Don McQueen's Waterfront Photography

In my continuing quest for photos of Kingston's Hanley Spur, I contacted prolific photographer, data-keeper and author Don McQueen, with good results. Don kindly shared some images taken during various visits to Kingston, where he also studied at Queen's University. On July 3, 1969 CP RS-23 8031 was trolling along the granite-laced waterfront with the Spirit of Sir John A in the background (top photo). Don was at Kingston Junction, where the CN Hanley Spur met the then-Gananoque Subdivision, on October 10, 1959. CN RS-3 3000 was at the junction switch, as an eastbound behind CN Geeps 4494-4308-4322 with a healthy head-end cut of ice reefers hustled by:

Patiently waiting...some harbour buildings are visible at left (above) and the building sign advertised A. MacLean & Son Wholesale Grocers:

 Gaining the mainline, pushing a caboose:

On April 7, 1960 Don caught CN and CP working the waterfront. CN RS-3 3002 passes under the River Street bridge southbound, with a CN boxcar in tow.

Next we photographically find ourselves at the CP North Street roundhouse turntable, beside the Inner Harbour. CPR G5 1227 may have been one of the last steam locomotives in the area, and we are definitely in the dying days of steam - April 7, 1960 - as Don captures 1227 smoking on the turntable. The late Dunc DuFresne documents some of the last steam operations out of Ottawa West terminal, including the 1227 here.

After 1227 left Ottawa for Smiths Falls on the night of January 2 for Smiths Falls, it possibly stuck around there for the rest of the winter and into the spring. The Kingston job had been dieselized since at least mid-1959 using 8400's or 8700's. By October, one of three units 8028, 8029 and 8030 were the regular power. However, on five days in April 1960 the Kingston job was assigned steam: the 1227 April 4th, 5th and 7th and on April 6th the 1226 took a one-day turn. This is recorded in the Tichborne station register which has both Belleville and Kingston sub entries. And this appears to be possible for two reasons. First the turntable was large enough to accommodate them and secondly 1226 was not scrapped until June 1961 and 1227 not until September 1964 according to Omer's book. Notice some Service cars at right, with the retaining wall over near Rideau Street at left:

Here are some side views that Don took on the turntable. The Service boarding car on the next track is occupied:

Definitely at the end of steam - it's doubtful that shop forces would have previously let even a freight engine leave the ready track without a better appearance. But the shiny new diesels were in use! Note the yellow-painted 'Armstrong' turntable timber:

Must've been a late spring. Ice is visible in the harbour:

And in front of City Hall, here's 1227 coupled to some unknown equipment, in front of a portico-less City Hall also on April 7:

...and passing northbound under the River Street bridge. I can almost hear the 'chuff-chuff":

From a family album via Don and Bruce Rescorla, here's a 1910 waterfront view showing grain elevators, vessels and some interesting rolling stock in front of the CP freight shed:

A June 29, 1955 Dave Stevens photo of CPR 437 working hard to haul out new H16-44 8549-8550 past two vintage pickup trucks:

Thanks to Don for his gracious sharing of these photos, each representing an interesting era and engrossing operations!

DuPont Car Keeps Hanging Around!

Ever since I began modelling Kingston's Hanley Spur, I was not sure how I would handle cars that were characteristically Kingston-ish but had no modelled locale on the layout. For instance, DuPont's nylon plant, which was miles away from the Outer Station on the Cataraqui Spur. At first I thought I would create a track that could 'be' DuPont. But that seemed unrealistic. But I had the cars...so...what to do?

Check the prototype. Online auction site photo (above, captioned 1972) and CSTM photo (below, captioned 1978) and you can see DuPont cars in both. They were regularly seen at the Outer Station yard, waiting for movement to DuPont - always there!

So I brought my DuPont car online and there it sat in my Outer Station yard. Going to the plant, someday. Then it hit me...it doesn't really have to go. If they're perpetually seen in such photos, why can't the car just hang around? For a long time. It's so characteristic that it fits, and I can just switch around it, and it's always just...there!

So it's no wonder the car checker is scratching his head (above). He wonders why it's still in the yard. But that's OK. After awhile, I'll probably take it back offline. It'll go back to be loaded with feedstock and returned to the yard at some later date.

Just like millennials that move back home with Mom & Dad and seemingly just want to keep hanging around. Except in this case, it's OK!

***UPDATE - Will Murphy reminded me of another variation - SCLAIR covered hoppers or Hercules plastic pellet cars that would eventually wind up at Northern Telecom, four miles of the Outer Station. But that doesn't mean that they couldn't kick around the station yard for awhile! ACFX 52141, welcome to Kingston's Hanley Spur (that's my resident, under-utilized (until now)) Hercules car.

Visiting the Queen's Archives

Some years ago, I obtained several photocopies of photos of Kingston-area railway-themed photos from the Queen's University Archives: Davis Tannery, River Street bridge, Sydenham station and others.

Today I came face-to-face with some of those same photos, in the Reading Room of the Queen's Archives. They actually made me a card-carrying member! I hope to return and delve some more into their holdings. 

George Lilley was a well-known photographer, freelance and press, the latter for the Kingston Whig-Standard. Many of George's photos hold secrets that are sometimes in plain sight, sometimes in the background.

It was an amazing walk through time with George's work today!

Logo for the Layout

I don't really need a logo for the layout. There are no documents, no cars to letter or signs to make. But I have two dollar-store pen-holders on my control stand, and they still have a Rutland-inspired Green Mountain Lines paper logo on them. So they had to go! Feast your eyes on graphics guru and fellow modeller Randy O'Brien's rendition of a CN wafer-inspired logo (top). Here are some of my rudimentary attempts using Microsoft Paint:

Tilted with olive-green background:

The prototype Hanley Spur involved CN and CP trackage, I was initially inspired by CNR's wafer logo. Derek Pittman's logo for his Cobo in HO under-construction layout resembles it.  Here's my homage to the CPR stacked lettering, using some good old limestone grey lettering! Maybe there is room for more than one logo...

Here is Randy's untilted wafer:

and tilted. I really like having the word 'Kingston' in Randy's logo (top) because it really adds a sense of place for my layout.

Check out this passenger-car logo Randy created:

Randy included the words in CP's iconic beaver-shield logo in some versions:

And this one is very good. It incorporates Kingston's Hanley Spur lettering, the beaver and the CN shield!

Modelling a Typical Swamp Ward House

While it's not possible to visit many of the industrial sites associated with the Hanley Spur, it is still possible to visit the neighbourhoods surrounding them. It was here that workers and families lived a workaday life, in what is currently referred to as Kingston's Swamp Ward. Googlemapping such streets, I settled on this double-house at 473 Bagot Street. I'm no architect or housebuilder, so I don't necessarily know the appropriate terms here!

But it seemed to me that there were hundreds of such large-windowed, two-storey homes on these streets. It seemes prototype-disingenuous to not attempt to model at least one. So, armed with a 50-cent blue train show-find and a roof from another project, it was time to try to model one.

I decided to re-skin the front of the house, shorten the roof and add a rear wall. Most materials were taken from my scrap box of building bits:

Colours. These range from whitewash white to riotous red, materials from wood to stucco to brick and siding. I decided on a cream and a tan, representing two families' halves of the same house, though sharing the same shingles!

Adding a limestone foundation, various details and even a fire escape beyond the shuttered far windows, this typical house was complete and just needed to be scenicked into the layout!

Modelling the River Street Bridge

I'm running out of things to model as my HO scale Hanley Spur layout gets more and more 'complete'. (You and I both know it will never be 'complete'!) I've been avoiding the River and Cataraqui Streets area - the daunting prototype Bailey Broom Factory is currently being rebuilt! Glad I photographed it with all its additional buildings in its 'original' form! But it seemed to be time for the River Street bridge to be tackled. I have a few prototype photos to go from, but no scale drawings, close-up photos and certainly no prototype to inspect and photograph! It appears that the original limestone abutments were concreted-in later. But I like the Kingston-look of them, so will retain them on my version.

My version would consist of a few components (top photo). A bridge timber deck that I constructed of matchstick-type lumber on three wooden stringers, bridge piers from a commercial pier set, and guardrails from a commercial set. I started by assembling those components, then added abutments made of foamcore, clad in limestone paper - the same as I used on my Outer Station project:

Then I painted the bridge deck, weathered the wood and constructed CN-style (left, below) and CP-style (right, below) telltales to warn rooftop-brakemen of the approaching vertical reduced clearance!

 Top view:

Time to place the structure in the scene. I had the spot picked out - right above the CN-CP diamond! It was now time to finish the approaches. A bit of a moving target, but I finally got an alignment that allowed clearances for both lines while lining up with foreground and background and benchwork:

 CP approaches from timetable north, shown from the south side (above) and north side (below).

Here's CN entering the scene, showing the north side of the bridge (below). Approaches are wood (foreground) and foamcore (background)

Telltales are in place, and now to complete the approaches so the bridge does not appear to be floating over gaps! Non-prototype alert: the spur shown at the backdrop, above, did not exist under the prototype! But I wanted to squeeze in one more industry for CP to switch, representing one of the small two- or three-tank oil dealers that were located along the waterfront. So there it is! I will be concealing it as best as I can! CP waits for CN:

Placement and scenicking done! Just a few railing segments and details to add:

 Scrapyards and vacant lots - signature scenes on the Hanley Spur:

Then, and only then, did I find out about the Rix Products rural timber overpass. Definitely a good option for River Street modellers!

 

Winter on the Hanley Spur

I'm not unhappy to 'kick winter to the curb' or more precisely, the snowbank along the curb! In February, 1982 CN 3661 was breaking through the snowbank at Montreal and Railway Streets, perhaps switching MacCosham or heading back to CN rails after switching one of the other ex-CP-served industries. With the help of the sectionmen!

Three years later, on February 8, 1985 the Whig published this snow dump. Located just west of Division Street, north of the CN tracks, city trucks loaded by loader or snowblower would create a pile of slushy, sandy snow each winter. In the background are a CN crane outfit, coupled to CP interchange cars.

An Outer Station Reception Fit for the Queen

While we waited for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to arrive at the Outer Station in the summer of 1973, my Dad photographed this platform scene, and my brother diligently scanned his slide.

Bunting had been draped from the eaves.  The guard of honours was shuffling and dressing its ranks into place in the parking lot. Even the semaphores seem to stand at attention.

And of course that kid is on a banana-seat bike. It was the seventies, after all!

Hanley Spur: Whither Thou Goest, I Can't Go

[OPINION-EDITORIAL] - Kingston, Ontario.

I sat in my vehicle. Ready to explore. Could I drive across town to 'visit' the Hanley Spur? Apparently, my mis-spent youth had kept me from making this visit years ago. I'm sure my Dad and I had taken some Saturday morning drives - once I'd photographed that unwitting potato car at Quattrocchi's. Another time, vessels at Canadian Dredge & Dock. A few times, CP was at the Queens interchange leaving cars for its orphaned industries then served by CN. But where were my photos of peddler freights making their way along Rideau Street, crossing Railway Street, nearing Place d'Armes? Nowhere. No album held them. Only my imagination.

To be sure, vestiges remain. I can find remnants. Tattered historical leftovers. Composted vacant lots and refuse-riddled rights-of-way. But there is no clank of couplers, no squeal of flanges and no cinder-smoke rising between the roofs.

Discouraging? Slightly. Defeating? No.

Together, we'll have to patch together a quilt made of squares of memory. City blocks crocheted together forming a historical blanket covering the waterfront neighbourhoods. Pictures and reminiscences. Stories and sketches. They're out there. This is no scenic drive, no travelogue or car rally. This will be a scavenger hunt. This blog is a beginning. A preface to progress preserved, and in some cases, posterity postponed.

So I put my keys away. And looked for a chronological crochet hook, ready to go to work. I imagined myself at the notional nexus of the the Hanley Spur and Cataraqui Street. Sun-dappled stucco facing shadow-soaked bricks - I stood at the intersection of today and yesteryear.

4th Anti-Aircraft Battery Loading at Kingston

Found in a shoebox by Kingston sign painter Bob Fray, I received en electronic version of the above photo from Laura Murray of the Swamp Ward and Inner Harbour History Project. Laura was questioning the time period in which the photo was taken! What a photo! It looks as if the photo was stuck to something - some lettering appears just above the locomotive, which is under steam.

Some inferences from the photo:

• CNR 3342 was part of a class of locomotives built in 1918-1919
• the Kingston coal gasification operation wound down by the 1950's

So that puts the photo between 1918 and the 1950's.

A closer look at the vehicles and clothing of the onlookers puts me in mind of the 1940's - wartime. In fact, these look like military vehicles. I'm in fer a more inferences:

• an artillery unit? But those aren't tractors, they're road vehicles. The trailers are fendered and tarped. Searchlights!
• there are no reporting marks on the flatcars. 
• there is no visible logo on the tender of the obviously-CN steam locomotive. 
• both were probably removed as a form of censorship OR for the use of the photo in a government publication that would not give publicity to a particularly railway
• the boxcar is clearly lettered for CN with no censorship or other removal of reporting marks
• the K&P coaches and a caboose are visible in the background - or they're CN rider cars and caboose accompanying this special movement.
• what is going on in the photo? Is the searchlight unit's train is being assembled after loading or disassembled before unloading? Questions....hmmm. Headed to/from Barriefield base up on the hill?
• some local men and boys are looking on - one dandy is pointing out the valve gear. White shoes! A member, or possibly two, of the crew stands nearby.

The location is the GTR/CNR freight shed team tracks between Wellington Street and Place d'Armes:

• City Hall's dome is visible in background
• gasification operation already noted with lettering, "Gas - The Modern Fuel"
• others with a better knowledge of downtown architecture would recognize some of the other buildings

Such an interesting photo. One other thing - that boxcar is fouling a switch!

March 2019 Update **Excellent research done by Andrew Jeanes has found that the 4th Anti-Aircraft  Battery, RCA was stationed in Kingston at the outbreak of the war. Departing Kingston on August 26, 1939, the battery was sent to Halifax to bolster coastal defenses there. Andrew also found a photo of a 3-inch, 20 cwt. AA gun - the trailer design, with deployable side decks, matches what seems to be under those tarps! Andrew also noted that since the Richardson elevator is still standing in the photo, the photo had to be pre-December 1941 - the month that the USA entered the war.

Upcoming Presentation and Layout Photos, March 2019

I'm looking forward to giving a PowerPoint presentation at the Associated Railroaders of Kingston  (ARK) March meeting on Tuesday, March 5 at 6ish p.m. at the Division Street Denny's. Week to remember - Kingston's Rail-o-Rama train show is the following weekend, Saturday, March 8-Sunday, March 9 at the Ambassador on Princess Street. I'll be helping with the ARK table from 10-12 Saturday. The ARK module group continues to meet and we are firming up plans for the 5 W's of the modular layout we'll be contributing to, preserving key elements of the Hanley Spur in HO scale. In the meantime, I've been doing some Hanley Spur home layout operation and photography. I find it's wise to end every construction session with tidying up AND operation. It's been a productive way of keeping the layout clean and ready for the next time, and gives a good feeling of accomplishment.

Now that the layout is more complete, it's enjoyable to do some layout photography. These photos are taken with my Nikon S9700 Coolpix on macro mode at layout level with no extra lighting and some photo editing with Microsoft Photos software. CN's switcher just completed a trip to the CP interchange, and is in the yard as a caboose hop with crew.

On the waterfront - the spur serving Canadian Dredge & Dock, Shell Oil and I. Cohen Steel is in the middle of this photo:

One of the last steps in this layout iteration is scenery. I've got trackage, structures (or structure stand-ins) and operations in place. Trees from the previous Vermont layout iteration (putting the 'green' in Green Mountain State!) are stashed various places and are slowly making their way back onto the layout. This shady glen near Rideau Street is temporary home to a few fellows sharing stories - and a bottle!

At the Wellington Street freight house, a couple of workers look over the boxcars spotted there:

It seems important to include the human side of the Hanley Spur. This helps understand why the tracks are there, the industries they serve, and the folks that inhabit this HO scale world!