GTR 1915 Public Timetable, West of Detroit & St Clair Rivers

 

A great amount of detail and the original continental strategy of the Grand Trunk are shown in this reprint by Railfare.

Portland-Montreal-Toronto-Sarnia

First, the Grand Trunk joined the principal cities in today's Quebec and Ontario with a year-round American seaport ... the cleverly-named Portland, Maine. These objectives were completed by construction and railway company acquisition.

... Next, the Grand Trunk worked to develop a connection to the prosperous, expanding American west. Chicago was developing into a key railroad hub.

Sarnia-Port Huron-Detroit

Grand Trunk railway car ferry service between Sarnia and Port Huron, Michigan began in 1859. A railway connection between Port Huron and Detroit was built and opened in 1859. 

The St Clair River Tunnel (Sarnia-Port Huron) was opened in 1891. 

Detroit-Chicago (via MCRR)

Following the Port Huron-Detroit routing, the Grand Trunk operated over the Michigan Central from Detroit westward to reach Chicago. 

Port Huron-Chicago ... GTR

The Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway was formed in 1880 to consolidate short lines and construct 34 miles west of Valparaiso, Indiana. This finally provided the Grand Trunk with its own access to Chicago.

from: Grand Trunk Western; Patrick C Dorin; 1977; Superior Publishing.

An eastbound Lehigh Valley train, with Grand Trunk motive power, pauses during its trip from Chicago to New York. 

Today this building can be seen at 175 Main Street, Battle Creek.

The photo was taken circa 1915.

Probably using a pre-positioned, large-format camera to photograph the slowly moving train (bell ringing), 

the photographer was probably stuck with that unfavourable (but interesting) reflection of the sun on the 1032's shiny sheet metal.

Built in 1908 by Baldwin, the engine was renumbered 1621 by the CNR and scrapped in 1935.

from: Railroad History 148, Autumn 1982; ed: Robert C Post; Railway & Locomotive Historical Society.

No date or location is recorded for this photo.

Built by the Grand Trunk in 1911, the engine was renumbered 5579 by the CNR and scrapped in 1960.

In 1866, Seventh-day Adventists set up the Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan. The leaders of this clinic supported the medical education of young parishioner John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943). In 1876, Kellogg became the clinic's medical director and changed its name to Battle Creek Medical and Surgical Sanitarium. 

Diet, exercise and other techniques were intended to improve and maintain the health of patients. Hundreds of patients would pass through the place in the course of a year. WK Kellogg (1860-1951 ... Dr Kellogg's brother) handled the finances and the doctor's spouse Ella Eaton (1853-1920) was a dietician who was put in charge of the institution's kitchen.

In the course of experimenting with grain and nut products (especially to avoid eating meat) they came upon a preparation method which yielded flakes ... and a patent for the process ... in 1895.

WK Kellogg started the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906. 

A former patient CW Post (1854-1914) came up with a grain-based coffee substitute (Postum) and Grape Nuts cereal ... which is, of course, made up of neither grapes nor nuts.

There followed a great cereal boom in the Sanitarium City ... or Cereal City ... as it became known. Dozens of companies sought to cash in on the ready-to-eat breakfast cereal boom and established themselves in the cereal techno-hub of Battle Creek. 

Circa 1960, my knowledge of geographical place names was linked to the homes of family members: Lachine, Lachute and Lac Saguay ... Quebec. There was one exception. Huckleberry Hound was often sponsored by "Kellogg's of Battle Creek, Michigan". 

It was the tradition, implied trust and reliability, and community connection with Cereal City, which caused Kellogg's advertising to make Battle Creek a household name - even for pre-schoolers.

Chicago Passenger Terminals, Postcards x4 ... and Old Maps!

Well ... I did watch The Blue Brothers a few times. So gather 'round and I'll tell you all about Chicago's economic geography ...

You could spend a lifetime just learning the railroad history of the Chicago area. 

Years ago, probably in Trains, I read an old saw ... that hogs could ride from coast to coast in the same car ... but passengers had to change trains in Chicago. 

... So I knew that there were a 'few' passenger terminals there and I just started buying Chicago station postcards when I saw them. 

This post started off as four postcards and a century-old map. However, I found a nice image (far below) of a station which was not in my postcard collection. I also went to archive.org and, of course, hit the jackpot by entering the search terms Chicago and railroad.

... There were commissions working to develop a more rational system of terminals for Chicago back in 1915. I'd guess that the harbor, the first settlement and regional agriculture developed first ... businesses developed to meet local needs, industries located there, and then railroads came along. Many of the early US railroads were regional and Chicago was where they terminated for economic and geographic reasons. Everyone wanted to be beside the harbor.

In Canada, we had a series of portage railways, then regional railways ... before having a railway from tidewater to tidewater became an act of nation building which was facilitated and guided by government.

Comparable in many ways to Chicago, Montreal was Canada's railway metropolis. In 1929, the federal department of Railways and Canals received a report commissioned by the minister: Report on Railway Terminal Facilities at Montreal. 

Everyone was looking for a better way to organize railways in urban settings. 

... While many of us like to visit railway tracks, few of us would survive if we tried to get our family members to live by the tracks on a full-time basis. Reducing the noise, coal smoke and risk of being struck by a train ... were some of the things which early urban planning engineers worked on. 

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Most of the Chicago stations were in a cluster. If you find the mouth of the Chicago River, you can find your place on any of the maps shown below. 

Helpful spotting/orientation features: 

Notice the location of the word 'Chicago', and the harbor breakwater on the map below.

This is at the mouth of the the Chicago River. 

From its mouth, the Chicago River splits into the North and South Branches.

Most of the passenger stations (terminals) are located between the South Branch and that breakwater.

On some maps, the shore at that location is shown as 'U.S. Grant Park' (named in 1901). Apparently, the Illinois Central got permission to build tracks along the shore at the park. 

from: Preliminary Report, Chicago Railway Terminal Commission, 1915. at archive.org

from: Preliminary Report, Chicago Railway Terminal Commission, 1915. at archive.org

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For even more Chicago railroad fun, consider that Standard Time did not always exist. 

... In addition to resetting your watch to local solar (determined at noon) time when you left your train ... it was a general practice, and a matter of company pride, that each railroad had its 'own time' based on the solar time at its head office or some other standard it chose. It was at Chicago where all of these 'times' met. 

... As a transferring traveller, your Chicago arrival time on Railroad A (eg. perhaps based on Montreal solar time) had a good chance of not being on the same 'time system' published by Railroad B for your departure (eg. perhaps based on Chicago solar time) ... as you raced between terminals to make your connection.

*  *  *

Here are some postcards of Chicago railroad stations. 

The number references apply to the large city map from 1923 which follows the postcards.

Number 6 on map.

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Number 3 on map.

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Number 5 on map.

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Number 4 on map.

* * *

Map from 1923

from: New World Atlas; 1923; PF Collier & Son.

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Dearborn Station

from: Trains; January 1950; Kalmbach.

Dearborn Station is number 7 on the map above.

Locomotives and their activities, from left to right:

Monon diesels laying over between Louisville trains.

Erie's Lake Cities departs with EMD power.

Chicago & Western Indiana (station owner) switcher.

Santa Fe switcher makes up the Grand Canyon.

Santa Fe 0-8-0.

GTW's Maple Leaf about to depart.

C&WI steam engine couples onto a coach.

C&WI EMD switcher couples to headend equipment.

*  *  *

Map showing the railroads and their central Chicago properties in 1898.

North is to the right and the mouth of the Chicago River is at the lower right.

from: Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad Co. map showing property of railroads in the business center of Chicago at ... archive.org ... https://archive.org/details/x998645678805867

CNR 1927 Baggage Car Traffic - Milk and Cream

Though it is little known today, Canadian railways made a key contribution to the growth and health of urban children in the early 1900s. Milk was a unique element of  'baggage car traffic'.

*  *  *

In its 'Facts and Figures' book of 1946, the CPR described 'express' as an extra service it had developed.

Regular freight would typically be loaded trackside at a shipper's factory loading dock ... or at a public loading facility - a 'team track'. Classically, a team of horses and a wagon would attend a designated railcar at a team track to load or to receive freight. 

Railway express developed in Canada before the Royal Mail had invented parcel post. An item which required door-to-door expedited handling, often with special climate control, would be a typical job for railway express. Two examples would be: a large case of farm fresh eggs; a package ordered from the Eaton's catalogue.

As previously discussed in an earlier post, railway baggage was generally oversized items travelling with a passenger which they wouldn't need to access until the end of their journey. Like today's airline checked baggage, this baggage was checked before boarding, carried in a separate baggage area, and picked up at the destination in exchange for the check document. Usually a passenger would travel on the same train as their baggage - assuming the train had a baggage car in its consist.

Milk and cream were like normal freight in the sense that the business was regular and continuous. In some cases, milk and cream required special climate control like express. Generally, milk and cream were handled on morning passenger trains like baggage. They were 'baggage car traffic'.

While fast passenger trains did not stop at the stations of minor towns - 'milk runs' did. So a passenger in a rush might not enjoy being on a milk run as the train would likely be an 'all stops local' ... and this train would also dwell at the station as the available labour worked to load 100 pound cans of fresh milk aboard. 

In the 1930s, on the former Canadian Northern line connecting St Andrew's East, Quebec and Montreal, the following process was used on my great-grandfather's farm when shipping milk to Montreal. The cans were filled from the milking machine pails during the evening milking and the cans were cooled in a water bath. Very early the next morning, after the morning milking, the accumulated 24 hours of milk (in 100 pound cans) would be loaded, along with cans from the neighbours (for a fee), and taken by a farmer's son on a farm wagon (or sled in winter) to be loaded on the morning train. In the evening, another trip would be made to the station to retrieve the empty cans returned by the dairy ... brought back by the evening train. ... The morning dispatching of all the milk would ensure it reached the dairy during the day shift.

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The Historical Significance of Milk by Rail

Shortly after 1900, a major improvement in the nutrition of urban children was made through the railways' ability to transport fresh milk to city dairies - for bottling and door-to-door sale. Milk is a natural food containing elements and vitamins essential for healthy growth  ... consider the body tissue built by calves growing into full-size cattle.

A major improvement in public health practices made this nutrition possible - pasteurization. Some common and serious bovine diseases were/are transmissible to humans. Also, contamination by gut bacteria can easily occur during milking ... if you contemplate bovine anatomy for a moment, you'll understand how this happens.

Today, we take proper childhood nutrition for granted. Just over a century ago, railways connected the wide open spaces necessary for grazing milk cows and for handling their wastes ... to crowded cities where natural horse power for transportation (including horses used for milk delivery) kept armies of street sweepers busy. 

from: Vanishing Canada; Rick Butler; 1980; Clarke, Irwin & Co.

Above: Elizabeth Street, Toronto in 1913. This was a Department of Health photo taken by a city photographer. Toronto reportedly did a better job than other cities of deliberately documenting urban squalor to spur on efforts to eliminate it.

Below: In Vancouver, children obtain school-based nutrition in 1926. 

from: Canada, A History in Photographs; Hall & Dodd; 1981; Hurtig.

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Getting Milk from the Country to the City

from: Railroads at Work; 1945; AAR. Collection of LCGagnon

An American photo from circa 1940 shows milk arriving at a major urban dairy in a special freight car. There are clues that this might be a refrigerator car cooled by ice. 

For a smaller operation in a cooler Canadian climate, baggage car transportation would be adequate.

If you look closely, you can see a 'string check' label sticking out on a can in the foreground. In the dairy employee's hands a can is identified as belonging to shipper '6'. 

Railroad Model Craftsman; Jan 1980; Carstens. Photocopy, collection of LCGagnon.

These two images come from a photocopy from a magazine - their origin is apparently the Public Archives of Canada, photo date circa 1925. In the foreground, you can see a can handle bearing a string check and other cans have numbers or names painted on them. 

Having studied the procedures above, you'll expect that railway employees are transferring the loaded cans from baggage wagons ('trucks') into the baggage car. If we are strictly following procedure, the cans in the foreground will be loaded onto the trucks by the shipper's (i.e. the farmer's) men. The 'milk run' will sit at the station and wait until all this is done.

As with all practices 'in the field' it seems likely that the instructions in the book would be adhered to as much as they were enforced. If the railway got paid and no one complained, why rock the boat? Then, things might get slacker ... until there was a problem ... and then the book would come out!

Railroad Model Craftsman; Jan 1980; Carstens. Photocopy, collection of LCGagnon.

Above, with an enlargement, you can see that there are a couple of full 'trucks' to be loaded aboard before the cans on the platform can be hoisted onto these baggage wagons by the farm workers.

*  *  *

Below, in the Grand Trunk Western region (USA) of the Canadian National Railways, they seem to have a more formal and legalistic system in place.

Railroad density and competition may have been relatively greater in parts of the GTW zone. As well, dairy milk collection trucks or independent trucking firms may have started to provide significant competition for the Grand Trunk Western's 'milk by rail' service in that area.

In the exacting GTW regs below (from the same booklet), you will not find any repetition of the Canadian provisions above for milk which magically shows up at flagstops without paperwork ... or specifying who will unload cans if trains are over 30 minutes late! 

... While the Canadian milk producers were dealing with the CNR - a railway owned by their own government ... the American farmers were buying transportation services from the GTW - just another commercial railroad among many in their region.

from: 1928 Handy Railroad Atlas of the United States; Rand McNally - reprinted by Kalmbach c1980.

Above, is the Indiana area of the Grand Trunk Western (labelled as GT). It is hard to pick out this CNR subsidiary's line from all the competitors crowding around it.

Below, the GTW regs conclude.

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Back to Canada
We move from 1927 to 1961. 

In 1961, LC Gagnon took the following Ektachrome slides of the system which replaced milk cans. Dairy farmers wishing to ship milk the modern way were required to build and equip separate facilities to house milk bulk coolers. 

Below, my great uncle is now operating my great-grandfather's farm. He is emptying a milking machine pail into the bulk cooler. You can see the refrigeration equipment - which is housed behind the grill in the foreground.

Outside, the dairy's tank truck pumps the cooled milk from the bulk tank through clear plastic hose.

Electricity from the milk house operates a small motor on the truck which is connected to a gearbox via a belt. The drive shaft crosses a partition to the stainless steel food quality pump rotor. Samples from each pickup were checked for bacteriological contamination and water content was also assayed. The latter was to guard against producers 'increasing' their production by running a water hose into the bulk tank.

At this point in history, the dairy was just up the road in nearby Lachute - drawing milk from about 30 farms. Milk was picked up every 48 hours (the minimum required capacity of the bulk cooler) ... but more frequent pickups were made if the weather was hot and the dairy's ice cream was selling well.

Here is an external view of the new 'milk house' and the dairy's truck on its special driveway.

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In a post on another blog, I explored the local rail 'ecosystem' around my great-grandfather's farm.
There are additional materials on milk by rail, maps and timetables there.

Argenteuil Railways and a Lachute Map from 1937

The URL text for the post above is repeated below in case the link ever breaks.
http://genevapq.blogspot.ca/2015/01/argenteuil-railways-and-lachute-map.html