Newsletter of the Upper Canada Railway Society THIS MONTH IN RAIL AND TRANSIT PARRY SOUND Scenery, trains, and more trains: a guide to the Sound 6 RIDE 'EM BEFORE THEY'RE GONE: TWO VIA TRIPS IN QUEBEC NUMBER 537 - SEPTEMBER 1994 Scenic VIA trips that you shouldn't put off to next year. 8 PUBLISHED BY COMMONWEALTH GAMES nieiiu^lettenr Upper Canada Railway Society "SPIRIT" BUSES RO. Box 122, Station A Transit in Victoria commemorates the Toronto, Ontario M5W IA2 Commonwealth Games, by Gray Scrimgeour. ATLANTIC CANCELLATION 9 Shortly after CP's plans fell through to sell, EDITOR RESEARCH AND REVIEWS intact, its Sherbrooke-Saint John line, VIA Pat Scrimgeour RAILWAY ARCHAEOLOGY . made the official announcement that the tri• 250 Queens Quay West #1607 . RE.I. Railway memories Atlantic weekly Montreal-Halifax via Saint Toronto, Ontario M5J 2N2 . Railway stations in southern Quebec John overnight train will be discontinued. E-Mail: 731 [email protected] INFORMATION NETWORK . The timing is a coincidence, and the . Bygone passenger train speeds train's cancellation is not unexpected. CP has CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 12 made it clear that it has no use for the John Carter, Art Clowes, TRANSCONTINENTAL shortest railway between Montreal and the Scott Haskill, Don McQueen, THE RAPIDO CAR sale surprise east coast, and has been actively trying to sell Sean Robitaille, Gray Scrimgeour, . CP's offer for CN In the east all or part of the line. The route is approved Chris Spinney, Gordon Webster . VIA's winter timetable for abandonment from the beginning of THE PANORAMA Amtrak in B.C. 1995. VIA has no money to buy the line IN TRANSIT .... Montreal monorail proposal itself. Please send news and short contributions to . TTC surface trackwork Even if the line was sold to a single buyer the addresses shown with each news section. MOTIVE POWER W&H to go tuscan red and retained as a through route between Articles and photos should be sent to the ROLLING STOCK . New Bombardier business Montreal and the east, it isn't likely that VIA . GO coaches arrive and depart editor at one of the above addresses. If you would have kept the Atlantic going. Short-line are using a computer, please use electronic ON THE CALENDAR railways are not usually in the business of mail or send a WordPerfect or text file on an hosting passenger trains, and the inevitable IBM-compatible (5'A" or S'A") disk, along with Friday, October 21 - UCRS Toronto meet• track downgrading that follows would make a printed copy. ing, 7:30 p.m., at the Metro Archives the• the service uncompetitive and unreliable, in atre, Spadina Road at MacPherson, just the end, the line will likely be sold piecemeal north of Dupont subway station. Please (see page 12), and new owners have already Subscriptions to Rail and Transit are available bring your slides and videos. said they don't really want a passenger train with membership in the Upper Canada Rail• Friday, October 28 - UCRS Hamilton around, thank you very much. way Society. Membership dues are $29.00 per meeting, 8:00 p.m., at the Hamilton Spec• Six-days-a-week passenger service will be year (12 issues) for addresses in Canada, and tator auditorium, 44 Frid Street, just off retained between Montreal, Moncton, and $32.00 for addresses in the U.S. and overseas. Main Street at Highway 403. The prog• Halifax, by the simple expedient of running Student memberships, for those 17 years or ramme will be recent news and members' the Ocean, over the CN route, every trip, younger, are $ 19.00. Please send inquiries and current and historical slides. instead of every other. Arrangements to serve changes of address to the address at the top Saint John from an Ocean connection at Friday, November IS - UCRS Toronto of the page. Moncton will be announced in a few weeks, monthly meeting, 7:30 p.m. and will almost certainly involve buses. Friday, November 25 - UCRS Hamilton This isn't the first cancellation for the monthly meeting, 8:00 p.m. UPPER CANADA RAILWAY SOCIETY overnight-by-the-CP-route train. Discontinued DIRECTORS in an earlier round of VIA cuts in 1981, the Rick Eastman, President 4 i 6 494-3412 COVER PHOTO Atlantic was reinstated four years later, it was John Carter, VP - Services 416 690-6651 VIA Train 9, the northbound Canadian, at somewhat of a surprise that the service was Pat Sempie, VP-Administration 416 923-9123 Falding siding on CN's Bala Subdivision, just retained through the 1990 cuts, and the Scott Haskiii, Secretary 416 604-2071 south of Parry Sound. The lead locomotive alternate Ocean and Atlanlic operation was a Art Clowes 514 934-5549 A! Maitland 416 921-4023 is FP9 6505. The track to the left was the clever compromise by VIA. in the end, the George Meek 416 532-5617 connection to the old Algonquin Subdivision, train outlasted the railway itself. Pat Scrimgeour 416 260-5652 the former Ottawa, Arnprior, and Parry The last Atlantics will leave Halifax and Chris Spinney 416 281-8211 Sound Railway, and now forms part of the Montreal on Decemirer 15, to allow a smooth siding. -Photo by John Carter. August 1985 transition into the holiday travel season. Completed October 3, 1994 2 • Rail and Transit • September 1994 PARRY SOUND I ^Gallery Peary Sound is one of many places in Ontario to relax Activity remained well into the Canadian National era, and enjoy both fine scenery and quality railfanning. and until the mid-1980s, part of the OA&PS trackage just Located in the heart of the 30 000 Island tourist region, outside of Parry Sound (originally built as the James Bay Parry Sound offers plenty of scenic splendour, as well as Railway and later used as the connecting track between the transcontinental main lines of both CN North the CN Bala and Algonquin subdivisions) was used for America and CP Rail System. equipment storage. Very little remains in Depot Harbour Parry Sound's most obvious landmark is CP's passage today. The OA&PS right of way east of Highway 69 is through the community. At 1695 feet 5 inches in length, now the Seguin hiking trail. CP's bridge is the longest railway bridge in Ontario. Other locations in the Parry Sound area are MacTier, Impossible to miss when in Parry Sound, the best views a CP crew-change point about 20 minutes south of Parry of the bridge are from below in the town itself, and from Sound; Medora, on Highway 169 just north of Bala, the fire lookout tower above, southeast of the bridge. which features overpasses over both CN and CP; Nobel, The lookout tower offers a superb view of the Parry named after Alfred Bernard Nobel, the inventor of Sound area. And don't worry about the swaying; it ain't dynamite, and home to an explosives plant; and Pointe gonna fall over! Au Baril with CP's high bridge over the river and CN's main line is notable for the way it lays a large harbour. horseshoe through the city. VIA's flagship train, the Talking hot box detectors will alert radio-equipped Canadian, uses this trackage three times a week, making railfans to activity on both railways. CP has a detector at station stops every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Mile 26.0, between Parry Sound and Nobel. CN northbound, and every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday detectors are at Mile 133.7, between Falding and Dock southbound. The former CN station used by VIA is Siding, and at Mile 163.2, between Waubamik and shared with local government offices. Ardbeg. The CN is CTC-controlled, whereas the CP is The nearby South Parry is a crew-change point for CCS with approach-lit signals and block indicators crews on CN freight trains. Just south of South Parry, at located at sidings. James Bay Junction, was the junction point of the For those who enjoy camping, Killbear and Oastler Canadian Northern Railway and the Ottawa, Arnprior Lake provincial parks are located just north and south of and Parry Sound Railway. The OA&PS continued west Parry Sound, respectively. Be forewarned, however, that through Rose Point to Depot Harbour, which, when CP's main line skirts the east side of Killbear, and CN's constructed, was, in the truest sense of the term, a main line is literally just across the road from Oastler railway town. The local economy was based entirely on Lake. Passing trains hold little sympathy for tired the railway, with men working either on the shipping campers; more than a few railfans and non-railfans have docks or at the grain elevators, both owned by the abruptly packed up and left Oastler Lake at three in the railway, or responsible for the movement of trains. morning as a result. • • t fr » Rail and Transit • September 1994 • 3 Wd PARRY SOUND AREA RAILWAY LINES PAST AND PRESENT TRAINS THROUGH PARRY SOUND 488 CAPREOL-NIAGARA FALLS (OCSSLAG) 489 NIAGARA FALLS-CAPREOL (OCSSLAG EMPTIES) in TORONTO B.I.T.-CALGARY 490 CAPREOL-SARNIA (OCS SLAG) DEPOT HARBOUR 112 VANCOUVER-TORONTO B.I.T. 491 SARNIA-CAPREOL (OCS SLAG EMPTIES) 1 13 TORONTO B.I.T.-VANCOUVER 492 CAPREOL-BROCKVILLE (OCS SLAG) 203 WINDSOR-VANCOUVER (AUTOJ 493 BROCKVILLE-CAPREOL (OCS SLAG EMPTIES) 214 VANCOUVER-TORONTO 494 CAPREOL-TORONTO (OCS SLAG) 215 TORONTO-CALGARY 495 TORONTO-CAPREOL (OCS SLAG EMPTIES) 216 CALGARY-TORONTO 497 MIMICO-CAPREOL (OCS) 217 TORONTO-EDMONTON 720 SARNIA-CAPREOL (BUNKER COIL) 218 VANCOUVER-TORONTO 721 CAPREOL-SARNIA (BUNKER C EMPTIES) 219 TORONTO-EDMONTON 724 CAPREOL-SARNIA/WINDSOR (SULPHURICACID) 225 TORONTO-WINNIPEG FORT ROUGE 726 CAPREOL-BUFFALO CR (SULPHURICACID) 260 VANCOUVER-TORONTO B.I.T.