CLC Diesel Day Newspaper Ads

On August 1, 1951 the Kingston Whig-Standard printed a special section to mark Diesel Day, a celebration at the Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC). On that day, every space around City Hall was filled with cheering crowds as CLC celebrated the completion of its first Confederation (C-Liner) locomotives as part of an order for Canadian Pacific.

This post features several ads conveying good wishes from suppliers as well as notable Kingston businesses. A large full-page ad included the names of some smaller businesses (top photo). Many of the Kingston businesses can be found on my Hanley Spur layout: the Davis Tannery, S. Anglin, the Kingston Shipyards, Canadian Dredge & Dock, Dyeco, Gould Batteries, the Woolen Mill, James Richardson and Sowards Coal.

The full-page version of the multi-business ad:

CLC-built CNR 9000-9001

Tuesday, November 20, 1928: CNR 9000 left the Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC) plant on Ontario Street for its trial run east toward Brockville, perhaps as far as Coteau, QC. Newspaper reports beamed brightly: "A new epoch for CNR locomotive production" and "revolutionize...locomotive design on this continent"! Fifty-eight years later, Canada Post would feature the revolutionary locomotive(s) on a stamp (top photo).

Supervising the move were CNR Chief of Motive Power C.E. Brooks, CLC General Manager William Casey, Canadian Westinghouse Company's J.C. Wilson, among others. CNR Vice-President, Operations S.J. Hungerford was expected at some point along the intended route.

Shrouded in secrecy during its prior year-long construction, the new locomotive slipped out of the plant at 0700 on that Tuesday morning. A slight delay occurred when two freight cars were found obstructing the 9000's way north to Kingston's Outer Station. Quickly accomplishing the switching, the electric bell rang and diesel exhaust emanated ecstatically from its engine compartment.

Waiting at the Outer Station was a test train: a business car for the officials accompanying the train, a dynamometer car with instrumentation for testing en route, and a caboose. As 9000 backed in and coupled onto the waiting test train, engineer H.P. Palmer, replete with new overalls, he received the highball from conductor R. Ferguson and the train departed eastward at 0723. Wouldn't it be great to have photos of this special movement in the Kingston area? The run at low-speed to Brockville was deemed successful, and the train continued on to Montreal, reaching 65 mph!

Planned service for the single completed unit between Belleville and Brockville would be followed by a publicity tour when 9001 was released by CLC. Promised 12-hour operation without refuelling must have seemed like rocket-science during the steam era, when the care and feeding of steam engines consumed so many man-hours. An overall weight of 650,000 pounds with a tractive effort of 100,000 pounds upon acceleration. Carried onboard were 8,000 pounds of fuel oil and 11,000 pounds of boiler water providing six to twelve hours heat depending on outside temperature.

Design was by CNR engineering staff, oil engines by William Beardmore Co. Ltd. of Glasgow. Electrical generators and associated equipment from Canadian Westinghouse. CNR's previous experience with oil-electric propulsion began with CN 15820's Montreal-Vancouver trip in 1925.

The second 'half' 9001 was accepted by CNR in April, 1929. On August 26 [not September 26 per the ad below] of that year, the paired locomotive led the second section of CNR's International Limited from Montreal to Toronto. Kingston Mayor W.H. Craig met the train at the Outer Station. At the time, CLC officials proudly noted that the premier locomotives' power exceeded that of CNR 6100's, also built by CLC and at the time the largest locomotives in the British Empire!

There are lots of print and online sources on these revolutionary locomotives, so a complete history is beyond the scope of this Kingston-related post. They operated for two years together before they were separated for eight years and famously became the nucleus of a wartime armoured train, used sporadically on the West Coast. The motive power for the armoured train was 9000, with 9001 cannibalized as a parts source. Even Grenada got into the stamp-issuing act:

On August 1, 1951 CLC celebrated Diesel Day - its first production run of new C-liner cab locomotives for CP. An entire Whig special section was dedicated to the celebration, complete with ads from notable local businesses congratulating CLC, three of which featured 9000-9001:

Boarding a Troop Train at Place d'Armes, 1950

These remarkable photos that I discovered in the (Queen's University Archives, George Lilley Fonds V25.5-14-6) show a rare troop train embarking Canadian soldiers at Kingston. At the time I photographed them, as negatives, I had absolutely no information on what was happening and why. I knew the date the photo was taken in November, 1950 and that was all. There were far too many passenger cars (including sleeping cars) to be any regular CP passenger train! Notice the skylights of the Millard & Lumb building at top right (top photo), and officers checking in the arriving troops.

The photos actually show some of the 300 RCCS, RCEME, RCE and RCASC troops boarding a special six-plus car train at Place d'Armes on November 13, 1950. Part of the Commonwealth Korean brigade, the Special Force members were boarding one of two Kingston troop trains on a four-day trip to Fort Lewis, WA to undergo advanced training. In all, there would be 22 special trains taking the 10,000-man volunteer force, augmented by 1,000 regulars, to Washington. From there 1,000 would leave for Korea by the end of the month.  Four trains with the 2 PPCLI left Edmonton, with more taking 2 RCHA from Camp Shilo, MB.

After embarking in Kingston, where the troops had been stationed since early summer, the officers and senior NCOs would bed down in sleeper berths, with other ranks in tourist sleepers. Each train was supplied with two diners. What looks like the roof of the Bajus Brewery is just visible above the train, near centre (above). This marching unit is equipped with greatcoats against the weather. Did they walk all the way down the hill from Barriefield?

Boarding of the of the khaki-clad troops was in a wet snow, with families of any local soldiers exchanging farewells. As the first train pulled out, the RCCS Band played 'Auld Lang Syne'. Later, the RCEME Band played the jaunty 'There's Something About a Soldier' while the second train boarded. Seeing the troops off were Lt.-Col. J.R. Dunlop commanding the RCEME school, Lt.-Col. C.A. Peck commanding the Signals school and Lt.-Col. T.E. Sisson, assistant adjutant and quartermaster general, area headquarters. The Morris Coal Co. building is visible at right, with its nearby coal yard at Place d'Armes and Ontario St. until 1960. That homburg-wearing fellow at left, standing by the train's steel van, looks for all the world like a plainclothes railway policeman, and the van was likely to be his ride! Porters and trainmen for the train are up at the next vestibule.

Some of the troops are armed, with a mix of rifles and Sten guns. It's tough to determine what the circular patch on their left arms represents - likely denoting Canada's contribution to the Commonwealth brigade. Since this was prior to the accession of Queen Elizabeth, the Tudor crown of King George would be part of the insignia. Also worn are unit shoulder flashes. I zoomed in on the negative to find the New York Central oval, and the adjacent Canadian Pacific 'Spans the World' logo on the mini-box CP 240922 (below).

I have to wonder about the routing this train took - presumably up the K&P line to the CP mainline to Toronto. The cars are clearly those of Canadian Pacific. I wonder which steam locomotive led, because the diminutive D4's normally operating into Kingston would have a tough time lifting these steel passenger cars up the grade north of Kingston! 

I wanted to ascertain which tracks were in use for the embarkation, so  I checked out Snapshot Kingston'a 1966 aerial image (below). You'll notice that George Lilley has an elevated viewpoint for his photos. I believe he was on the CP loading ramp and I've marked his photo angles, approximately, with yellow arrows. The troop train is parked on the westernmost CP spur (between the red arrows) with the spur holding the (B)oxcars, the (M)illard & (L)umb building, and the foundation of the (M)orris Coal Co. building, both visible in the photos above. Indeed, in the top photo, Lilley has turned back toward Place d'Armes, catching the Millard & Lumb building in the background. It appears, based on all this, that the train was parked as close to the military base as possible, almost to Place d'Armes and Ontario Street.

Unfortunately, on November 21, just eight days later, one of the many troop trains en route to Washington state collided with an eastbound Canadian National passenger train at Canoe River, B.C. more than 300 miles west of Edmonton. Twenty 2 RCHA troops from Camp Shilo, MB perishing in the wreck with 58 injured. The cause of the wreck was a miscommunication in setting up a meet between the two trains.

As a technical note on preservation, the value of having access to original news photo negatives in the Queen's University Archives is reinforced, considering the alternative. This clipping that appeared in the November 14, 1950 Whig is so muddy as to be virtually uninterpretable, and it's severely cropped to fit the columns available. It's almost impossible to pick out even the coarsest detail, unlike Lilley's crystal-clear photos!

I feel very fortunate to have had access to the Archives' incredible holdings, and through the sale of my books on Kingston's industrial waterfront, to contribute monetarily in a small way to their valiant and valuable efforts.

Swing Bridge across Anglin Bay

In January, 1857, under the Committee on Railways (alternatively referred to as the Railroads & Improvements Committee or simply the Railroad Committee) [Sir] John A. Macdonald arranged with the Crown for access for a railway across the marsh at Anglin Bay, described in the press of the time as a 'loop line'. An estimate of costs to construct a swing bridge (?drawbridge) would be required, to be positioned at the middle of the embankment across the small bay's mouth (top photo - blue circle in close-up of Brosius map of 1875).

In February of that year, Messrs. McFarlane, McCutchen and Anglin had concerns and tried to prevent the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) embankment to the swing bridge. It was felt that the embankment would block Anglin Bay, thereby causing waste water in the area to stagnate. Already shallow and murky, the water in the semi-circular bay was thought to cause ague (malaria) and lake fever (cholera) outbreaks annually.

Published in the Kingston Whig-Standard May 7, 1859, a case was heard involving the difficulty of accessing the Anglin wharf due to the position of the Grand Trunk Railway swing bridge. North winds made passage into Anglin Bay especially challenging. The track made the wharf nearly valueless, the openings being only 28 feet in width. Water depth at the wharf was only nine feet. The verdict went in favour of the plaintiff.

Between 1875 and 1890, the GTR branchline was relocated to the west of the Kingston & Pembroke (K&P) line, perhaps as early as 1878. The swing bridge was removed, resulting in an opening left in the embankment across the mouth of the bay. By 1890, the K&P built 'spile' docks out into the bay, some accounts saying almost halfway across, allowing transshipment of ore from flat cars into barges or ships in the shallow harbour. The spile docks were demolished by 1929, with 85 year-old W.J. Gates supervising the work. 

On June 12, 1896 - the swing bridge was still in place:

A 1919 map showing the now-GTR alignment (hatched) and the opening in the CP trackage where the swing bridge had been located (blue circle) and the spile docks extending out into the Cataraqui River (red box):

Woolen Mill Salvage Yard

From 1970 to 1990, the Cataraqui Street Woolen Mill was surrounded on at least two sides by the Harold's Demolition salvage yard. A 1984 Snapshot Kingston aerial view (top photo) shows the Woolen Mill, Harold's Demolition yard, and the former location of the CP spur (yellow line) to the mill's former loading dock.

Operated by company president Harold Westendorp who was born in Holland in 1952, the yard at 5 (or 6) Cataraqui Street was routinely advertised in the Whig as a site to find salvage items too good for scrap. Westendorp, who began his business on Church Street in Brockville before moving it to Kingston, claimed he was the youngest salvage company owner in Ontario at the time. 

Harold's Demolition at the burned out Fort Henry Hotel on Princess Street, February 4, 1969 - Whig clipping:

This notice was from a June 23, 1970 Whig:

 A January 30, 1976 Whig classified ad describes salvage coming from the former Canadian Tire store:

In July, 1980 there were big savings to be had:

An August, 1989 classified ad:

A 1985 flap about high-density housing zoning change proposed for the area brought the company president to a public meeting, with the possibility of having to find another location for the salvage yard, away from the Inner Harbour location. Such a move was estimated to cost Harold's $2.5 million! Harold's, Rosen Fuels and S. Anglin Co. all objected to the city's proposed zoning of 60 acres from River Street down to Place d'Armes. Though only valued at $3,000 per unit (Rosen) and $10,000 per unit (Harold's), the proposed change would increase land values up to $18,000 per unit.

An undated photo of the yard kindly shared by Marc Shaw, looking up Cataraqui Street with the Bailey broom factory at extreme right:

In 1986, the property was described as being bounded by a corrugated metal fence between 10 and 12 feet high, topped with mountings for barbed wire. The operation was then sometimes referred to as Harold's Recycling Centre, much more in line with emerging environmental enlightenment.

Used by Harold and Hilda Westendorp as a warehouse for nearby Harold's Demolition, the National Grocers building was the site of an auction held to sell off various stored materials in late-October, 1987 resulting in $30,000 in sales. Even the kitchen sink(s) were for sale! At the time, the proposed Wellington Street extension was planned for the site of the salvage yard.

A June, 1992 Whig clipping (below) shows a Sheriff's Sale of a Westendorp grader. When Hank Doornekamp bought the Woolen mill and adjacent 3.2-acre Harold's Demolition salvage yard in mid-1993, Harold's Demolition was already a defunct company. The proposed use of the yard for residential use never materialized, and the Woolen Mill (formerly Whig) parking lot now occupies some of that real estate.

I moved my scrap yard to make way for an Anglin expansion recently. I moved some scrap behind an emplaced chain-link fence in front of the Woolen Mill, drawing inspiration from Harold's salvage yard:

Layout Video Update 2018 vs. 2024

I recently posted a video to Youtube. Six minutes of the very latest 2024 look and feel of my Kingston's Hanley Spur HO-scale layout. By comparison, this two minutes taken in 2018 are tough to watch. Granted, it was extremely early on in the new Kingston iteration (changing over from Vermont).  Here are some screenshots to show the progress:

Hurricane trees (!) and structure stand-ins with a passing freight (2018 - above). By 2024, structures, billboards and backdrops are in place with a different CP freight in town:

Two more before-and-afters:

A cornucopia of CN work equipment has arrived in the still Vermont-y yard, with more uprooted scenery and the red-brick station kit that would become CN's Outer Station (2018 - above). By 2024, the yard was properly populated, backdrops and scenery in place,  and the passenger station busy:

Aerial View of the Other Side of Kingston

Oh, there's another side to Kingston besides the industrial waterfront trackage and industry I enjoy researching and modelling? Let's turn our back on the Hanley Spur part of town for a moment and look west. There's a university, prison, residential blocks, historic buildings and hospitals out there. Who knew?? 

Well, we all did, and we've all spent some time there (some of us years and years working), so when I received an electronic copy of this Wallace R. Berry original 16x20-inch image that was recently unframed and scanned in high-resolution, I had a lot to look at. I've looked at Kingston 'from both sides now'! Click on image for much larger view:

There are several interesting things in this fine photo. Some help to suggest its date:

• red arrow - vessel at PUC water plant (now Gord Downie Pier)
• green arrow - salvage vessel in Portsmouth Harbour - prior to 1976 Sailing Olympics repurposing
• blue arrow - Cataraqui Bay grain elevator
• yellow arrow - McArthur Hall/College (built between 1969 and 1971)
• orange arrow - County gaol and wall (demolished 1974)

And thanks to Stu's comment below, the new Richardson Stadium not being built yet. So I think we can confidently date this photo as taken in 1969 or 1970.

Collins Bay's Causeway Construction

Another post from Collins Bay, this one describing the realignment of Bath Road, Hillview Road and the Grand Trunk/Canadian National mainline tracks. (Whig clipping dated November 9, 1922 - top). This area has been a perennially dangerous crossing point, with many vehicle and pedestrian collisions, injuries and fatalities profiled in the Whig's pages. When the diversion was underway in June, 1923 CN stationed a flagman at the Collins Bay crossing. It was difficult for motorists to hear approaching trains due to steam drills and a small steam engine bringing in and removing material. Trains were restricted to 10 mph in the area until the diversion was completed.

The Hillview Road level crossing was closed in 1995 after Hillview Road was restricted to one-way northbound traffic. Between Collins Bay and the present Gardiners Road there were at least three private level crossings that have been closed in recent years, also following crossing incidents.

The May, 2011 issue of the Limelight newsletter published by the Kingston Historical Society (KHS - Vol 13 No 5) contained this excellent article by Collins Bay historian Stewart Renfrew. I found this comprehensive account using the KHS's useful Topic Index compiled by Paul Van Nest:

For future reference, the James Reid advertising supplement was actually titled "aswesawit", not "aswewait". Because who wants to be known as waiting for the undertaker?

Aerial views: 1953 (above) and 2004 (below) from Snapshot Kingston

An 1878 atlas image that seems to show the Grand Trunk crossing Bath Road (twice, once out of view to the right), the bay, and Collins Bay Road at left: