CNR 1942 Smoke at Turcot; 1956 Smoke Committee Visits Montreal

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

*  *  *

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.

from: Westmount Examiner; 11 December 1941; BANQ.

*  *  *

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

*  *  *

Turcot in 1908

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. 

*  *  *

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:

VIA Ventures in Service, Part 5

*  *  *

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!)

*  *  *

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.

*  *  *

end

CNR 1961 Second Visit to Turcot Yard, Montreal, 19 July 1961

Our second visit to Turcot occurred two days after our first. On this visit, the hostlers were turning CNR 6153 over to its engine crew for an excursion. LC Gagnon was a member of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association and he knew about this excursion either from their newsletter or from the railfans at Lachine High School - where he taught.

The defective Ektachrome slides return! The primarily red images are their natural state. On the image below, you can see a recurring peril. My intrepid Epson V600 is beginning to flame out. You can see a typical bad scan element (a red vertical line) just touching the left side of the numeral 6 below. 

The technique I have used for this series is to make a second scan with the slide inverted. The defective pixel is not located dead-centre. After revealing the 'red line' on both images, I rotate the inverted image 180 degrees to 'normal' it. The 'good 60%' of the image below is on the left side. The 'good 60%' of the inverted-slide-scan will be on its right side. I join the good parts of the two to eliminate the bad pixel element.

I do not wander around in railway yards and I do not recommend that you do so either. 

6153 - Built by MLW Apr 1929. Disposition: Exporail, Canadian Railway Museum.

Displaying a rear marker, 6153 will soon become Passenger Extra 6153. Notice that the blower is on and the exhaust is clean. You can see where bricklayers have surgically removed part of a wall so some valuable roundhouse tool could be extracted and perhaps re-installed at the CNR's new Montreal Yard shop.

In contrast to 2023 - probably all of the people here (here with authorization, that is) are steam veterans.

*  *  *

On the map below ...

A map from 1904 shows the area of Turcot Yard and is labelled with the names of some CNR and CPR railway subsidiaries and predecessors, and the 'cotes' of Montreal Island. You can also find locations such as Windsor and Bonaventure stations and the GTR facilities at Point St Charles. 

The future GTR main line through Lachine has 'loop line' status and is labelled with the locations of three stations in the east end of Lachine.

The general area chosen for Turcot Yard has the labels 'Grand Trunk Railway' and 'Montreal and Champlain Railway'. The meandering course of the St Pierre River can also be seen, terminating in straight, engineered drains.

section of: Island of Montreal; J Rielle PLS, 1904; BANQ. 

A few details about Turcot ...

At about the same time that the Grand Trunk was double-tracking its main line and making improvements to its track profiles, a new yard and roundhouse were planned for Montreal. Previously, the GTR had used an engine house, shops and yard at Point St Charles - but the space had become inadequate.

The 187 acres of land acquired for the new yard were purchased from Philippe Turcot (1791-1861). A place referred to as Turcot Village had existed on part of the site of the future yard. A significant feature of this real estate was the poorly-drained valley of the St Pierre River. Artificial drainage and millions of tons of fill (including material excavated from the enlargement of the Lachine Canal) were used to provide the area needed for the yard. The yard's original design was for 2000 cars, but this soon increased to 2500 cars. In 1909, the yard was enlarged from 4000 to 15,000 car capacity.

The roundhouse first opened with 40 stalls in 1906 and quickly expanded to 57 stalls. Turcot had the distinction of being the largest roundhouse in Canada. It retained this status throughout its existence - until 1962 when it experienced two fires and was subsequently completely demolished, as originally planned by the CNR.

The Turcot Story; Michael Leduc; 2004; Michael D Leduc Enr. ... is a valuable reference for anyone interested in this facility and its development and operation. It was the source of the information above.

*  *  *

My grandfather and I pose at the pilot.

LC Gagnon is holding his father's box camera while the latter takes this photo.

Here you can see that a couple of the cab's 'air conditioning' units are on - those white gaps above.

As many of you know, by holding the handrail along the cab roof, facing the cab and shuffling your toes along that white ledge ... the running board of the engine could be reached while the engine was in motion. You can see this arrangement better on the photo below. 

... Occasionally, one of boiler-mounted appliances might need attention as the train rolled along. Perhaps a few small children were also scooped off the tracks over the years by a daring cab-to-pilot scramble when visibility was good on tangent track ... but a train was too heavy to stop in time.

The light bulb below the cab was for the engineer's benefit - before wheel slip lights were ever invented for diesels. For example: 

At night, when cracking the throttle open to start a heavy train, the ground would often be observed to be moving as expected ... before the first exhaust was heard. 

Or ... if a slip occurred when starting at night, the engineer would quickly close the throttle and, already having observed the movement of the ground below, judge how far to re-open the throttle to match the 'ground speed'. Etc, etc. 

Time to go!

*  *  *

As we were 'just leaving' ...

6063 - Built by MLW Oct 1944. Scrapped Dec 1961.

185, 182, 187 - Built by English Electric for National Harbours Board, 1924-1926. 

Acquired from NHB in 1942. Series renumbered from 180-188 to 6716-6724 in 1969. Retired 1971-1995.

At the left is the Turcot coaling dock from which the 6153 would have been fueled.

A clamshell bucket was often used for coaling at the 'turnaround point' of these day excursions.

You can see the roundhouse in the distance.

46 - Built: MLW for GTR in 1914. Disposition: Museum, Vallée-Jonction, Quebec.

1138 - Built by MLW, 1913 for CNoR. Scrapped: Aug 1961.

... Coupled to the rear pilot of the 46.

This particular engine is also shown on Page 79 of Canadian National Steam Power; Tony Clegg & Ray Corley; 1969; Railfare.

The end of our second of three visits.

We'll be back again in August 1961!

NTR 1920 - 'The National' Mystery

In case you haven't noticed, there's a lot that I don't know. While preparing the 'Notes by the Way' from the circa 1920 National Transcontinental booklet I came upon this entry for Cochrane.

*  *  *

For some time I have had this (below) 1921 'The National Way' booklet covering all the CNR lines - west-to-east. I assumed it was just branding the Canadian National way - a branding thing for the nationalized railways of which all Canadians could be proud. The title page and the inside cover are shown below.

In checking four books about the T&NO/ONR ... only one book provided any detail about the GTR running rights arrangements with the T&NO. Another presented only a very interesting photo of what The National actually looked like.

from: The Railway Builders; Oscar D Skelton; 1916; Glasgow Brook & Co.

Above: The Grand Trunk in 1914.

The T&NO (the dotted blue line running north from North Bay) reached Cochrane by the summer of 1909. This was helpful for the building of the National Transcontinental through the bush of northern Quebec and Ontario. Before 1909 in practical terms - rails, bridge girders, cement and other construction supplies could only be shipped west via Quebec City.

On the map above, the railway lines shown in red are the Grand Trunk's southern network. The NTR (which the GTR was supposed to lease and operate after it was completed by the Canadian government) is seen between Moncton and Winnipeg. The Grand Trunk Pacific is shown in blue to the west of Winnipeg.

The Grand Trunk arranged running rights over the T&NO - North Bay to Cochrane - because its original southern network (red) was otherwise not contiguous with the NTR ... and its Grand Trunk Pacific being built west from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert.

*  *  *

The following images come from the June 1916 edition (reprint) of the Official Guide ...

(It is several inches thick and it asked me to tell you it does not like to be scanned.)

Above, you can see The National is featured right under the officers and offices 

of the Grand Trunk Pacific back in June 1916.

Additional specific timetables are included from the same copy of the Official Guide, below.

*  *  *

Below, you can see a detailed schedule from Toronto to North Bay for Trains 9 & 10.

This train runs three days per week.

You must go all the way to the extreme bottom right to see the # reference mark decoded. On other pages, to decode reference marks, you must be as resourceful as the Official Guide typesetters ... reference marks are often printed in spare column spaces ... at a 90 degree angle to the rest of the text.

*  *  *

Trains 9 & 10 operate over T&NO rails, below ...

*  *  *

Trains 9 & 10 operate Cochrane to Winnipeg on that segment of the NTR/CGR ...

*  *  *

With a few hours' margin, presumably for switching, inspection, restocking, recrewing, etc 

Trains 9 & 10 connect with GTP Trains 1 & 2 at Winnipeg ...

As you have just seen, in 1916, the GTR/T&NO/CGR operated a train from Toronto, via Cochrane to Winnipeg with limited stops. It connected with the premier Grand Trunk Pacific train running between Winnipeg and Prince Rupert. 

Probably, the Toronto-Cochrane-Winnipeg train was 'competitive' in some ways with the existing CPR service between those two locations in 1916. Or, at least, it tried to be.

If you were serious about getting from Montreal or Toronto to the Pacific coast ... and you intended to board a steamer for Asia ... you'd probably opt for the CPR routing. The GTP would be quick to point out that Prince Rupert was closer to Asia - considering the curvature of the earth. However, the CPR service had been well-established for almost 30 years by that time.

*  *  *

More on the Grand Trunk, T&NO Arrangements

The Grand Trunk had negotiated its trackage rights with the T&NO in 1911. According to Steam into Wilderness (Albert Tucker; 1978; Fitzhenry & Whiteside, P.73) the GTR paid $550,000 in annual rent and maintenance charges to the T&NO (about $12.4 million in 2020 dollars). I assume this covered both freight and passenger trains of the Grand Trunk heading for Winnipeg and points west, and the reverse.

In addition to the extra income from the GTR, another benefit to the T&NO of having The National operating over the T&NO was that it was a transcontinental train running on what was just a regional railway. As the T&NO's territory attracted various titans of industry, coming in to inspect their mining and forest products properties along the line, it didn't hurt to offer them a through train with nice equipment.

By 1919, The National was providing 30% of the T&NO's passenger earnings over and above the rental and maintenance charges previously mentioned.

In 1919, the fledgling Canadian National Railways needed to start cutting the costs racked up by its constituent railways. It had its own perfectly good Toronto to Winnipeg route - Mackenzie and Mann's former CNoR  - via Capreol, Fort William and Fort Frances. Why should the CNR pay fees to the T&NO for The National ?

Well ... because! T&NO Chairman JL Englehart escalated the issue to Premier Hearst. The latter contacted acting Prime Minister White with a copy also sent to JD Reid (who had replaced Frank Cochrane as Minister of Railways and Canals ... as we play railway place name bingo). 

... Cowed by the Conservative politicians in Toronto and Ottawa joining forces, the CNR would continue to run The National through Cochrane for the moment. My 1921 booklet would be printed.

See the Map Below ...

But the writing was on the wall ... because the surveyors had been in the field ... performing trial and location surveys for the Nakina-Longlac cutoff in 1919. The cutoff began operating in 1923 and at some point the passenger trains joined the freights to use it ... spelling the end of the Toronto-Cochrane-Winnipeg routing.

Below are a couple of images from the time that The National was still running ...

from: The Ontario Northland Railway; Patrick C Dorin; 1987; Superior.

The locomotive above may be Canadian Government Railways 473. 

Built by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1918, serial 58332. 

Renumbered CNR 5095, reference: Clegg & Corley P 99.

Scrapped: October 1961.

Below is a map from that time in history 

when one could still travel ... 

The National Way.

from: Canada, Pacific to Atlantic; Canadian National/Grand Trunk; 1921.

Near London in 1992 and the Loop Line Transfer

One never knows when pulling on a thread of the historic, tattered railway tapestry will unravel a mystery from the dawn of time.

There's no need to replace an 'expensive' mileboard when you can simply nail a modern sign to it.

The sign isn't worn out - and neither is the name!

Years before taking this entirely unattractive documentary photo, I had been producing rather useless computer databases using employee timetable data. I had come across the name shown on this mileboard on many occasions and I always wondered what this mysterious and wonderful Loop Line was. I took this photo because I was excited to find that the name actually existed in the wild!

Here's another photo taken of 'something significant' for documentary purposes. 

'Tillsonburg. Noon. Diamond near former CPR station on King Street. Looking North. Small yard is visible in background. In foreground, base for signalling device or interlocking' says my note.

... I'd believe the photo before I'd believe the note. 

There will be no final perfect answer to this line of inquiry. Some documents will follow.

CPR employee timetable; effective April 30, 1950. Collection of LC Gagnon.

Above is the employee timetable for the CPR subdivision through Tillsonburg, complete with subdivision footnotes.

Below are the employee timetables for the CNR subdivisions through Tillsonburg, complete with subdivision footnotes.

from: CNR employee timetable; effective October 27, 1957. Collection of LC Gagnon.

from: CNR, St Thomas Division/Wabash Railroad, Buffalo Division employee timetable; Effective Apr 27, 1958. Collection of LC Gagnon.

from: CNR, St Thomas Division/Wabash Railroad, Buffalo Division employee timetable; Effective Apr 27, 1958. Collection of LC Gagnon.

If this is too much data, don't worry - I brought some maps along (far below).

*  *  *

Trying to find an illustration of the area to make this flat-wheeled drag of a posting more interesting, I accidentally found the following segment of a public timetable from 1876.

from: Railways of Canada; Nick and Helma Mika; 1972; McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

from: Railroad History 147; Robert C Post, Editor; Autumn 1982; Railway & Locomotive Historical Society.

To put you into the era and the railway, here is a freight locomotive built in the GWR shops in 1870.

*  *  *

What is a Line?

A main line is, well, linear. 

An 'air line' is, I think, supposed to be both direct and level - as if someone was planning the railway by drawing a straight line in the air. 

A 'loop line' is, I think, supposed to provide an alternate route between two points. Essentially, when the loop line is completed, the railway has 'another way to get back' to where it started.

You might interject that there are other definitions of air line and loop line and I would quickly agree with you.

'Air line' can also be an advertising tool, It may suggest that great effort has been made to avoid curves and little hills and sags - which will cause the passenger (or investor) lurching discomfort.

When the builders were finished, the Great Western's main line connected John A Roebling's international Suspension Bridge at Niagara Falls through Hamilton and London to Windsor with a ferry to Detroit. You will see that the Loop Line was later built closer to the shore of Lake Erie.

from: The Railways of Canada (reprint); JM & E Trout; 1871; Monetary Times.

In the article above, 'narrow gauge' refers to Standard Gauge. The first gauge of new Canadian railways of the time was encouraged by legislation and subsidies to be the Provincial Gauge of 5 feet 6 inches. 

*  *  *

If you look closely at the poster below, you'll see a lot of familiar railway lines ...

from: Railways of Canada; Nick and Helma Mika; 1972; McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

As always on this blog - notice that Hamilton (solar) 'railway' time is being used along all the lines. Standard time zones will eventually be made necessary by the 'solar time' busting speed of trains. At the bottom centre is a brain busting chart of local solar times to 'help' travellers.

On the subject of rails: By today's standards the Great Western, using all this new railway technology, had particularly bad luck with rails. It laid both inverted 'U' rails and rails connected by 'fish' (plates). During the world railway boom, demand for British rails was so high that good to poor quality metal was rushed out of the various rail plants  - and accepted by expanding railways - so the money-making infrastructure could be put into service quickly.

By popular demand, the GWR main line was also opened before the roadbed was properly graded and ballasted. Pounding trains, bad metal, frost heaving ... there were rail breaks all the time and the rolling stock took a lot of punishment as well. Rail seldom lasted a decade on the main line. The GWR set up a rail rolling plant in Hamilton in an effort to manage its rail problems 'at cost'.

All these early system failures contributed extra long-term debt to this pioneer's balance sheet.

As during the recent internet boom, railways often found it efficient to grow by acquisition. The skillful use of cash, debt, government subsidies and (blackmail) bonus incentives from towns wishing to be on your new route ... could determine whether you were an acquirer or an acquiree.

The Grand Trunk took over the GWR in 1882.

The GTR eventually became over-extended and was taken over by the classic 'Railroader of Last Resort' - the federal government in 1923. ..Sorry if I spoiled the ending there.

Here is the original Tillsonburg GWR station on its original site.
My note indicates an artist co-op occupied the station then and the roof pattern was reproduced from photos.
A GoogleCheck of the station today at Bridge and Bidwell Streets shows the elevator is gone.

*  *  *

The Historical Magic of Komoka

Komoka is one of those magical railway places of destiny - like Red Pass Junction - where railway lines part to reach different destinations ... in this case Windsor or Sarnia.

An evening drive found us at the Komoka Railway Museum. I remember reading an opinion piece around this time that this particular museum had achieved remarkable community involvement and support and that it stood as a model for how railway museums might be integrated with their communities.

Exactly as you have likely identified it - this is the Museum's Shay in an early stage of restoration.

*   *   *

O Komoka, where the steel rails part ...

During our evening drive in the area, we drove down this road, but I had no lens wide enough to document the Komoka spilt and no time to find and photograph the switch. With GoogleMaps and ConnectoryPokery you can see the line splitting for Sarnia at the left and the line for Windsor off the far, far right edge of the page. The switch itself is near the piping of the grain elevator leg on the right horizon. 

Beyond the horizon ... Hyde Park and exotic London towne!

from: CNR employee timetable, October 1973.

*  *  *

Port Stanley Terminal Rail

For our visit, the main attraction in this area was the Port Stanley Terminal Rail.
Here, our train is reversing through the yard and into the station at Port Stanley.

This simple, efficient train provided the quintessential steel-on-steel experience for visitors.
The (protected) occupied robin's nest in the eves of the open car was going to be booked off for miles before the end of the month.

*  *  *

The London and Port Stanley

from: The London and Port Stanley Railway, Annual Reports 1916-1919 (reprint)

These maps give you the routes of the key railways.
An enlargement below covers the original territory discussed above.

from: The London and Port Stanley Railway, Annual Reports 1916-1919 (reprint)

Historical illustrations follow - to put you into the historical context.

from: The London and Port Stanley Railway, Annual Reports 1916-1919 (reprint)

from: The London and Port Stanley Railway, Annual Reports 1916-1919 (reprint)

... so ends a quick vacation trip in the London area.