Four Photos from a CPR Collection, Part 1

Here are 4 photos from part of a collection I bought a decade or so ago. Each is glued to a 5x8 inch card which includes any known details about the subject, its location, the date and photographer. The collector seemed to be quite organized: rubber stamping those field names ... a pen filled in the details (if they were known).

Before the internet, when people had to purchase railway images they wanted to collect, from a collector or photographer, in person or via the mail ... there would have been quite a commitment made, with money and time, to assemble a collection of good images. Unless the collector had a desire to self-publish a book to share the collection ... the images would just sit in a filing box somewhere ... with perhaps a 50% probability that they would be thrown out by someone else at a much later date.

As photos were generally printed exactly as they had been taken, there seem to be few railway photographs which are actually photographed 'straight' - as if a spirit level had been used to align the camera. Trespassing on railway tracks to get a perfectly level photo was neither a healthy pursuit, nor one encouraged by railway officials. Beyond that, the convexity of lenses used to get a 'wide angle' view of a piece of equipment often interferes with the straightness of details at the edges of many photographs.

... The challenge to retroactively level old photos is compounded by the fact that there has never been (it seems) a single wooden pole in all of Canadian history which spent most of its existence straight. However, signal masts are usually fairly reliable.

Often, one has only a few horizontal or vertical engineered 'lines' on the equipment itself - to use so the 'reworked internet reproduction' might achieve something approaching straightness. Rarely, a flat prairie horizon or a large body of water on the horizon can make this mission so much easier. 

After this effort, one must still look at the finished product and wonder if it actually looks properly straight to someone who has not sunk all that time into trying to 'fix' it.

In order that the reader does not feel the straightening and cropping has gone overboard, I sometimes leave the blank white edges of the photo in the image. The Dayliner image in the last photo shows as much detail as possible of the second car - and I have left those 'white triangles' to indicate that there was nothing more to preserve and show from my print.

So when 'photocopying' these photos for the internet, I at least try to get them straight. I also try to correct the exposure so that as many details as possible can be seen - who knows when a particular detail will be historically significant to someone who arrives from the future? While it would be easy to have the software correct the colouring of a photo to 'black and white', perhaps some of the experience of seeing an old image is the observation that it is really old. 

But sometimes ... one gets so deep into 'optimizing' the image that the result is arguably no better than the original flawed version. In some cases, the best option for posterity is to abandon the photo fiddling and to just post something very close to the original version.

With the sun at its back, the CPR engine 6869 has its tender topped up from the standpipe. The fireman is standing on one of the two headlights which probably still burn fuel - perhaps kerosene. Maybe the presence of class signal lamps suggest that this switcher sometimes leaves the yard on transfer service. The white, seasonal cab curtains are only moderately dirty, so perhaps the cold winter months are yet to come.

CPR 6869 was an 0-8-0 of the V2a class. It was built by the Canadian Locomotive Company at Kingston in February 1900 and scrapped in September 1930. The date and location of this photo are not recorded.

(I am using Canadian Pacific Steam Locomotives; Omer Lavallee; 1985; Railfare - as the source of roster data.)

Above: 

CPR engine 5913 is shown at Field, British Columbia in July 1950. With the plow pilot not removed in the middle of the summer, it is always ready for any kind of eventuality in this demanding segment of the railway. 

One interesting detail to consider is the 90-degree exhaust deflector at the smokestack. The latent energy of the steam leaving the pistons of a hard-working engine would exit the smokestack with considerable force. This force would loosen rocks in unlined tunnels, with the possibility of significant rockfalls taking place over time. I think I read that engine crews didn't like being force-fed their locomotives' exhaust over the whole course of a trip, with the smoke perhaps also getting in the way of signal identification. Consequently, the deflector was often unofficially set in its 'off' position - rotated 180 degrees back off the top of the stack, as you see in this photo.

CPR 5913 was a 2-10-4 Selkirk (T1a) built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in August 1929 and scrapped in April 1956.

Below:

CPR 5915 (another T1a) is shown at an unknown location on an unknown date. One reason for placing the photo here is to note the differences in the details of these magnificent plow pilots. Perhaps its class signals (if green) indicate it has just been running as a section of a passenger train - picking up some fresh snow along the way.

CPR 5915 was built by MLW in September 1929 and scrapped in May 1956.

CPR Dayliner 9102 was photographed at Woodstock, New Brunswick in June 1956. A mail hook can be seen on the next car. The removable Mars light and headlights are not lit. While it may actually be a Gyralite by Pyle National, this was a period of UFO fascination and fear, so please humour my embrace of the historical zeitgeist.

It was relatively late in Canadian railway history that headlights were required to be lit by day. Perhaps this was because a loudly percussive steam locomotive putting out a lot of coal smoke was hard to miss in the daytime. Similarly, someday people will notice with wonderment that autos didn't always have daytime running lights.

Table 13 below comes from the CPR public timetable 25 Sep 1955 to 28 Apr 1956. It seems likely that the photo above is of Train 153 or 154. 

I have about 2 shelf-feet of Canadian Trackside Guides. However, I do not have a complete set of this excellent publication.  As best I can determine from about 30 minutes of research:

RDC-2 (= combine layout as photographed) 9102 was built in 1951 (or a little later). 

It was rebuilt as an RDC-5 (= a CP designation for a full coach conversion from an RDC-2) and renumbered 9300 in 1955. 

VIA had it rebuilt as an RDC-1 (= full coach, the standard Budd designation) and numbered 6146. 

It was retired by VIA. 

... Entering RDC in the search box near the top banner will fill your heart with all the RDC lore and technical data you could ever desire.

CPR 1950 Field to Golden

LC Gagnon's September 1950 trip continues west from Field. At the end of the post are the Special Instructions for the Absolute Permissive Block signals you'll see along the way. Included with the actual employee timetable showing the scheduled trains, are the subdivision-specific instructions used during this last decade of steam in Canada.

... It seems that whenever the rulebook got out of date due to the progressive march of railway technology ... employee timetables across the land became inflated with pages of Special Instructions and many of these would eventually find their way into the rulebook. 

... There were also numerous other booklets of general operating instructions and other specialized rules which employees were wise to carry in their travelling libraries - depending on their running trades job. 

A passenger conductor in 1954 had to know how to handle: Item 74 Returning Banana Messengers.

In 1958, engineers and conductors needed to be conversant with six pages of: 

Instructions in the Event of Death On Board Trains or Injuries and Death as the Result of Accidents Involving Trains.

Leaving Field, the majesty of Mount Stephen stands out beyond the wires and the Kicking Horse River.

As often happens on a nice summer day, humidity in the air causes distant features to become ghostly.
Most of us flatlanders only see this effect on the daytime moon, so a spectral Mount Stephen would seem particularly striking.

Permissive signals with their pointed semaphore ends.
The special instructions for these signals appear at the end of this post.

Number 7 continues along the valley of the Kicking Horse River.
Our maximum speed, Field to Golden, is 35 MPH.

A meet with another passenger train.
Glacier-fresh water from the eastbound's tenders is simmering over heavy-oil fires.

This is indeed mile 31.6 at Cloister.
The eastbound absolute semaphore (square end, 'A') is probably rising - as we have just cleared the block.
This is not Centralized Traffic Control, and if dispatchers had control over the home signals, etc,
the intricate timetable grid at the end of this post would not have been necessary.

This westbound train has just passed an upper (main track) and a lower (diverging route) staggered set of signals
(maybe a light above and a dwarf arm below?) ...
whose silver backs you can see to the left of the bridge.

An eastbound leaving the siding would be governed by that left-side mid-mast dwarf semaphore arm.

Also notice the telltale near the tunnel mouth.

My father believed this was Train Number 4.
As his notes mentioned, at the beginning of this series ...
photofinishing in the 1950s provided separated, un-numbered negatives.
This made his efforts to arrange these prints 'in negative order' difficult.

Above, I think you can see a meeting of The Men of Gravitas Club.
Their leader is probably he with his foot on the chain.

The flagman gives his mandated 'all is well' safety acknowledgement below the right marker.

Departing Golden, British Columbia,
junction with the Lake Windermere Sub.

Feel free to speculate
if that is really an engine crew walking on the platform,
and on what their next official duty may be.

*  *  *

Below are the promised timetable pages.

CPR 1950 Banff to Field

My father's third railway vacation, made with the assistance of his Company pass, took him to the west coast. 

At the end of the last instalment (links below) he had reached Banff on Train Number 7.

LC Gagnon surveys the Bow River Valley from a 'hayrack' open observation car.

CPR 7910, Vancouver, July 1952; Stan Styles. Collection of LC Gagnon.

The CPR had 16 open observation cars in this class and they could not be interchanged with US railroads.

Most of the passenger trains listed below had them in their consists during peak tourist season.

The Laggan Subdivision employee timetable includes the time of this trip.

A meet with an eastbound freight.

Working up the Bow Valley toward the Continental Divide.

Castle Mountain (1858-1946)
Mount Eisenhower (1946-1979)
Castle Mountain (1979 to date)

The bus is likely meeting the train from Chateau Lake Louise.

Looking from the 'right' side of the train at Lake Louise.

Looking across Lake Wapta.

Today the Trans-Canada Highway follows the general route of that distant road.

The valley of the Kicking Horse River near Field.

The lower Spiral Tunnel is to the right.

Entering the lower Spiral Tunnel.

Meeting an eastbound which is perhaps 'displaying signals' (the flag at the right).

The terminal at Field.
Successive generations of structures and buildings for steam locomotive support can be seen.


Previous segments of this trip:

CPR 1950 Kenora to Broadview

CPR 1950 Prairies to Banff


The first section of the Technology Index ...
Looks at Field Hill operating rules, brake technology (including 'water brakes') and the CPR Mallets.

CPR, The Big Hill (Kicking Horse Grade) c1885 to c1909

CPR 1950 Prairies to Banff

My father's September 1950 'Third Vacation' while working for the CPR (at this point in the office of the Auditor of Passenger Receipts) took him across Canada via the CPR, and down the west coast to Portland, Oregon via the Great Northern. 

A previous post looked at his daytime photos on No 7, Kenora to Broadview .

*  *  *

This post covers part of the next day of his trip - from somewhere near Gleichan (GLEE shan) to Banff (Ban-F-F sorry). The improvement in weather, the distinctive prairie landscape, and his first contact with the Cordillerans resulted in his taking a great number of photos. 

I have chosen to exclude many photos which show only individual mountains. Today's trackside mountain views are virtually unchanged from what we photographed in the 1980s ... 

In the old days, things were always better. As an example I know, west of Banff, Castle Mountain was started in 1858. It was replaced by Mount Eisenhauer in 1946. But, in 1979, they moved the Castle Mountain back. Maybe this was done because Mount Eisenhauer wasn't getting 'likes'. History Reasons: I think he worked as a general in The War and The Hippies didn't like it.

It is unclear whether the two photos above are before sunset after Broadview

or 

between sunrise and Calgary.

*  *  *

The establishment above is particularly picturesque, with its two wind-driven well pumps.

They could also watch steam-powered trains passing all day.

There is a photo defect to the right near the horizon.

However, the trailing clouds of smoke are from the locomotive.

Carseland, September 1950.

Carseland, October 2014; from Google.

On Tuesday, September 12, 1950 the grain stooks await the threshing machine.

Just east of Calgary, these storage tanks and refinery towers seem to be on the north side of the tracks.

*  *  *

The Calgary Terminals employee timetable is from the same 'time change' period as my father's trip and passenger timetable.

" Train 3 from Toronto (ahead of Train 7) was about to leave. 

Stopover included replacement of a Hudson by a Selkirk "

As you can see above, the timetable allotted 30 minutes for the Calgary stop.

The front of  CPR's Calgary station.

My father's Train 7 may be at the left.

CPR 5429 pulls an eastbound past my father's just-added open observation car with a nice, clean stack.

CPR 7910, Vancouver, July 1952; Stan Styles. Collection of LC Gagnon.

The CPR had 16 open observation cars in this class and they could not be interchanged with US railroads.

Most of the trains listed below had them regularly in their consists.

Above and below: 

" 1232 with No 4 "

*  *  *

West of Calgary

CPR 5440 eastbound.

The grill is a cattleguard. In old photos from eastern Canada, you'll notice that railway-built wooden cattleguards and fences were present across the sides of many rural crossings to block off the right-of-way to crossing cattle. 

Cattle would have a natural aversion to stepping on an unnatural, difficult, potentially painful footing.

Before internal combustion vehicles were commonly available to transport large livestock ... driving herds along a road would be the most common method of getting them from point A to point B. 

In the early 1960s (from personal knowledge), some dairy cattle in Quebec were still driven to barn from pastures for twice-daily milkings via a public road.

Today cattleguards are no longer necessary at rail crossings. The cattle find it more convenient to work their way through the railway right-of-way fencing.

" Bow River "

The field in the foreground may be in summer fallow.

My father in silhouette.

The photo above is not labelled.

Here is the Laggan Sub so you can check the meets as they occur.

Canmore.

" The Three Sisters "

Still on the Bow River.

The fence at the left seems to be designed to discourage deer and other Cervidae.

*  *  *

Station stop at Banff.

You'll notice significant interest by both engine and train crew members in the front left running gear here and farther below.

No 7's crew is signing for some form 31 orders here.
Note the 'dome bus'.

The photographer is photographed.

Sign:
IT IS

DANGEROUS

TO FEED

THE BEARS

The 'aerial' on the cab is part of the water spout equipment.
A similar man with a light suit was present the last time my father had his picture taken, above.

" The track ahead "

Neither in the old UCOR nor in the subdivision footnotes could I find an explanation for the silver poles with 'signal style' finials. They may mark the fouling points for track circuits.