CNR 1988 Newfoundland Railway at St John's

Through coincidence we found ourselves on a coast-to-coast Newfoundland vacation during the last few months of operations on what I will call the Newfoundland Railway. I think it was formally the Terra Transport division of Canadian National Railways at this point.

These photos show what we saw during one visit we made to the St John's yard at the end of July. We only saw operating locomotives at Corner Brook. Most of these units were probably here awaiting disposition. Another batch of photos shows a cab roof and other parts 'disposed' in a gondola car. 

A number of these units were sold for use in places like Chile or Nicaragua. Every once in a while, a unit turns up in my YouTube global railway video subscriptions which looks strangely familiar.

As usual, I used fast film ('vacation weather'!) and worked carefully but quickly while on railway property.

On our day coming east through Bishop's Falls we had seen some
freshly-torched rolling stock and I didn't want to find out if surveillance of
railway property had been stepped up as a result.

from: Canadian Trackside Guide; 1988; Bytown Railway Society.

I'll put this roster information here because it will save us both a lot of time.

The traditional headquarters of the Newfoundland Railway had become a Terra Transport bus depot.
The ghosts of dispatchers and company-officers-past walked the upstairs halls with their successors.

You can actually see the trucks on this unit.
... so I must have made a mistake with my exposure!

Above, we are facing the eastern end of the railway.
Beyond, the tracks lead to shops and back shops.
From what I've read, the railway shops were equipped to be self-sufficient -
more or less - for building locomotives in the early years.

During peak years (eg. during the establishment and use of *US bases during WW2)
new steam power was imported from the mainland to try to meet demand.

Newfoundland prided itself on being Britain's Oldest Colony.
Over the years it sometimes toggled between self-rule
and British-funded finance and 'supervision'.
As a Commonwealth country, Newfoundland participated in the
*US-British Lend-Lease Agreement during World War Two.

During dieselization, GMD (as the roster shows above) provided locomotives.


Be sure to check out the historical articles sent after posting 
by Jim Christie. They are at the end of this post.

Above is the Terra Nova.
That's probably Latin for something ...

The date above is 1931.
The architecture of the station and shop front doors
were literally overshadowed by a road overpass.

This looks roughly northeast and shows the station and shop area.
You can see the railway back shops at St John's.
At the right edge you can see evidence of a drydock - which is at the west end of the exquisite natural harbour.

The drydock had been part of the Reid Newfoundland Company's transportation conglomerate.
This company had included a fleet of coastal ships and ferries.

from: Locomotives from London; Peter Cox; 1968; Upper Canada Railway Society.

from: Locomotives from London; Peter Cox; 1968; Upper Canada Railway Society.

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After posting, Jim Christie
sent me these articles detailing historical developments
on the Newfoundland Railway.

GM EMD Locomotive Components & David P Morgan's Views from July 1965

Here is the final set of images from a GM EMD booklet I received in the late 1960s. If you arrived at this posting first, you can see links to all three posts on the Railway Technology page (just click the link in the right margin and find the Diesels, Second Generation heading).

In some cases, I have repeated and enlarged photographs so you can see more detail. 

Through the miracle of old books, below, you'll find a 1965 review by David P Morgan on this new generation of GM EMD locomotives.

Finally, I have cobbled together the text of a GM EMD advertisement which appeared a month later in Trains magazine. The ad was a large removable 'folder' of thick glossy paper. It included the small paragraphs of text I have included, offset by large blank expanses of white ... and highly colourized art of the new GM EMD power.

If Kapton (above) sounds familiar, you may recall its being implicated in air crashes. When subject to heat, vibration and/or environments near seawater, Kapton broke down and lost its insulating properties. In the Swissair Flight 111 crash, arcing to wires insulated by Kapton was implicated.

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from: Trains; July 1965; Kalmbach Publishing.

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Text of advertisement from: Trains; August 1965; Kalmbach Publishing

Text of advertisement from: Trains; August 1965; Kalmbach Publishing

GM EMD's GPs and SWs - Locomotive Specifications from the Late 1960s

These images and data all come from an undated booklet I received from GM EMD in the late 1960s. You can find other illustrations from this set by selecting the 'Railway Technology' link to the right.

This second generation of diesel-electric technology reflected US and Canadian railways' general preference for higher horsepower 6-axle units in order to pull longer and heavier trains. The following 4-axle road units were generally preferred for secondary lines. 

As always, there were notable exceptions to these generalizations - particularly in later years as new anti-wheelslip technology helped 4-axle units maintain their footing while starting heavier trains.

New switcher locomotives were less in demand during this era. As locomotive consists of 5 or 6 first generation road locomotives were replaced by higher horsepower units, the former began to replace first generation switchers in yard service. 

Some railways altered their old first generation road power for efficient flat yard or hump yard service through regearing ... and/or connecting a regular unit (sometimes known as a 'cow') to a cut-down yard slug (sometimes known as a 'calf''). 

... The slug was generally a first generation road unit with its diesel engine, generator and original hood removed. The slug's traction motors efficiently used the surplus electricity produced in this type of service by the regular unit's generator.

Watching trackside in Montreal during the introduction of second generation freight power, the novelty of larger, more powerful units pulling longer trains was not the first thing which came to mind. Instead, what was notable was the 'snub nose' design of the new units. 

... A decade or so later, working primarily with the new unit design in Schreiber, it was quite a different experience to get the odd GP9 on the Paper Train. The (short) high hood blocked out a very large area of the forward field of vision to which one was accustomed. 

For people interested in understanding 'the human experience' of steam railroading, probably spending some time on CNR first generation roadswitchers - operating long hood forward to maintain the traditional crew collision protection - would have been quite revealing. That arrangement would have simulated very well the experience of looking down the 'barrel' of the boiler in front as one tried to spot signals, switchpoints and obstructions on the track ahead.

A westbound at the old Lachine station in the early 1960s.
This location was near the intersection of today's 32nd Avenue and Rue Victoria.
More or less, the old GTR/CNR main line became Rue Victoria.

By the late 1960s, I was doing my own photography.
Here is an early morning image of a westbound at Grovehill - taken during our Easter school holidays.
Grovehill was a station for commuters, located at the north end of 40th Avenue, Lachine.

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SWITCHERS