Corvette Engines to Kingston

In a previous post on the River Street bridge, you'll read about the raising of the bridge during wartime. This not only led to its precarious nature, it also was necessary to bring in the Inglis steam engines for corvettes built at the Kingston Shipbuilding Co. shipyards during World War II. While I haven't seen any under-construction photos like the ones below taken at our shipyards.

In 1940, the clearance height of the bridge was apparently not a problem for trawler (corvette) boilers, this Feb. 13, 1940 Whig article gives their measurements as 16' 9" high and 13' 4" wide:

On July 10, 1942 at a city Board of Works meeting, the request from Kingston Shipbuilding Co. was received and referred to the finance committee. The Cataraqui Street [sic] bridge was to be raised 14 inches:

City Council meeting minutes show that approval was given to raise the bridge to allow the marine engines built by Inglis in Toronto to pass underneath, although that motion was approved on July 16, 1942. The granting of the request by Kingston City Council was published in the July 17, 1942 Whig:

The work was taking place quickly, in August, with costs apportioned to CN for the bridge and city for the approaches to allow boilers to pass underneath:

Also in mid-1942, expansion was taking place at the shipyards for corvette construction. Shear legs adjacent to the lake were being built, with a 100-ton capacity. Their first lift was an 83-ton marine engine. A new 125 x 75-foot machine shop with an overhead electric crane to permit unloading from Ontario Street siding was also being installed. The crane was being installed "to lift the heavy pieces of machinery and steel which come in on the Ontario Street siding and carry them right into the building", according to a June 19, 1942 Whig article. Notice that this engine is even on a depressed-centre flat car to minimize its height:

Four-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engine and two boilers, destined for HMCS Galt alongside at Collingwood Shipyards, December 1940. One of two fire-tube boilers (below) for HMCS The Pas also at Collingwood in December, 1941. Note the comparative size of the shipyard worker! From Corvettes of the Royal Canadian Navy 1939-1945 by Macpherson and Milner.

This cutaway illustraion shows where they were located in the corvette. Engine (red arrow) below engine-room skylight, and fore and aft boilers (yellow arrows) below the funnel.

The 1939-1940 construction program Flower class corvettes were fitted with two Scotch Marine "fire-tube" boilers. These boilers "...held the water inside the huge drum of the boiler and the "fire" was shot through it in tubes which started in the three fireboxes at the bottom and then snaked back and forth through the drum." The large volume of water contained in these boilers provided a large reserve of steam for hunting submarines, but meant that the boilers were slow to raise steam from a cold start. In addition, the Scotch Marine boilers turned out to be relatively unreliable, and their size limited the supply of fuel that could be carried.

Scotch marine boilers were basically large round drums filled with water, with three combustion chambers built into the base. Heat from these oil-fired chambers snaked through the water in a series of pipes until it was vented out the funnel. The steam was drawn off the top of the boiler through high-pressure pipes to the engine. Apart from the ease of construction and operation, the advantage of fire-tube boilers was that they held a large reserve of steam which was useful when a ‘sprint’ was needed to catch a whale—or a submarine. But the large Scotch boilers also limited the size of the fuel storage tanks on either side of the early corvettes and kept their range to approximately 3,500 miles at 12 knots, or 2,500 at their maximum speed of 16 knots.

The 1940-41 construction program ships received "water-tube" boilers instead, in which the main body of the boiler acted as a firebox and water passed through it in banks of tubes. These boilers were superior in most respects to the Scotch Marine boilers that they replaced, and later allowed for more fuel to be carried thus extending the range of the 1941-42 construction program onward.

The 70-ton boilers provided steam to a four-cylinder triple expansion steam engine generating 2,750 horsepower, and providing a top speed of 16 knots. The corvette’s four-cylinder, double-acting vertical triple-expansion engines were old technology, too, perfected in the 1880's. Their great merits were ruggedness and simplicity, and the fact that they were so ubiquitous that finding engineers to run them was not a problem. The engines drew steam from the boilers at up to 200-pounds-per-square-inch pressure and used it to drive the high-pressure cylinder. The steam was then bled off to the intermediate-pressure cylinder before being sent to two large low-pressure cylinders at either end of the engine (hence ‘triple’ expansion with four cylinders). The exhaust steam was routed back into the boilers via a condenser. These engines were remarkably durable. HMCS Sackville’s power plant operated for 40 years!

(above from a variety of online sources, 

including the excellent 'Humble Corvette' series in Legion Magazine.)

This photo (below) shows the bridge with taller timbers and the previous limestone abutments, and the gap between them! Later photos than this Queen's University Archives 1965 photo show the abutments being concrete-encased.

Correspondence from 1940-41 between John Inglis, Collingwood and Kingston shipyards:

Here are some additional advertisements for marine boilers as published in a September 26, 1942 National Post special section on wartime shipbuilding. Inglis was not the only supplier.

K&P Newspaper Articles 1900-1957

Ottawa's Colin Churcher compiled newspaper articles from area newspapers regarding the Kingston & Pembroke over the years.

07/01/1882 - Kingston Daily British Whig - Railway Station Annoyances

Complaint has been made that persons driving into and out of the city have suffered annoyances from the movement and noise of trains at the Tete du Pont Barracks. The railway men feel the force of these grumblings, and have done what they can to meet the wishes of the public, the Superintendent having enjoined as much quietude as possible on the part of the train men and appointed a flag man. It has been suggested that the station be removed to a location nearer the cotton mill. This will be done; in time a new round house will be constructed and the building at present known as such converted into a freight depot.  A correspondent adds: "Some people want the station removed from the barracks. I don't approve of such a thing. If there is to be any change let the barrack gate be abolished and the road straightened. 

18/04/1883 - Kingston Daily British Whig - Railway Round House  

The K. & P. RR. round house will soon be ready for occupation. Ferguson Bros. of Napanee are now [illegible] the roof. The building is [88?] feet front, [133?] feet the half circle. It is [62?] feet deep and contains six stalls. It is frame and was built by R.S. Mowat, one of Kingston’s contractors. A turntable is now being placed in front of the round house. The Superintendent of the Kingston & Pembroke RR. was supervising the removal of the old turn table near the Tete du Pont barracks and changing the tracks so that the shunting of trains will be done away with at that point and the people of Pittsburg have no further grievances to ventilate.

11/05/1900 - Renfrew Mercury

A locomotive from the Kingston Locomotive Works came out this week on the K. & P.R. for transfer to the C.P.R., who were to carry it on to Portage La Prairie, where it would enter service for the Manitoba & Northwestern.

06/06/1912 - Ottawa Journal - K. and P. Train held up by Pest

Millions of caterpillars die on the track and block the coaches with slimy bodies. A butterfly is all right but a caterpillar is all wrong especially when in number that ther are like unto the sand of the sea shore. The Kingston and Pembroke train labored badly on a portion of its journey from Calabodie Tuesday night. The pest, which was very serious last year, is reported to be much worse this year.

Kingston - 19/06/1912 - Ottawa Citizen Duke at Kingston. 

The Duke of Connaught will arrive In the city Wednesday on the morning train over the Kingston and Pembroke Railway at eight o'clock. The cars Cornwall and York will be attached to the train at Sharbot Lake. The Duke will go over to the Royal Military College for the ceremonle. which commence there at 10.30 a.m.

18/06/1957 - Kingston - Kingston and Pembroke Railway Co. 

Has closed down 86 years after its inception. The service was discontinued Saturday following the return to Kingston of the last scheduled train from Sharbot Lake. The company, for half a century a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, was chartered in 1871. Its first section spanning the 46.8 miles to Sharbot Lake was opened in June, 1875 There were subsequent extentions to Snow Road and to Renfrew with spur lines serving the Martele iron mines and those at nearby Zanesville. The K and P line was in receivership in 1894. But it I organized four years later and in 1903 passed to the CPR. The Bay of Quinte Railway enjoyed trackage rights over the Kingston line until 1913. 

Before the First World War the Kingston service consisted of a daily passenger and mixed train each way with an extra mixed service as far as Sharbot Lake. The Canadian Locomotive Co. Kingston, built the Kingston company's 11 locomotives. Records show the line's inventory when the CPR took over included seven passenger cars, 50 flat cars and 20 box cars. Captions to three pictures. One of Canada's oldest railway lines was discontinued Saturday when CPR trains 612 and 613 from Kingston to Sharbot Lake and return made their last runs. Train is shown leaving Kingston, with freight, express, mail and passenger cars. Conductor George Giff of Smiths Falls had little passenger business to handle. He was kept busy though with waybills, manifests, etc. of mixed cargo. Train 612 pulls into the deserted station platform at Shatbot Lake 46 miles north of Kingston. Train connected with CPR local train from Toronto and Montreal.

Wilmots Dairy Truck

200th post on this blog! In a continuing effort to improve the local flavour of my vehicle fleet, I assembled a Wilmots Dairy truck out of parts. A cab from an Esso tank truck, a box from a Roco military truck, wheels from a Tyco tranport trailer and chassis from scrap styrene. This truck represents a commercial dairy delivery truck rather than the home delivery truck from which the milkman made numerous stops. I used an image of Wilmots advertising, formatted to fit the side of the truck box and printed. I matched a white for the cab. I've since painted the front fenders, as well as the rear bumper I added, dark blue - the prototype Divco home delivery truck has a blue hood also.

The finished product is at Montreal and Rideau Streets (top photo) and crossing the River Street Bridge:

Here's the prototype, taken by George Lilley in 1948 at the Wilmots Producer Dairy at the Traffic Circle (Queen's University Archives). Note the image on the building sign, matching that on my truck:

Here's a black and white image of my truck on Wellington Street:

And a view of the same truck in the same spot, from the backyards lining the CN Hanley Spur along Wellington Street:

By cutting and pasting the Wilmot graphics, I was able to produce a billboard:

Another possible project - a Wilmots Ford cabover truck: 

And just for fun, a much earlier photo showing the range of horsepower used by the Hemlock Park Dairy, also in Kingston (below). The age of actual horse power was over by my modelled era!

Another Anglin Coal Truck

 

Many elements of a scene give it a sense of place. One of these elements is prototypical vehicles. In an earlier post, I added to the S. Anglin coal delivery truck fleet.                   

Here's the real thing, delivering to the Royal Bank in 1966:                              

Here's my model, stopped along Rideau Street:

Here's the After and the Before: Released in 1966, the Matchbox No.48 red Dodge tandem dumptruck I started with is at right. I hacksawed off the lip of the box over the cab, and the slanted back of the dumpbox. I removed the dual axles and added a replacement with dual tires. Then it was time to paint the cab red and the box yellow. Printed lettering and logo were cut to fit in the spaces in the dumpbox side supports. The box had a tailgate added, then was painted with dilute black craft paint for the prototypical weathering that dirty coal would provide:

But this truck was meant to work! About to make a delivery on Wellington Street - once an everyday occurrence downtown:

Then it was time to return to the S.Anglin yard to pick up another load!

Esso Bulk Tank Upgrading

The previous post included a view of Imperial Oil's bulk tanks along Rideau Street in 1970. Since that's my nominal year for modelling on my HO scale Hanley Spur layout, it inspired me to upgrade my HO scale tanks, which were really just place-holders or mock-ups made of cardstock. 

Looking across CN and CP tracks above the limestone outcropping on the harbour side of Rideau Street, (above) the tanks are showing their age and have a large Esso oval logo. Here's the Before photo, showing my white cardstock tanks and way-too-small logo. In the foregound, closer to water level, is the limestone Imperial Oil warehouse:

My duckunder was a handy workbench, with the tank site just to the left. I taped the cardstock to a piece of foamcore matching my available backdrop space. Each piece is one half of an 8x11 sheet. My previous mock-ups are visible just behind:                                                   

I cut curved pieces of cardstock that I taped in to form the tops of the tanks. Here is the completed bulk tank backdrop. The colour is not so blazingly white:

I decided those former Texaco turquoise tanks had to go! I used a tape-runner to apply adhesive to the parchment-like paper onto the cardstock, which ironically, like the paper came from my wife's side of the layout/craft room! 

I'd photographed a small Esso oval logo, enlarged and dulled by photo-editing, also applied to the paper with tape-runner.

I added a couple of power poles and rearranged the equipment sheds around the tanks. As suggested by modeller Lance Mindheim, keeping a colour palette narrow reduces the suspension of disbelief required by brighter structure colours!

Cabbages and Kings film, 1970

This film profiles some down-on-their-luck men in Kingston, who circulate between downtown streets and the Inner Harbour shoreline, girl-watching in the former and day-drinking in the latter. Along the way, the cops come calling and the cells await. Directed by Peter Duffy, the film is online at vimeo.

The rail enthusiast in me picked out three brief scenes that I've screen-shotted. Two of the men rush to rescue someone in danger in the water, with Esso tanks on Rideau Street in the background. They're crossing tracks in the CP yard, with a CN switchstand at right indicating the Hanley Spur switch to the Imperial Oil limestone warehouse. 

Drinking in front a pile of wooden timbers, the men miss this awesome photo of Anglin's crane and its clamshell bucket taking coal from a Reading hopper car, with their covered coal trestle just visible at right:

And though it doesn't show well in this view, at the left of this frame, a CP switcher pushes a few cars into CP's yard, with basic boat docks visible in foreground and the Woolen Mill visible in the background.

CSL Package Freighter Fort Henry

FORT HENRY was named for her namesake fortification in Kingston. Hull#150 was launched March 10, 1955, at Collingwood, Ontario by Collingwood Shipyards Ltd., for Canada Steamship Lines Ltd.  

Dimensions: 461’ 6" LOA x 56’ beam x 32’ depth; 5,729 GRT 4,159 NRT. Powered by a 4,500 shp double reduction geared steam turbine built by John Inglis Co. Ltd. of Toronto, Ont. and 2 Foster-Wheeler oil-fired water tube boilers. The vessel was originally planned to be named FORT GARRY and had that name painted on her hull but prior to launch, the name was changed to FORT HENRY. The Whig-Standard published this story on March 11: 

The ship entered service in May of 1955. She was the first of Canada Steamship Lines "Fort Class" package freighters and the only one to have her pilothouse forward. Built for speed, the FORT HENRY could reach speeds of 18 mph. In her early years, the vessel often carried freight upbound loaded through the side doors and grain downbound loaded through her deck hatches.

On December 4, 1956, FORT HENRY struck bottom near the Canoe Rocks, Lake Superior, and was badly damaged. It reached Fort William safely, was unloaded, and spent the winter on the Port Arthur Dry Docks for repairs. It returned to service April 12, 1957. In 1960 her tonnage was changed to 5,729 GRT and 3,707 NRT. Ownership changed in 1970 to Steamship Forwarding Ltd. of Montreal, Que. while still under the management of Canada Steamship Lines.

At the end of the 1979 shipping season the FORT HENRY was laid up in Kingston, Ont. until she was sold for scrap to United Metals Ltd. of Hamilton, Ont. in 1984. (All Canada Steamship Lines package freight service ended before the start of the 1982 shipping season.) The FORT HENRY was towed by tugs GLENEVIS and GLENSIDE to Hamilton, Ont. arriving on June 5, 1984. Scrapping began in 1988. 

CSL's Last Canaller

A little background on Metis: She was the last canal-sized ship built for Canada Steamship Lines (CSL). The 259 foot long carrier was launched in 1956. She was lengthened at Kingston Shipyards to 331 feet in 1959 and deepened by 5 feet. Show in drydock on January 30, 1959 (top photo and below - Queen's University Archives). An internal CSL memo proposing the conversion was copied to shipyard superintendent R.W. Sutton in October, 1958:

Metis went back to work for CSL carrying cargoes for Lake Ontario Cement and usually managed in excess of 80 trips a year. It usually loaded at Picton for Toronto or Rochester and occasionally came up the Welland Canal for Windsor. Metis ended her career as a powered freighter, tying up at Kingston, on August 1, 1983, where I photographed her in 1984 with some of her bigger fleetmates: 

Metis was towed to Toronto on October 29, 1989 and, in time, rebuilt as a barge. The pilothouse was removed and a notch cut in the stern to accommodate a pusher tug. Here she is approaching Bath Lafarge cement plant on June 9, 2018 propelled by the tug Salvage Monarch:

Metis traveled down the Seaway on May 20, 1991, to begin a new career as a barge and has worked on the St. Lawrence and as a stationary storage barge at Green Bay, Windsor and Toronto. Metis is now owned by Essroc Cement and has seen considerable service carrying cargoes from Picton to Rochester as silting in the harbor has prevented the deeper draft Stephen B. Roman from servicing the port. When not in service, Metis is tied up and ready in Toronto. 

What's Up, Dock?

This 1881 Kingston Harbour map, from Library and Archives Canada, illustrates two things:

One, how difficult it must have been to bring your sloop, schooner, steamer or laker into the harbour, past those shoals, and oh, don't hit Shoal Tower on the way by!

Two, how those dock names ebbed and flowed over the years as new commercial enterprises, merchants and companies rose to prominence. Wharves extended from the shipyards to the Queen’s Wharf at Tete du Pont Barracks. The slips at the foot of the streets were all open: at Barrack, Strange’s; at Queen, Smith’s; at Princess, Commercial; at Brock, Scobell’s; at Clarence, Fraser’s; at William, Cartwright’s; at Earl, Counter’s; at Beverley, Morton’s. The names of wharves changed over time as enterprises came and went, or their uses changed.

Switchman's Shanty on Ontario Street

A switchtender had a cabin near where Ontario Street and meets Barrack Street to control CN and CP train movements just east of City Hall. It was opposite the cornerwall surrounding the Tete de Pont barracks. (Top photo - from Kingston Picture Collection, Queen's University Archives. Though it's undated, the car is a 1953 or 1954 Ford Fairlane). The track almost buried in the road's shoulder is NOT the joint section that CN and CP shared. The joint section is on the far side of the shanty, and the track in foreground is the spur to a feed mill. Millard & Lumb is just visible in background. The shanty is the kind of structure that no-one would photograph on its own, though its location can be discerned from other photos: I was able to photograph the original and focus in on several details:

Cities Service tank cars, and the shanty steps and door (above - glare is on the original) Note the signal for trains on short signal mast on shanty:

Rotary Club welcome sign and lettering on Millard & Lumb, "Electric and Gas Welding - Steamship and Boiler Repairs - Millard & Lumb"

A photo of the cabin, taken at Barrack Street captioned 1930 from the late Charles Cooper. Note that the Fort Frontenac gate at right extends outward toward Ontario Street. This was a traffic bottleneck and its inversion into the fort was planned in 1930, obviously after this photo was taken. In the distance is Sowards Coal, with the Montreal Transportation Co. elevator spur crossing Ontario Street. Note the switch tender sitting outside and the two semaphores attached to the cabin, later reduced to one. 

The CP designation was Mi. 103.3-103.4 of its Kingston Subdivision, and Mi 2.2-2.3 (1970's)  of CN's Hanley Spur. Tommy/Teddy Smith was a peg-legged railway switchman who opened the switch for the Kingston & Pembroke (CPR) trains to cross the GTR/CNR. It was common for injured employees to be given flagman jobs. He rated his own listing in the Kingston city directory, 1923 (below). A Whig story notes the flagman's name was J. Delph of Stephen Street in 1910.

What Tommy was guarding - the joint track across Ontario Street, where a CP steam-led train heads north out of Kingston with its two wooden coaches in tow and the Public Utilities Commission building at right:  

A 1950 CN employees' timetable gives instructions for operations at the crossing:

Mileage 1.79 - 1.94 Joint section with CP Rly. Signal located on north side of cabin Mileage 1.79 governs CNR westward movement. Signal located on south side of cabin governs CPR westward movement. Day signalman only. When Signalman on duty, trains and engines of CNR and CPR westward must stop before passing signal and proceed only on receiving flag signal from signalman. Signalman must precede and flag each westward movement over joint section. CNR eastward movement – Rule 93 governs. When signalman not on duty – CNR signal will indicate Proceed and CPR signal will indicate Stop and so left for uninterrupted movement of CNR trains and engines. Movement of CPR trains and engines over joint section must be made under flag protection and rear of such trains must also be protected against CNR trains by leaving Flagman at the entrance to the joint tracks.

After Mr Smith's death, a CN employee was responsible for walking over from the Wellington Street freight shed to operate the switches.

The shack can be just visualized on aerial photos taken in 1920 (above and below):

Close-up view:

Queen's University Archives, 1950 (below). The shanty remained in place until 1964.

 1964 aerial photo - the shanty is gone: 

And a summer, 1963 Queen's University Archives photo of a CN crew working on the switch that joined the CN and CP into the joint trackage shows what would have been the shanty's location, behind the track gang and just across from the corner wall of Fort Frontenac: 

By 1963, there was no mention of the signalman in a CN employees' timetable (below). CP movements simply had to 'flag' their progress. Instructions for the crossing disappeared altogether from CN employees' timetables between 1971 and 1977.