OCTOBER 1993 Newsletter of the Upper Canada Railway Society THIS MONTH IN RAIL AND TRANSIT \ A TRIP ON THE TMNS-KAROO Scott Haskill's ride on one of South Africa's last remaining intercity passenger trains, from Cape Town to Johannesburg. 6 THE LAST DAYS OF THE DOMINION ATLANTIC RAILWAY NUMBER 527 - OCTOBER 1993 Cord Webster outlines the history and the current operations of CP's line in Nova Scotia. PUBLISHED BY 7 Upper Canada Railway Society THE FIRST DAYS OF THE CAPE RO. Box 122, Station A BRETON AND CENTRAL NOVA SCOTIA Toronto. Ontario M5W IA2 Canada's newest railway and the transition THE RAILWAY AS AN ICON from CN operation at the beginning of I spent most of September in the provinces EDITOR October, by Gord Webster. west of Ontario, and I came back with an Pat Scrlmgeour 10 appreciation of how much more important railways continue to be to the people of 250 Queens Quay West #1607 CN FREIGHT TRAINS IN THE MOUNTAINS western Canada than in Toronto. Toronto Toronto, Ontario M5J 2N2 CN schedules over the B.C. South District, may have more trains a day than anywhere E-Mail: [email protected] between Edson, Alberta, and Vancouver, B.C. else, but Toronto is not a railway town. 12 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Winnipeg is a railway town. It has res• RESEARCH AND REVIEWS taurants and stores with a railway theme, the John Carter, Art Clowes. Scott Haskill, RAILWAY ARCHAEOLOGY . Joliette. Quebec Countess ofDufferiii on display in the station, Don McQueen, Sean Robitaille, BOOKS .... Barney and Smith Car Company and the Prairie Dog Central, that runs behind Cray Scrlmgeour, Chris Spinney, 15 a steam engine on a CN line every weekend. John Thompson, Cord Webster TRANSCONTINENTAL Edmonton is a railway town. It has a THE RAPIDO VIA schedule changes large collection of cars and engines - includ• THE PANORAMA . Vancouver commuter train Please send news and short contributions to ing CNR 6060 - at the Alberta Railway MOTIVE POWER . New power for QNS&L the addresses shown with each news section. Museum, and working trains and streetcars at IN TRANSIT A M6tro line to Laval? Fort Edmonton. Articles and photos should be sent to the editor at one of the above addresses. If you Cranbrook is a railway town. It has the ON THE CALENDAR country's most opulent passenger train, the are using a computer, please use electronic Friday, November 19 - UCRS Toronto TPans-Canada Limited, on display in down• mall or send a WordPerfect or text file on an 'A" A") meeting, 7:30 p.m., at the Toronto Board town, and a working museum railway just IBM-compatible (5 or 3 disk, along with of Education auditorium, 155 College east of town at Fort Steele. a printed copy. Street at McCaul. Peter Jobe will be show• Revelstoke is a railway town. It has the ing photos from the northeastern U.S., best-located railway museum in the country, Subscriptions to Rati and Transit are available including CSX, the D&H, and short lines. under a high roof in a new building, with a with membership In the Upper Canada Rail• Friday, November 26 - UCRS Hamilton growing collection around a steam engine meeting, 8:00 p.m., at the Hamilton Spec• and a business cai; beside the CP main line. way Society. Membership dues are $29.00 per year (12 Issues) for addresses In Canada, and tator auditorium, 44 Frid Street, just off I add to these Heritage Park in Calgary, Main Street at Highway 403. The prog• the new West Coast Railway Museum in $32.00 for addresses In the U.S. and overseas. ramme will be recent news and members' Squamish, the Museum of the Highwood in Student memberships, for those 17 years or current and historical slides. High Rivei; the Kettle \^lley Railway right-of- younger, are $ 19.00. Please send Inquiries and Friday, December 17 - UCRS Toronto way at Kelowna, and any number of restored changes of address to the address at the top meeting, at the Toronto Board of Education stations and preserved locomotives, and I of the page. auditorium, 155 College Street at McCaul. have an indication of the place that railways Friday, December 17 - UCRS Hamilton hold in the memory of the west. -PS meeting, at the Hamilton Spectator auditor• UPPER CANADA RAILWAY SOCIETY ium, 44 Frid Street. TORONTO MEETING LOCATION DIRECTORS The monthly meetings in Toronto will con• Rick Eastman. President 416 -494-3412 tinue to be at the Toronto Board of Education John Carter, VP- Services 416 690-6651 COVER PHOTO auditorium, for the time being. Notice of any Pat Semple, VP-Adminlstratlon 416 923-9123 change in meeting location will be given in Gordon Shaw, Secretary 905 889-6972 In the first week of operation of the new Rail and TYansit. Art Clowes 514 934-5549 railway, Cape Breton and Central Nova Steve Danko 416 287-2844 Scotia train No. 407, led by former CN RENEWAL NOTICE A! Maitland 416 921-4023 C630M 2016, passes through lona. Nova For most members, your renewal notice for George Meek 416 532-5617 Scotia, seen here from the car deck of the 1994 is included with this month's Rail and Pat Scrlmgeour 416 260-5652 ferry C. Monty MacMillan. Hansit. There has been no increase in the -Photo by Gord Webster. October S. 1993 dues for 1994. Completed October 31, 1993 2 • Rail and Transit • October 1993 SOUTH AFRICA A Trip on the Trans-Karoo By Scott Haskill Photos by the author Our Trans-Karoo was a long train. Two electric motors led the way, followed by three deadheading sleepers, A recent trip to South Africa gave me the chance to do two third-class coaches, four second-class sleepers, the two things that eluded me on my previous visit there, in dining car Umlaas, a kitchen car, three first-class 1991: to see Cape Town and to do a little train-riding sleepers, two baggage/guard vans, and an enclosed and -watching. Both goals were accomplished success• double-level automobile transpxDiter on the rear, for fully during my three-week stay in April and May of this passengers' cars. (How to load your car on board? Drive year. through the station doorway, make a left past the car- Cape Town is a city in a remarkable setting, sandwiched hire kiosks, mind the potted palms, then go straight between the Atlantic Ocean and several spectacular hills down the platform and up a portable ramp into the familiar from picture-postcard views — Table Mountain, transporter.) Devil's Peak, and Signal Hill. I've never been to Vancouver, but both the physical setting of Cape Town The carriages making up the train were all similar, built and the laid-back, ocean-oriented lifestyle of its more in South Africa by the Union Carriage and Wagon Works well-off inhabitants seem to mirror Canada's west coast. to a design from the late 1960s. South African mainline Three days were not enough to really see the place, but railways are 3'-6" gauge, but the cars and locomotives we hit all the highlights, including a near-vertical cable are large, in proportion to the gauge. The trains have a car trip up Table Mountain, and the trek to the Cape of massive look to them, and our carriage didn't feel Good Hope, where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. cramped. The sleepers have vestibules at each end, a side corridor, and eight compartments. Six are double Friday, April 23, was a warm autumn day, and we bedrooms, with two three-person upholstered bench arrived at the large downtown railway station for our seats facing each other, and a small sink and table in- 09:20 departure on the Trans-Karoo. For the next two between. The benches make into a lower and middle days, we'd be travelling on Inter-Pax intercity trains to bunk at night, and an upper berth drops down in the Johannesburg and our ultimate destination, familiar fashion. Our room was one of only two three- Pietermaritzburg. The state-owned railway has bed, half-sized coupes, and luckily for us, the only one undergone many corporate changes in the last decade; facing forward. There are washrooms at either end of "Inter-Pax" is the name used for intercity trains, while the car, and our carriage, being one of the newer ones "Metro" is used for commuter trains. Both are the (1982), had a shower room as well. One of the few current marketing identities for the passenger side of noticeable differences between first- and second-class Spoornet, the latest name for the overall rail sleepers is the blue upholstery in first class, compared to organisation ("spoor" means "rail" in Afrikaans). Cape our dark green vinyl. In first class, as well, bedding is Town still has a thriving electrified commuter rail supplied free, while second-class passengers have to system, and much of the station, rebuilt since the 1950s rent a bedroll for 12 Rand (about $5) a night. We were on the site of an older facility, was very busy. The happy; the car was clean and not too worn, and there station has only a small intercity section, and with was plenty of luggage space in the compartment. cutbacks in intercity service, this area was quiet. The Trans-Karoo still operates every day between Cape Town and Johannesburg, a 25-hour trip over 1200 Rare mainline steam: Two Class 25NC 4-8-4s on the northbound Trans- kilometres. The more famous and much more expensive Karoo, at Potchefstroom, April 24, 1993.