CPR 1960 Montreal - A First and Last Steam Experience

While researching a Lachute-based piece, I was going through ancient family photos. It probably wouldn't hurt to have this little vignette of railway history preserved.

When he was almost 33 years old, and I was 2 1/2 years old, my father decided I should have a ride behind a steam locomotive before they were all gone for good. Of course, the future is always difficult to predict. Probably no one could have foreseen CNR's supportive corporate culture for steam excursions into, and far beyond, the 1960s.

Knowing my paternal grandparents' interest in recording events through photography, perhaps the main 'longterm desired outcome' for this trip was my father's desire to document the event with photos. Whether I remembered the experience or not, at least we could both look back and see that it had happened. In other words, here was proof I had been exposed to an important, historic aspect of my father's lifelong interest in railways.

... or maybe ... he was doing my mother a favour by getting a two year old out of the apartment, and he was getting to go for a train ride. You be the judge.

According to his notes in the photo album, the date was Monday, February 15, 1960 - during my father's mid-winter school break. Our trip was from 40th Avenue, Lachine to Windsor Station. The day was cold and blustery and we took a morning train. We returned by Provincial Transport bus.

Most of the morning commuter trains would be eastbound to downtown Montreal (Windsor Station). To return westbound by train ... we might have had a long wait. And perhaps he chose a Provincial Transport bus which dropped down from the '2 and 20' (the four-lane highway) to return us closer to the lakeshore of Lachine where we lived.

Before the train's arrival, my father photographed this westbound passenger train with his snapshot camera.

I have no statistics on the effective range of a 2 year old bundled for cold weather operation.  However, I just measured the distance from our apartment to the CPR station at 40th Avenue, Lachine. It was 1.7 kilometres. We may have taken a taxi to the top of 40th to facilitate our mission.

Our engine was Pacific 2412. The era's dress of zippered rubber galoshes over lace-up Oxfords, and Fedoras (and similar classic hats useless for winter wear in Canada) can be seen. In about a year, President John F. Kennedy would attend his inauguration bare-headed - changing men's fashions forever. 

I had wondered whether a north wind had caused the passengers to turn their backs to the train. If one looks at the clean, almost vertical stack of the engine, perhaps they were not sheltering from the wind. It seems possible that they were avoiding the oily mist of blowing steam, and the mini-blizzard from the 'bow wave' of the train as it rushed in. 

Steam or diesel, these commuter trains didn't really operate in 'the company notch'. It seems likely the experienced engineer is working steam against the train brakes to stay on schedule and to facilitate a precise stop.

And here we are at Windsor Station. We don't know any of these people. They must have been wondering why someone was using a flashbulb at them within the semi-sheltered trainshed at Windsor.

CPR 2412, a 4-6-2 built by the Canadian Locomotive Company in December 1942, was scrapped in April 1961.

Dressed to avoid frostbite and/or 'getting a chill' during our adventure, I am standing inside the gates protecting the trains from unauthorized and unpaid access. These heavy gates were built to last and you'll notice the wire-reinforced glass - designed to survive decades of sliding open and closed.

Postscript: In the years which followed, my father revised his photo album description of the event in light of the fact that all five of us had experienced steam fantrips. This was 'my only trip behind a steam locomotive' in scheduled service.

CNR 1982 Bayview GO Trains and a 1961 Timetable

The photos of this post show some of the wide variety of GO Transit equipment operating through Bayview Jct, Ontario in July 1982. 

After the photos, an employee timetable from 1961 shows the traffic on the Oakville Sub through Bayview in 1961 - just after the end of steam and before the birth of GO Transit.

A GP40-2 and a CNR GP40 lead a westbound GO train to Bayview.

In any dispute between a reader and this blogger, 

regarding the description of any locomotive, 

the reader will be adjudicated as being correct.

Probably trailing the same power from the photo above, an eastbound GO train passes.

The lead unit is an FP7A from 1951, equipped with an alternator to provide hotel power to cars.

A control car leads a westbound toward Hamilton. 

An F40PH is pushing the control car as it reaches Bayview.

This Tempo equipment combination was used in southwest Ontario. 

An RS-18 with an alternator added, accelerates east from Bayview.

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A map of the Bayview area from 1967 - north is skewed clockwise a little.

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An Employee Timetable of the Oakville Sub from 1961

From an Official Guide from 1958 are the routes/identities of the trains (above) which were listed that year.

Probably, there was some reorganization of trains after all use of steam locomotives ceased.

5   The LaSalle - Halifax to Chicago (Pool train, Montreal to Toronto)

9   Toronto to Windsor

15  International Limited - Montreal (CPR Windsor Station) to Chicago (Pool train, Montreal to Toronto)

17  Inter-City Limited - Halifax to Chicago (Pool train, Montreal to Toronto)

75  Forest City, Toronto to London

83  Toronto to Windsor

101 Toronto to Niagara Falls

183 Toronto to Windsor

CP 321-329 Toronto to Buffalo

Below: Again, the eastbound segments of certain trains were pooled Toronto to Montreal.

6    Inter-City Limited - Chicago to Montreal 

14  International Limited - Chicago to Montreal

18  Windsor to Montreal

20  The Maple Leaf  - Chicago, London, Toronto

80  London to Toronto

82  Sarnia to Toronto

108 Niagara Falls to Toronto

118 Windsor to Montreal

CP 322-328 Buffalo to Toronto

Below, are the local footnotes for the Bayview area.