newsletter May 1967 • 50c Quebec Central's FAREWELL TO PASSENGERS! SEE PAGE 65 Upper Canada Railway Society f RAILWAY CN REDUCES DEFICIT BY 26 PER CENT CN MAY ELIMINATE TRANSCONTINENTALS — RICHER CN's annual report for 1966 revealed that an Surprising, at least superficially, was the operating profit of $40.i-miiiion for the year May 9th statement by CN's Passenger vice-pres• was turned into a deficit of $24.6-miiiion by ident, Jean H. Richer, that the railway may 'an extremely heavy interest burden'. However eliminate transcontinental passenger service the deficit was 26% lower than in 1965 and the within the next two or three years, or at fifth consecutive drop from the peak loss of least drastically alter it to suit customer S67.3-million recorded in 1961. needs. At the same time, he revealed that within five or six years the era of meals Gross revenues fell just $i.4-miiiion short of the billion dollar mark, with railway opera• cooked and served on dining cars will be over. tions accounting for $906.1-miiiion of the Elimination of the two transcontinentais would total. Freight revenues were up 9.6% — the be accompanied by the introduction of a series highest in CN's history -— while passenger of inter-city trains to fill one of the two revenues increased by 15.8% to the highest functions — inter-city and cross-Canada tra• since 1945. The report noted that passenger vel — of their predecessors. Another possi• revenues are rising at a faster rate than ex• bility would be a single daily transcontinental penses, and reiterated CN's confidence that it In company^wlth increased inter-city runs. will be possible to reach an eventual profit position on passenger services; no figures Mr. Richer pointed out that present transcon were given on CN's 1966 passenger losses. schedules — because of their continuous nature — must arrive at major points en route at times totally unacceptable for Inter-city travel. He doubted that the railways could ONR'S CENTENNIAL PROJECT — A STEAM ENGINE successfully compete against the airlines, with their coming jumbo jets, for an apprec• The Ontario Northland has announced that a iable portion of the transcontinental passenger diminutive train, hauled by a steam locomotive market. 'under its own power', will visit on-line (The railway does not foresee any serious loss points during the summer. The locomotive, on these services in 1967, as Centennial travel however, will be available for display only, demands are expected to be sufficient to main• and it is not planned that it will be used on tain income from this source at a reasonable excursions. level.) The locomotive, ex-CN 2164, was repainted as Mr. Richer's remarks came on the heels of the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario 137 for display new Transportation Act which, over eight years, several years ago, and was inspected by excur• will eliminate $iiO-miiiion annually in oper• sionists in North Bay during our weekend steam ating subsidies to the two railways and, in trip of September, 1963. Its display train turn, grant them greater freedom in selecting for this summer's tour will include an old the services they want to maintain. It also caboose and the former restaurant car "Agumik". follows CN's 1967 budget which forecasts a The tour is scheduled to begin on June i2th at deficit of only $i5-miliion, lowest since 1957. Haileybury, visit Cochrane, Timmins and North This year, CN is predicting a 30% gain in pas• Bay the weeks of June 26th, July 3rd and Aug• senger revenues, to $90-miiiion. ust i4th respectively, and wind up at Engiehart The conventional dining car complete with kit• on September iOth. chen will disappear — likely by 1973 — in favour of a scheme of precooked meals. On short trips, passengers will eat pre-prepared airline-style meals at their seats. On long journeys, it will still be necessary,to pro• vide dining car comfort for passengers' meals, but the food will be cooked at the terminal and simply reheated on the train. Previews of these meal concepts will be afforded passen• gers on CN's Turbos and Southwestern Ontario Hawker Siddeley trainsets, later this year. LEFT: Ontario Northland's "T&1« 137" will become a familiar sight to North• ern Ontario residents during the com• ing simmer. NEWSLETTER 61 CANADIAN NATIONAL MOTIVE POWER NOTES EQUIPMENT -The Montreal press reported recently that Canadian National placed orders at the end of CANADIAN PACIFIC MOTIVE POWER NOTES April for a total of 110 new diesel locomotives, -GMD turned over the last two units of CP's General Motors Diesel Ltd. will build 68 SD-40 current SD-40 order, Nos, 5563 and 5564, to (3,000 h.p.) locomotives, probably to be num• the railway on April 28th. bered 5008-5075. From Montreal Locomotive Works will come 42 -Units 5563/64 have replaced Nos. 5523/32 in 3,000 h.p. Century 630's, likely bearing the CP's transcontinental wheel test service (see numbers 2002-2043. April NL, page 47). No information is available as yet on delivery schedules or proposed assignment of the new locomotives. DINING CARS LEASED BY CN -Still more locomotives have been retired from Canadian National has leased — reportedly for CN's roster a two-year period — six two-car dining car 912 - April i4th; ) Collision between #203 sets from the Pickens Railroad, Pickens, S.C. 920 - ) and switcher. Sept 13/66 The cars were purchased by Pickens from the ) Cornerbrook, Nfid. New York Central. 1630 II Repairs not justified. II One car of each set contains seating for 68 2202 2204 -— II diners, while the other car contains kitchen It facilities and a small lounge. The intercon• 2206 - 2214 It necting doors are actuated by electric eyes It for 'no-hands' operation by tray-laden waiters. 2215 - 2217 - It Two sets are operating on the Bonaventure be• 3032 - II tween Toronto and Montreal; it is reported 3035 - II that the remaining sets will cycle in the 9426 — II Panorama between either Toronto or Montreal 3806 - April 20th; and Winnipeg. 3819 - It II (The Pickens Railroad operates 9.3 miles of 3822 freight-only track from a connection with the - Southern Riy. at Easiey, S.C. to Pickens. Apparently these cars were purchased as a speculative venture.) Numbers of the leased cars are as follows: 408-481 489- 485 405-478 490- 484 407-482 487-483 CANADIAN PACIFIC COACHES TO MEXICO? From a usually reliable source, it is reported that CP is on the verge of seiiing sixty pas• senger coaches to the National Railways of Mexico. Ail are reported to be of the air- conditioned type in the 2100 and 2200 series. ABOVE: CN's latest leased equipment is a series of dining cars like these, acquired from the Pickens Railroad. /Tom Henry LBTT: CN 3884, mddified with an elongated short hood to accomodate head• end power equipment, is now operating out of Tor• onto on express freight trains. The unit, togeth• er with five others, will ultimately be renumbered and repainted for South• western Ontario service. (April NL, page 46.) 64 MAY, 1967 AT THE ABANDONMENT OF PASSENGER SERVICE. BY O.S.A. LAVALLEl onsidering its timetable designation by the French-speaking area whose towns bear strik C coveted initial digit, Train No. i of the ingiy English names — East Angus, Bishopton Quebec Central Railway looked particuiariy in• Disraeli, Coieraine, Leeds and Tring Junction auspicious on April 22nd, 1967, as it made its to name but a few. The names themselves sprin way northward through the roiling countryside from the organization of Lower Canada i of Quebec's Eastern Townships. In fact, its 1791, when the area of what is now Quebe consist was an irreducible minimum, RDC-i car lying in the triangle east of Montrea No. 9058. To make matters worse in the eyes formed by the United States boundary and th of a historian. No. 9058 wasn't even lettered Saint Lawrence River was organized into count for the Quebec Central but carried the famil• ies and townships, ail with English names iar maroon band with the words "Canadian Pac• Here were to be found Gloucestershire, Buck ific", QCR's parent company. inghamshire, Oxfordshire and many others — i an attempt to transplant some of the atmos Scarcely a week later, on Saturday, April phere of the homeland to British military me 29th to be exact. Train No. 1 and its corres• and their families, who had retired from th ponding southward services. No. 2 on Sundays business of making war to settle and prosper and No. 4 on other days, made their last runs, These counties were again divided into town terminating passenger service on the QCR after ships, such as Ely, Ham, Upton, Abbotsford Bagot, etc. Coexisting side-by-side with th ninety-two and a half years. The appearance new English settlers were older French-speak of the train was a far cry from not-so-distant ing families, whose organization was based o times when it included a neat G-2 Pacific with the ecclesiastical unit, the parish. Sine QC's own cars — as distinct from reiettered the range of popular parish names was compar Canadian Pacific ones. Then, through passen• ger connections were made south of Sherbrooke to Newport, linking Quebec with New York and Boston directly. BKLOVh CLEAR BOAiiDl...But Train No.l stop; anyway to let dovm two passengers at Bish• We paced No. i through the roiling coun• opton, 26.3 miles from Sherbrooke.The shor- tryside on April 22nd, as it maintained a but steep grade in the background is typ• punctual schedule through a predominantly ical of the undulating main line of the QG.