Pool Trains, Part 1

To understand Pool Trains, perhaps it is almost enough to understand how VIA Rail was started. After the failures to thrive of the CPR's Canadian and the CNR's Turbo, both of those railways were officially finished with passenger service ... At least in the sense that they'd had it with passenger trains!

VIA Rail could absorb their motley unmatched steam-heated equipment, use their poorly-maintained stations and pay for the expensive work rules of their legacy crews. And if there was a 'problem' - such as a railway employee mistakenly putting water in a VIA fuel tank - the rules were set up so that VIA would pay for it. 

To some extent, VIA could succeed where the two railways had competed. Its expensive antiques could provide service with less regard to only joining CNR or CPR dots on a map. 

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Pool trains were the products of decades of politician-encouraged railway overbuilding, increasing railway competition between the CPR and the consolidating government-owned CNR, the rise of the automobile ... and the Great Depression pushed the whole mess over a cliff.

In the Pool train era it was hard for the two railways to "cooperate" - shudder! - and they only found a few routes between major eastern centres where they could succeed at this. As an incentive, they didn't have to pay as many workers to crew, maintain and otherwise support the trains and probably more equipment could be stored as a result.

In 1933, days before the first Pool trains ran, Hitler consolidated his hold on power in Germany. No one could have foreseen he would eventually be the stimulus which would end the Great Depression. No one knew if or when the Depression would ever end. 

Probably, from the railway presidents to the car cleaners, everyone just hoped to keep their jobs and survive. If the new conventional wisdom was that "cooperation" was suddenly necessary, it was probably worth a try.

I've tried to assemble some sources from that period of time which tell the story in a contemporary voice. The first is from a friendly biography of the late Edward Beatty from 1951, but the other items follow chronologically ...

from: Beatty of the CPR; DH Miller-Barstow; 1951; McClelland & Stewart.

from: Statistics of Steam Railways of Canada 1933; Department of Trade and Commerce; Government of Canada.

from: Canada Handbook 1935; Dominion Bureau of Statistics; Government of Canada.

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The following four images are from:

 Railway Nationalization in Canada - The Problem of the Canadian National Railways

Leslie T Fournier; 1935; Macmillan.

Born in Sudbury and growing up there and in Vancouver, Leslie Fournier (1901-1961) completed his formal education as an economist with a PhD from Berkeley in 1927. He had an interesting and distinguished career as an economist. He was teaching at Princeton when he wrote Railway Nationalization. 

Securities fanatics and enthusiasts of the Great Depression will be interested in the fact that he left Princeton to work for the nascent Securities and Exchange Commision, 1937-1946. 

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from: Montreal Gazette, March 30, 1933.

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from: Cover, Canadian Rail, January 1963; Editor Tony Clegg; Canadian Railroad Historical Association. Collection of LC Gagnon.

My first encounter with Dr Nicholls would have been circa 1966. My father and I had driven or MTC'd in from Lachine for an evening meeting of the CRHA in a very warm, dark room. Dr Nicholls was giving a slide presentation on CPR's Jubilee class of steam locomotives. During the break, a few rows down in the lecture room, an 'old guy' was looking over his new Monkees album - their first. 

According to the 1963 article's introduction: 

In the 1962 House of Commons Railways Committee, CNR President Donald Gordon indicated that the CNR and CPR might look at dividing local and transcontinental passenger services. Where one was dominant, it would provide all service - leaving the other to eliminate its passenger service there. There were no further specifics, but it reminded some of the initiation of Pool Train services ... which were still ongoing in the 1960s as the article was published.

In 1963, CRHA President Nicholls' earlier (1933) article and photos of the initiation of Pool train service were reprinted. He also photographed the last two runs of the CNR and CPR trains which were henceforth to run as a single train using pooled equipment, crews, etc.

Nicholls, in 1933, reported that the consist of CNR Pool equipment was observed at Turcot Yard before it travelled west to Dorval. There, it reversed over the connecting track to the CPR. The CNR 5704 had some trouble on the slippery rails as it ascended to the CPR main track at Dorval. 

Then, the 5704 reversed with its consist to Windsor Station, coupled to the consist's CPR first class coach and loaded passengers. Finally, operating as the first Pool train (photo above), it used the connecting track to regain the CNR rails for its trip to Toronto.

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from: Canada Handbook 1938; Dominion Bureau of Statistics; Government of Canada. Collection of LC Gagnon.

Lots of 'great' ideas were hatching during the Depression.
Over the years, designers have had trouble realizing that Canadian trains also run in winter.

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Below, you can see that the train pooling idea seems to have really taken off. 

The CPR timetable integrates all the CNR stations. A train running through from Montreal to Chicago, such as Pool 21 uses the Pool ticketing process only as far as Toronto. Beyond that, Train 21 is a CPR train.

Canadian Pacific Public Timetable; August 15, 1936.

Below are the equipment consists for many of the trains shown.

As the traffic density decreases, the pooling activity thins out.

If you keep following the Pool tables downward through this post,
you should find that even the most obscure Pool routes can be pieced back together.

I have included full timetable pages in all cases because there is lots of extra 'fun' content to see.

For members of the general public (and employees, too) these tables display a great deal of information and one wonders how many passengers required help in planning and completing their journeys.

The planners and printers are certainly earning their money in producing these tables. 

Could a phone-based app convey all this data as effectively as 'dead trees' do?

Historical Fun Facts ... to consider as you read the Pool Rules fine print below ... 

Canadian car ownership was far, far from universal in the 1920s and 1930s. Most people didn't drive their automobiles in the Canadian winter during the decades around the Great Depression. There were no regularly plowed and salted superhighways connecting major cities.

... So consider that the railways almost had a monopoly on dependable city-to-city transportation. 

Pool trains were not invented to make travelling easier - the railways were told to cooperate to save money.

I have provided a virtual Rosetta Stone of English-French Pool Train language below. Imagine a situation where a passenger was trying to purchase a ticket under the more exotic Pool Rules ... from a ticket agent not fluent in the passenger's mother tongue.

Other parts of this series will look at Pool trains during and after World War Two.

The Big Grain Rush - 1930

With the first frost arriving in the Prairies around mid-September on average,
I am unusually topical with this post about The Big Grain Rush.

If you were to tell me that the brakeman shown was inspired by Marion Robert Morrison early in his career, I would be inclined to agree with you. Do you find that graphic artists often have trouble with rolling stock perspective?

It is impossible to determine how many people owned this October 1930 magazine before I acquired it a railway show. It is possible to state that it spent some time in a basement. The stamp with the Montreal telephone exchange in letters (PL - Plateau?) suggests it was sold/resold before the 1960s. 

Where possible, I have tried to enhance the images so historical details can be seen. Sadly, 'everyone's favourite Canadian Northern photograph' at Dauphin was too dark. 

There are interesting historical details about railway and farming processes in the following article. In particular, the shifting of running trades employees to different geographical locations and the temporary promotions of qualified employees to meet high traffic demands are described.

For students of the history of that era, the magazine date suggests the hard times have begun - in spite of the article's boosterism and cheery tone. The Great Crash of the New York stock market had happened one year earlier. Some contemporary graphs and descriptions follow the article.

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Gratuitous Optional Extra: 

i.e. You don't have to read this!

A Rough Financial Context of the Historical Times

Innovations in financial procedures and products created changes of behaviour in many 'average people' in the United States during the 1920s. These procedures were generally not regulated by government authorities and their risks were generally not understood by the people.

The late 1920s were typified by riskless gain on the stock markets - but investments are never totally riskless. If you were an investor, these speculative gains could be increased by using money borrowed from your brokerage firm to increase your purchases. You were only required to provide a portion of the purchase price of your favourite stock, you paid interest on this loan, and you had to provide more money to the brokerage firm if the collateral value of the stock ever went down. This was a 'margin loan'.

The demand and high return from margin loans eventually warped the capital markets - from the perspective of the lenders. Corporations and financial institutions were eventually fuelling stock market speculation by diverting their monies for investment to the stock market through 'investing' in margin loans. But while their normal investments in government bonds, gold or productive tangible assets would be relatively prudent, the underlying assets of margin loans were equity securities whose values had been inflated by speculation.

... Before the US Securities and Exchange Commission was established, there was little regulation to ensure that an 'investment fund' actually contained any stocks at all - even ones of inflated value. There were funds of funds built on pyramids of credit. In the past, they had always seemed to increase significantly in value.

Added to the wonder of never-ending stock market riches was the magical innovation of consumer credit. During the 1920s, the new concept of providing small loans to households ... to encourage the immediate purchase of new labour-saving electrical appliances and automobiles ... stimulated the economy and created jobs. You could buy now and pay over time through a schedule of affordable payments.

Everything unravels ...

When the stock market faltered at the end of October 1929, there were multiple waves of 'foreclosures' on the stock bought on margin. The income from stock market gains was eliminated for the investors from 'Main Street' and all the money they had invested using margin loans was lost. (It had become impossible for the investors to satisfy the legal terms of their margin loans by supplying cash so their stock positions were 'sold out' by the brokerage firms.) 

When the brokerages and other participants in the margin loan market (eg. banks) took possession of that foreclosed stock, its value was rapidly falling through the floor with no bottom in sight.

When Main Street investors had lost their investment assets and the income from them, it was often no longer possible to keep up payments on their autos and appliances bought on credit.

When the companies manufacturing autos and appliances saw demand for their products collapse, they laid off their workers. So did their suppliers and their other business partners.

Almost all of society had become consumed by the 'miracle' of the stock market and consumer credit. Few foresaw, or were prepared for, the bursting of a speculative financial bubble. 

... Eventually 'adult supervision' in the form of new institutions and regulation created by the US Government led to a cautious renewal of confidence in the US capital markets. A disastrous world war which killed 60 million people renewed economic demand and brought back economic prosperity and industrial innovation.

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The illustrations below come from the Canada Handbook of 1937.

You can see the drastic decline in farm prices during late 1930 - when the Grain Rush article above was published.


There were also natural calamities affecting The Big Grain Rush.

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National Industrial Production Trends

From the hindsight of 1937, 

you can see how industrial production collapsed in many countries during the 1930s 

and how and when it was revived.

* USA: President Franklin Roosevelt's political and economic policies began in 1933.
* Germany: Hitler came into power in 1933 and started re-arming Germany.
* Japan: Military authorities began WW2 early by invading parts of China in 1931.

To some extent, the three 'tides' above raised their neighbours' and partners' economic 'boats'.

Frank Crumit's song - A Tale of the Ticker

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