CPR 1982 Windsor - Detroit, Local Rail Maps for Shippers

Six railways and two barge lines utilize the Windsor gateway, they say.

This was a year before Minivan production began and 49 years after rum-running ended. 

The Canada–United States Automotive Products Agreement (the Auto Pact) of 1965 was in effect.

Was it the 'good old days'? 

Not if you were trying to buy a house (or a Minivan). The mortgage rate was a little over 19%. Annual inflation was running at about 11%. 

I don't remember where I got this set of two glossy cardstock handouts for CP Rail freight customers. They're old enough to provide an interesting historical contrast to the state of transportation today. 

Some previous posts have also included this region ...

Some Postcards, Detroit etc.

International Railway Tunnels, Southwest Ontario, Postcards x5 +1

CNR 1965 Windsor-Detroit Carferries: Lansdowne & Huron

GTR 1915 Public Timetable, West of Detroit & St Clair Rivers

1904 Western Canada Postcards, Maps

Here are a few maps from circa 1904 showing railways in North America, in the provinces and territories of western Canada, and in Manitoba & Winnipeg. Also included are some western postcards of the same period. 

The originals of the larger map images are about 6 x 8 inches. This small but high quality British atlas shows the world before World War I - so the maps of Europe and Africa are quite interesting to contrast with all the changes which occurred since then. As only telegraph messages moved instantly across the ocean back then, you can imagine how cumbersome and difficult it must have been to update an atlas showing all the rapidly-evolving changes across North America.

This hand-coloured, undated, unmailed postcard was published by Stedman Brothers of Brantford. 

It was printed in Germany. Germany had most of the world's market for colour postcard printing - but World War I ended their dominance.

All the maps below show railways. Roads between settlements had not developed significantly.

This postcard was produced by the Advance Culture and Post Card Depot, 537 Main Street, Winnipeg.

It was mailed to Youngstown, Ohio, but the postmark is not legible.

Finally: Oak River is 11 miles north-west of Rivers, Manitoba and was on the CPR Miniota Sub which ran from Brandon to Miniota (1967 data). 

This card has no manufacturer indicated. It was mailed from Walkerton to Greenock Ontario in 1908.

Ontario, Grain Transportation, Industry, 1927 - 'People Like Maps'

 

Postcard mailed from Ottawa to Massachusetts on September 12, 1929.

Printed by Photogelatine Engraving [sic], Ottawa.

The postmark advocates buying a Dominion Annuity at the Post Office.

And the stock market crash was coming in a month or so.

*  *  *

The following maps come from this textbook. 

It may have been used by LC Gagnon during his studies.

However, we've been known to 'collect' the odd textbook, so one never knows for certain.

Canada was (over)building a lot of 'infrastructure' at the beginning of that century ...

*  *  *

The last map (below) illustrates distribution of the revolutionary technology of electricity.

... aka The People's Power in Ontario.

In addition to reducing farm drudgery (e.g. by replacing cow milking by hand with milking machines) 

'hydro' also extended a 'metropolitan corridor' into the countryside via interurban electric railways.

1947 Diesel Electric, Gasoline Electric & Electric Locomotive Lubrication

Imperial Oil put out a well-illustrated 300 page 5x7 inch book which looked at all aspects of lubrication on railways. Petroleum product tradenames: Gargoyle B.R.B. No 3 is my favourite, followed by Van Hymelt 2 ... they are probably both available for video game names if anyone is interested. 

Both the lubricant vendor and the railroader would learn about each other's work by reading this book cover to cover. As you'll see, the railway technology is first described in detail, followed by the desired characteristics of lubricants for its various elements and (considerately) the trade names of specially-formulated Imperial Oil products to meet the railroader's needs. 

Around 1870, the addition of galena (a form of lead oxide) to Pennsylvania petroleum resulted in the enduring Galena brand name in railway lubrication (used by Imperial Oil in Canada in 1947). With the unprecedented high friction and high temperature characteristics of components in steam locomotive service, lubricants like the Galena product line were indeed needed. Smooth, machined metal parts have protrusions and pits at a microscopic level and it is necessary to maintain an optimized film of lubricant to prevent the surfaces from seizing. 

The days of the 'tallow pot' had long ended. However, sheep still kept their hand in the lubrication business, as you'll see - through the use of their wool in diesel electrics! 

Electric locomotives even had their own unique lubricants. How might one lubricate the main working surface of a pantograph? Hint: Using a compound which included the same 'special crystals' used to lubricate main line switches today.

When this book was printed, road freight locomotives were not yet firmly established in Canada. An interesting array of Canadian gas and diesel car photos is shown. Steam fans will be interested to see a big 60% on the cab of a little CNR yard switcher. All the lubricating points on an Alco switcher are shown - be sure to buy each type of special lubricant recommended for best results! Many will recognize a small Wabash unit at St Thomas, Ontario.

Sheep!:

1914 Canadian Troop Transportation by Rail & Lord Strathcona's Royal Navy Petroleum

How do you organize the movement of Canadian troops by rail? A simplified consolidation of the regulations and best practices (a 'how to' for young officers) was in print beginning in 1880. My water-damaged copy was printed in 1914, before/as the world was blundering its way into war. Many other interesting practices and procedures are covered. I have only extracted the section about the transportation of troops.

In the course of the usual tangential researching to satisfy my curiosity and to avoid error, I discovered an interesting series of facts connecting Lord Strathcona with the modern Middle East. The information is related to developments in transportation and is centred on the period of the Great War ... so it is included as a digression. Hopefully, you will find it interesting as well.

'According to the internet' this label was attached to a piece of military clothing auctioned in Bancroft, Ontario in 2018.

(see the embossed stamp on the title page above).

from: Canada, The Missing Years; Patricia Pierce; 1985; Stoddart.

from the Wikipedia entry on: Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal:

'He raised Strathcona's Horse, a private unit of Canadian soldiers, during the Second Boer War, and became one of the leading supporters of British imperialism within London. After the end of the war, he was appointed among the members of a Royal Commission set up to investigate the conduct of the Second Boer War (the Elgin Commission 1902-1903). He was involved in the creation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, of which he became the chairman in 1909. Lord Strathcona subsequently used his influence to make the company a major supplier of the Royal Navy.'

[Persia: later, more commonly called 'Iran']

*  *  *

A Digression on Lord Strathcona's Royal Navy Petroleum 

Subsequent to Donald Smith's activities, the British government purchased 51% of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1914. The Canadian Pacific steamship Empress of Britain 1905-1924 (i.e. renamed Montroyal in 1924) was converted to oil-firing in 1919. 

... You can draw your own conclusion whether Donald Smith (1820-1914) saw oil as the fuel of the future for the CPR fleet.

The first trials of oil-firing for warships began with the 'torpedo boat destroyer' HMS Spiteful in 1904. Winston Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911 and was involved with the change from coal-fired to oil-fired British warships. 

Coal has 50-75% of the energy density of oil ... AND ... refueling in port with oil was faster and much less labour intensive. Coal had to be moved by hand multiple times as it made its way up from the supply barge, down into the bunkers (in which it was regularly trimmed by hand to maintain the ship's balance), out to the fireroom floor, and then into the fireboxes. Spontaneous combustion of coal was also a problem while it sat in the bunkers.

From 1912, all new British warships were designed to burn fuel oil.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth was the first British dreadnought battleship propelled by oil-fired steam turbines. 

from: Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I; 1919 (reprint: 1990); Military Press.

With the increasing strategic importance of oil in mind, it was necessary to acquire reliable sources of oil and a network of oil refueling stations wherever the Royal Navy expected to be active, viz. 'this vast empire on which the sun never sets' - that was written by George Macartney in 1773.

The map showing the location of known petroleum deposits in 1915 will help illustrate the calculations of the Royal Navy. Coincidentally, some of the CPR cargo ships requisitioned by the Admiralty during the Great War were converted into oil tankers.

from: Our Country and Its Resources; ed: Albert A Hopkins; 1917; Munn & Co.

... continuing with Persia/Iran ...

In 1952 the democratically-elected prime minister of Iran (Mohammad Mosaddegh) nationalized the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's local assets. In 1953, the CIA and MI6 staged a coup to depose him. The descendant of Donald Smith's Anglo-Persian Oil Company was renamed the British Petroleum Company in 1954. 

Initially seen as a harmless, young figurehead monarch in the wake of the coup, the Shah of Iran consolidated his power as an autocratic ruler who was friendly to US and western interests as the 1950s drew to a close.

End of digression on Lord Strathcona's Royal Navy Petroleum

*  *  *

Back to transporting Canadian troops in 1914 ...

from: The World War; ed: Holland Thompson; 1921; Grolier.

Apparently, the 'colonial' Canadians were judged by Kitchener not to have the training necessary to properly integrate with British forces in battle, so they trained and drilled on the Salisbury Plain during the first winter of the Great War. Their habitat became a sea of mud as the result of unusually heavy rains. Proper heating equipment was not available for these soldiers living in tents and the cold rains and mud made everyone miserable and/or sick. Getting into battle was soon expected to be a better existence than continuing to live on the Salisbury Plain.

from: The World War; ed: Holland Thompson; 1921; Grolier.

from: Canada, The Missing Years; Patricia Pierce; 1985; Stoddart.

End of the section from The Guide.

from: Light Railways of the First World War; WJK Davies; 1966; David & Charles Ltd.

As Canadian troops approached the trenches of the Great War, their transportation would often change from standard commercial railways to military narrow gauge railways which were designed to support the front lines. Commodities carried included ammunition - especially large quantities of artillery shells, food, barbed wire, lumber, fodder and bedding for draft animals and other supplies and equipment. 

Specialized Canadian military units and personnel were sent over to become involved in the building and operating of many of these railways ... and simpler human and animal-powered tramways as well. 

Many Canadian civil engineers and workers were familiar with the techniques used in building railway lines across muskeg, as Canada's railway boom had been in full swing as the war started. It was a relatively simple matter to transfer these railway-building skills to the poorly drained sea of mud near the front lines.