking real estate is always at a premium at the front of the engine at stops.

The seven-year-old photographer had to work fast before the pops lifted.

CNR 1964 CRHA Excursion: 6218, Montreal-Coteau-Cantic-St Johns, 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.