CNR 6153 at Turcot Yard and Heading to Victoriaville (with maps)

This post is probably interesting more for the two maps (1952 and 1965) illustrating the the general location of CNR facilities in Montreal ... than for the few photos it includes.

Back in 1961, Canadian National Railways retained a small number of its steam locomotives beyond the crown corporation's official 'end of steam' deadline. These were used in excursion service for rail enthusiasts and the general public. When they became due for a costly overhaul (a generally inflexible deadline related to the safety of the boiler) they were retired.

These old slides (on 'Bad Ektachrome') are from July 1961. They show 6153 steamed up at Turcot Yard and waiting to couple on to an excursion train. Another set of photos shows 6153 on another July day as it was heading for the Victoria Bridge with an excursion to Victoriaville.

Unencumbered by owning a car, my father, grandfather and I took a bus to Upper Lachine Road and infiltrated Turcot Yard via the switchback 'worker' paths down the escarpment. Terraced vegetable gardens were another feature of this route back when many more workers were employed here.

Pro tip: Being well-dressed and taking a four-year-old with you generally puts everyone at ease and may lead to an invitation to see the interior of the cab.

Having an ex-CPR employee (my father) with some knowledge of railway operations leading us here probably got us more untrammeled access to 6153 ... than most of the people who had actually purchased tickets to ride behind it for the day. 

Above, you can see a flagging kit marking the end of the 'train' for the purposes of the rules. At the appointed time, 6153 would be reversing to pick up its consist at Central Station (maps below).

Family folklore suggested that the hole in the Turcot roundhouse (above) was due to a 'runaway'. Steam locomotives generally didn't have handbrakes - but some did have unlucky hostlers or throttles which leaked a little. With the demise of steam, it seems quite likely that the neatly-made hole was created to extract a valuable piece of machinery.

These photos are rather 'muddy', but you can consider the era in which they were taken. About 70 million people (3% of the world's population) had died in a war which ended just 15 years earlier. American industry was at its zenith. Most of Europe's and Japan's industry had been bombed into oblivion. 

Coming from the postwar industrial expansion came all manner of wonderful, powerful diesel-electric locomotives which were much cheaper for customer-railways to operate. You turned them on 'like a car' and off they went. You could string them together and pay for only one engineer (well, and a grandfathered fireman, as required).

If railway bosses had any imagination at all (some didn't), this new form of power could really change their operations.

The 'old ways' were still embodied here at Turcot. A coaling tower and a water tank were still functioning. A roundhouse with an operating turntable still existed. Most importantly, CNR still had employees who could just come to work and operate a steam-powered passenger train. On the excursions, know-it-all railfan deportment scared them ... climbing to the top of rolling stock and crowding the track during that strange ritual: The Runpast.

Nonetheless, it was probably nice for these employees to have company in witnessing and mourning the end of these locomotives - which bore more resemblance to demonstrative draft horses than automobiles. On those excursions which got hopelessly behind the organizers' schedules ... the engine crew probably re-lived everything which was 'right' about steam locomotives and their railroading careers as they raced for Montreal in the setting sun.

Dressed like a retired school principal, my grandfather poses with me.

Just east of the roundhouse.

On another day, the mechanical stoker is 'putting in a fire' as 6153 passes Point St Charles shops
and heads for the Victoria bridge and Victoriaville.

As is always the case, you'll need to scroll to the right to see the entire map ...

from: CNR Montreal Area employee timetable Oct 31 1965.

from: Lachine Sheet 31 H 5 east half 1952.

CPR 1201 at Ottawa - July 1982

In July 1982, we made our only trip to ride on Bytown Railway Society's excursions to Wakefield, Quebec, which were run out of the National Museum of Science and Technology shop.

On every steam excursion, there is the moment one first sees the locomotive. While the first over-eager photos - into the sun and with odd flaring - are less than perfect, they cannot be reproduced today.

With careless ignorance, I had booked our tickets in the 'first car behind the engine'. Travelling with a tape recorder and camera, I was surprised that we would be enjoying sealed, air-conditioned comfort. 

It was even more surprising - on this hot and muggy day - that our return trip would be made with the air conditioning not functioning. Crew members took pity on my disappointment and I was allowed to join Bytown insiders at the baggage door of the combine back to Ottawa.

A view of the running gear.

An engine crew member checks the position of the reverser gear.

Almost ready to go.

Fireman's side and the whole consist.

... a future posting will show the train and switching activities at Wakefield.

*  *  *

My steam 'apprenticeship' was done during the golden age of CRHA fantrips out of Montreal.

My first excursion was this 5107/6153 doubleheader from Montreal to Garneau ...
 with my father, on hot and muggy St Jean Baptiste Day (as it was then known) 1962.

Here at Garneau, coaling took place with a clamshell bucket.

Please review and 'like' my personal clothing line:
'CottonWaste for Urchin' - featuring creosote and cinderdust in every piece.

On July 17, 1961, my grandfather and I pose with an odd engine - it was separate from the 'deadlines' for scrapping - at Turcot Yard. The slide film in the point and shoot camera is 'drug store Ektachrome' - notorious for washing out to an almost uniform brown. 

Articles in the Montreal Star about the engines stored at Turcot before scrapping encouraged our MTC bus trip to Upper Lachine Road. We zig-zagged our way down the workers' path to the yard and this was the very first engine we ever encountered at Turcot.

We visited Turcot two or three more times on weekends during this period and always found the facility deserted.