MLW 1950s Datasheets - Steam Locomotives

TH&B, T&NO, Newfoundland, various Canadian industries, as well as CNR and CPR engines are shown on these 17 sheets from what might have been a sales 'presentation book' produced during the 1950s.

I purchased a file folder of these sheets. Apparently they had been removed from their original plastic comb binding and photocopied. The white background of the photocopier lid shows through the binding holes.

Below, the CNR and CPR sheets are presented first, followed by those for companies and smaller railways. 

Notice that the Laurentide 2-6-2 tank is designed to burn coke - perhaps so it would produce fewer sparks and cinders near mountains of pulpwood. The engine probably handled plant switching at the Grand-Mère pulp and paper plant.

CNR 1981 Kingston: M-630 Locomotives

During hot summer days in the 1980s, Alco Century Series 6-axle units were a favourite locomotive to spot and photograph. With some of the smoking external 'personality' of steam locomotives, they were particularly interesting to watch as they lifted heavy trains.

Diagrams come from this January 1970 operating manual ...
which made many trips along the north shore of Lake Superior with Rolly Martin.

Before the widespread provision, and company mandated use of dynamic brakes on Canadian railways, train air brakes were generally used for train control when descending grades and/or preparing to clear in sidings. Above, brake smoke blends with summer haze as an eastbound approaches the Kingston VIA station in 1981.

A time-honoured practice was to put freights into sidings for peak periods of VIA traffic. Before the 1986 Commission of Inquiry, Hinton Train Collision this was done through CTC signalling with very little 'sharing' from the Belleville-based dispatcher on the master plan evolving at his desk.

The tailend crew would advise the engineer when they were in the clear.

Above, Alco-MLW thoroughbred power supplements the summer heat at the east end of Kingston's Queens track 4.

Italics denote archaic railway terms.

Getting underway, the trailing unit - an M-636 - is putting on a show.

An earlier effort to look at M-636 power can be seen here:

CNR 2300s in June 1982 at Kingston

The evening summer sun in 1981 does a nice job of lighting elements of the brake system on the loaded boxcar above.

Probably no railroader mourned the extinction of roof-mounted hand brakes and 'plain' bearings.

1956 Operating Manual S-3 S-4 RS-13

Here is an operating manual for some early Alco/MLW switchers.

You would be correct in noting that the 'RS-13'
was actually an A-1-A trucked switcher, the RSC-13.

In February 1961, my father took this slide of an S-2, built in 1946, from the passenger platform at Westmount. Another switcher is working in the east end of Glen yard. You'll notice a steam locomotive standpipe (among other interesting sights). That is probably a crew member for the 7041 walking back from a short conference at the nearby interlocking tower at Westmount.

CNR 1983 Kingston

Here are many things you will no longer see in Kingston.

Conveniently located near an approach-lit intermediate signal, Hillview crossing provided a quick place to stop and view trains on the way home from work. It was the original crossing at Collins Bay. The distant crossing just to the west - at Collins Bay Road - is now the only crossing which remains here. In the past, the sharp curve and two crossings for which to observe and whistle, kept engineers busy.

An enduring attraction for engineers, descending to the level of this bay on Lake Ontario, is 'drawbar hollow' - farther to the west. 

On a similarly beautiful afternoon, I stopped here on the way home from work. An eastbound - like this one - went into emergency as it passed. The train's tailend rolled by ... but without its caboose. After puzzling over this for a few seconds, the answer could be seen, arriving from the west. Led by some gondola cars came the tailend section of the train.

Somewhere in overlength Rule M is the warning about expecting 'the movement of trains, engines or cars at any time, on any track, in either direction'.

Seen during the early afternoon at the Kingston station is this self-contained old-tyme consist.

As the sun sets in the summer warmth and humidity, Train No 1 arrives at Kingston.
The headend crew is operating their air conditioning tonight.

As regular train watchers survey No 1, modern No 46 arrives.
To quote another regular watcher, as he left:
'You see one, you've seen them all'.

Rare at any time.
I think I have photographed the elusive drawing room.

It's dark and grainy, but fewer and fewer solar photons are
refracting their way through the layers of glass of the long lens.

With only the soft whoosh of compressed air, the tailend cars will begin to move.

If one imagines a barking, whistling, driver-slipping machine - hammering out soot and cinders on the headend ...
it is readily understood why the higher-priced accommodation was placed at the tailend ...
way back when summer climate control was provided solely by opening windows.

This is what the cab activity looked like on another evening.
Below is a view inside the cab of a similar model.

from: Operating Manual 1600HP Freight-Passenger Locomotive; May 1951; Montreal Locomotive Works.

No 56 arrives, viewed and considered by two regular, distinguished train watchers.

Above, may be No 56 on an equipment-balancing evening.
(or No 68 on a low-traffic night)

In the old days ...

Before every single Chief Executive Officer was 'exceptional' ...
and before rail CEOs received more 'free' stock options to get rid of 'unproductive' rail ...
Queens had tracks 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Train 318/317 was a regular visitor to Track 4 - usually with local work to do in each direction.
Tonight's consist includes some welded rail cars.

He's lined, and probably waiting for No 69 to clear the block (just guessing) ...
and 'getting his light' will start the crossing protection.

By this time in the evening, the mosquitoes were becoming quite persistent.

But a good time had been had by all those congregating at the east end of the parking lot.