HMCS Cataraqui's New Craft, 1969

On June 12, 1969 it was a case of a boat taking a train to the water! The boat was a new harbour craft for the local naval reserve unit, HMCS Cataraqui. While I have no information about where this spritely craft came from, it was not sailed to Kingston. No, it arrived on a flatcar at the Kingston grain elevator! Spotted between the two sets of loading equipment on the west side of the elevator, a Link-Belt road crane was driven down the paved tracks to do the unloading directly into the lake. The top view looks toward land, the other two below toward the lake.

This appears to be the Crossbow (YMU-116), a 46-foot workboat built in 1954 by Russel Brothers in Owen Sound. She variously served with naval reserve divisions HMCS Hunter (Windsor), HMCS Prevost (London) and HMCS York (Toronto), with her name derived from the main part of Hunter's crest. Since all three of these units are on CN lines, it seems she was shipped by one of them to Kingston. A Whig news report of the day suggested the Crossbow was lifted off a larger vessel, but clearly it was a flatcar, possibly a CN one.

Previous vesels operated in Kingston were:

• PTC 721 - a Fairmile motor launch (1948-50).
• Loganville - a 40-foot tug built by Russel Brothers in 1944. She arrived after a weeks-long journey from the Maritimes. (1948-56). (The Crossbow was to augment two smaller craft at HMCS Cataraqui at the time, Loganville being one.)
• Detector - a 65-foot patrol vessel built by Shelburne Shipyards for the RCMP in 1957, serving mainly in the Saint John area, then being transferred to the Navy in 1976.

Two views of preparations for the lift.

(Three photos from Queen's University Archives, Kingston Whig-Standard Fonds - V142.7-10)

 

CLC's Last Product

The shop floor of the Canadian Locomotive Company on Ontario Street is still (top photo). A Whig-Standard photographer was dispatched to the remains of the sprawling, once-thriving factory that housed the second-largest, steeped in history manufacturer of locomotives. The photographer's subject was the loading of  "The Loco's" last product for shipment on June 27, 1969.

After years of declining sales, attempts at diversification and an April, 1969 strike by 120 members of Local 532 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America resulted in the U.S. owner Fairbanks-Morse (Canada) Limited closing the plant. No agreement had been reached on the company’s ultimatum and operations ceased as of July 1, 1969. About 80 remaining managers, clerical staff and salaried employees remained. It had been one year since the last locomotive to leave the plant departed on the same track leading out of Kingston.

This is the only photo that actually made Kingston's daily newspaper. I am pleased to be able to share this remarkable series of photos, reformatted from an envelope of negatives held by the Queen's University Archives, 

The last product of the plant was marine engine contract "OP88", rated at 2000-horsepower and 700-rpm.  Its progress on the shop floor is traced in the following photos. First, the huge engine is lifted by the shop crane onto a wooden cradle. Then, the cradle is in turn loaded onto CN flatcar 661569 for its journey to Halifax.

The Whig clipping: 

 

S/S Baygeorge Collides with Causeway

Early on the Sunday morning of October 15, 1967 the 350 foot-long coal carrier S/S Baygeorge collided with the Lasalle Causeway bridge. She'd just returned from Rochester, NY with 4,000 tons of coal in her holds. (More on the Baygeorge here.)

Having dropped anchor in the area of the former frigate HMCS Inch Arran after passing under the causeway bridge lift span, she was nosing over to the Anglin coal dock when winds caused her to slip her anchor, hit some pilings and then 'bounce into' and collide with the bridge span. The bridge was out of commission for the rest of Sunday. Workers from the Kingston Shipyards repaired damage, including a large dent, to get the bridge back into action for Tuesday. Damage was pegged at $20,000. 

Bayswater Shipping launched a 'master's protest' against the presence of the Inch Arran with Department of Transport marine officials. The Baygeorge's captain had expected to use the mud bar the Inch was sitting on to slow his vessel's progress. As a result of the collision and potential ongoing risk, the shipping company gave notice that Anglin's freight rates for coal were to be raised! This in turn could affect Anglin's commercial viability i.e. its balance sheet. 

At the time, the Baygeorge was the only vessel capable of manoeuvring into the Anglin dock, especially with only 900 feet of space due to the position of the Inch. This, after an earlier incident in which the coal-carrier also dropped anchor to avoid the old frigate and sustained a hole in her hull requiring $15,000 in repairs. Four more trips to Kingston were planned before the end of the 1967 shipping season. Without using her self-unloading boom, stevedores would have to be hired.

(Top photo from Queen's University Archives, photo above from shiphotos)

I'm saving up energy to publish an exhaustive post on the Inch Arran's checkered stay in Kingston. Until that gets written, this is just one more data point in the problems that the former warship is thought to have caused, being an Inner Harbour navigational hazard!

On The Buses

I occasionally come across city bus photos. There are not many such photos, so it's always a neat find to come across one. With the demise of the Kingston electric railway, Kingston City Coach, a subsidiary of Colonial Bus Lines, operated city bus service from 1930 until July 1, 1962. Thereafter, buses were operated by the Kingston Public Transit System (KPTS). The KPTS moniker was chosen in May, 1962 and the system transferred to the the Public Utilities Commission at the end of 1962. The system was later renamed Kingston Transit (KT). Bus 5609 (a 1952 Canadian Car & Foundry product, originally owned by Kingston City Coach) operating as a school bus at Lasalle Causeway, with Orefax tied up in background on January 15, 1968 (top photo).

Though not evident in the black & white archival photos, the Kingston buses wore an attractive white and light-blue paint scheme, still reflected in today's fleet. This online auction site photo shows bus 6223 operating on the Montreal route (note green flag) and passing St Andrew's Presbyterian Church at Princess and Barrie Streets:

Buses 6216-6230 were the first new buses ordered by KPTS, entering service in October, 1962. Four of the buses were parked at the Cricket Field, in front of the Frontenac Country Court House for their publicity photos by George Lilley, one of which was included in a Whig ad on October 3, 1962 advertising free rides!

The new General Motors buses cost just under $15,000 each. 

6222 on Princess Street, 1966 (below)

Waiting buses at Brock & King Streets, 1965:

New bus orders continued, all from General Motors for their 35-foot 'New Look' models, totalling ten orders over the next 14 years, before orders were placed for higher capacity, 40-foot GM models. 6434 at Brock and King in 1966:

New GM 'fishbowls', 1968:

Interior and exterior views during an industrial site tour, 1967:

Exterior and interior views of the downtown bus barns, 1968:

6532 outside the bus barns, 1965

6222 fights snowy road conditions on Brock Street near City Hall in December, 1968

Through slush at the Traffic Circle, KT 6737 in January, 1969:

KT 6635 at Pine and Division tussle with truck, April 1969:

Sharin' the road - 6333 with a snowmobile during snowy April, 1969:

More photos from the transition era. November 17, 1969 near City Hall:

Winter to spring, 1970:

Weller Avenue accident involving KT 6223 (above) and KT 6229 at City Hall:

Up Brock Street:

(All photos in this post from Queen's University Archives)

Four Boxcars For Fall

Online shopping has been a boon to many but not to me, during the pandemic and after. However, I recently found an online marketplace listing for four boxcars that seemed to be just what my layout and I needed. The four were Accurail and Athearn products, reasonably priced, with metal wheels.

Though I usually don't dabble too deeply in rolling stock on this blog, I'm desperately trying to delve back into the layout room, now that the colder weather is upon us. The arrival of these cars and their subsequent pre-layout work seemed to be a worthwhile pursuit now that 'modelling season' is here. All these cars would be plausible visitors to Kingston, so I'm looking forward to seeing them in service.

It didn't hurt that I knew of Will the seller, and that he offered to affordably ship the cars from Quinte West using one of Canada Post's new flat rate boxes. This seemed like a good option with $1.50 per litre gas! Shortly after our transaction was complete, Will shipped the cars and they arrived quickly and in excellent condition. It was 'kid on Christmas morning' time, and I was pleased to find Accurail Southern Railway, Southern Pacific and Canadian National; and Athearn Grand Trunk Western cars ready for coupler conversion and some light weathering. Ready for their closeups:

The trucks and couplers were already blackened, though I added my customary X2F couplers. I was still able to work out in the sunroom in daytime, making these reconfigurations more enjoyable with natural light:

Each of the newer-prototype cars received ACI labels. I took a chance on this CN car with the 8-foot door. These were often used for newsprint service, and indeed I receive such cars of newsprint at my layout's Whig-Standard warehouse. If I had yellow paint in my tool tray, I'd make one side's door yellow. I did, and I did. I thought it looked good, though I decided to leave the other side's door brown, signifying Alcan ingot service, another reason these cars came to Kingston from Arvida, QC.

The Southern Pacific car, being a product of the 1940's, got a heavy dilute hobby-paint weathering, as well as some chalk-marks:

I also gave the SP car a roof treatment, being the side of the car most commonly seen on my layout, even with its 48-inch height.

I then took the cars down to the layout, registered them in the database, and posed them for photos (to send to Will) at the CN freighthouse. Not only are 40-foot cars quite prototypical for my circa 1970 modelled locale and era, but they allow me to handle more, shorter cars on the layout's CN and CP trains, because space in 10x11 feet is always at a premium.

Here are the four cars at the freighthouse, with the city of Kingston behind and the Great Cataraqui River Inner Harbour in the foreground. Workers and equipment are busy at Canadian Dredge & Dock's shipyard:

This project should mark the beginning of [indoor] modelling season, so I expect to share more modelling posts, as well as continuing with archival research and prototype history topics throughout the shorter-daylight months to come!

OCTOBER 3 UPDATE - I just tried to tell Will about this post, and received a response stating that Will has passed away. He died suddenly on September 25. This comes as quite a shock, knowing Will had much to live fore: recently engaged, two growing boys and many interests and friends in his life. These cars will remain a rolling memorial to Will.