Billboards for Planting

A few times during my time at the Queen's University Archives, something catches my eye and says 'I'd make a good billboard on your layout!' These are photos or vintage newspaper ads copied to a Word document, printed, then stuck on styrene with uprights added. The small coal signs for my Sowards Coal operation were found on Pinterest and printed.

They'll help to add a sense of place to roadside scenes.

Queen's University Archives Annual Lecture

OPENING 

I was pleased to attend the annual Queen's University Archives lecture, along with other local notables such as Andrew Chisholm, Bill Fitsell, Stuart Crawford and Jennifer McKendry, held in the Alan Green Fireplace Reading Room of Queen's Stauffer Library. (Housed in the round, vaulted rotunda and terrace on the second floor, we were kitty-corner to the Douglas Library, a place where my Dad and I photocopied many documents that he attempted to preserve in his own archival system.) The presentation began with an introduction by Queen's University Archivist Ken Hernden, who noted that the first archival material was donated to the university in 1869, and that Queen's now has 10 linear kilometres of textual records alone, as the primary archival repository for south-east Ontario. The purpose of this annual lecture is to disseminate research carried out using the archives. [In this post, I've summarized some of the presentation using personal notes.] The Archivist introduced lecturer Dr. Laura Murray, creator of the SWIHHP, who received her B.A. from Queen's and her M.A. and Ph.D from Columbia University. She dedicated the lecture to her late colleague Andra McCartney.

BEGINNINGS OF THE SWIHHP

The Swamp Ward & Inner Harbour History Project (SWIHHP, pronounced 'sweep') began in 2015 as a means to learn more about Kingston and provide an alternative emphasis on Kingston's usual monolithic branding of wealthy elites, limestone(!), without much discussion of the human stories, other races, women and 20th century history. The SWIHHP would extend the normal pedagogical experience beyond the university, using oral history, cohering individual stories into a complete history. Students were trained in public history, and public walking tours and 56 blog posts have been created. Nearly 80 people were interviewed, providing text summaries that will be time-stamped records that will be housed in the Archives and searchable. Several short sample interview audio clips were played.

IS THE SWIHHP OVER? 

Dr. Murray is ready for the SWIHHP to be let loose into the archives. Opportunities still exist for colleagues from different disciplines to augment and enrich the products of the project, exploiting some blind spots like race and ethnic origins.

NOSTALGIA?

Nostalgia was once viewed as a sickness, though is now much more marketable! Nostalgia can be viewed with suspicion as it obscures how things happened in the past, introducing sentiment. An example: the Swamp Ward is viewed as 'candy' for real-estate agent(s), including language highlighted in a recent sample real estate listing from the Ward. Though much of the Swamp Ward's housing was from the 19th centry, it has been marked by the 20th century. Nostalgia can be borrowed nostalgia, appropriated nostalgia and even affects gentrification. 

Nostalgia figured in many of the SWIHHP interview themes: relationships between generations, class loyalty, hard work, dynamics of power, socio-economic self-sufficiency, and simply being known. Positive elements were highlighted, and nostalgia was sometimes the historical evidence in itself. Facts in focus can be hard, compared to nostalgia which may be blurrily soft. Nostalgia can be of the restorative or reflective types, the latter type longing for something that can never be...again. 

Nostalgia nurtures relationships with people, building bridges between past and present, and is more about listening than asking. Interviewers were urged to keep looking interested rather than interrupting their subjects. Oral history positions a person in time, among his or her social and economic standing. It is not packaging a story, the narrator need not be seen as a protagonist, and unlike storytelling in a podcast format which can emotionally tinge a story, there is no producer or time limit. Paths or openings into other lives and conditions are provided, and a space is left to explore further. Each interview is an archive, not a story - about the past, but in the present.

COMPARISON TO ARCHIVES

Archives are historical documents: a record, place or concept, a theoretical view and a system of knowledge. Necessarily, connections are controlled by an institution, to protect the archives. But what is missing?

COUNTERARCHIVE?

A counterarchive is a different place, in which a different standard of importance challenges the primacy of the goal of preservation. What did subjects bring forward - items they had kept - to someone from outside their community? Archives do not hold adequate images or words by ordinary people, which can sometimes only be gleaned by going to places. Placing plaques in the ground does not promote questioning nor collective conversation. A counterarchive is very much the fleeting, temporary, transitional nature of conversations. Those using Queen's Archives are not necessarily from the university commuinity. A challenge: invitations should be issued to potential users, and strict admission requirements like library cards should not be a prerequisite. [Hey, it's free!]

CLOSING THOUGHTS

This lecture provided much food for thought and was warmly received by the large audience in attendance. A youtube video of the lecture is available here. As I'm sure the delicious-looking refreshments brought in during the question period were. But I had a bus to catch!

Though much has been written about Kingston's old stones, both human and built, there has little material readily available on houses north of Princess Street or detailed operations of Swamp Ward industries. I have explored both these for my Hanley Spur layout. I had to traverse Googlemaps to find the 'typical' Swamp Ward house. As a relative outsider, I must say my archives experience so far has been positive. I continue to find much of the mortar material which holds those old stones together. And that is thanks to the Queen's University Archives.

As it pertains to modelling the Hanley Spur in HO scale, my layout is perhaps more nostalgia than counterarchive. I'd like to think it is a fairly accurate three-dimensional scale snapshot of the operations that occurred in that modelled year in the Swamp Ward and just beyond. To me, it is a creative and non-static form of active remembrance. Modellers often model what we railfanned (or wish we had) and I'm slowly building an archive of photos and information to support my modelling efforts. 

National Grocers - Food Wholesaler or Artist Colony?

Camels, dragons, and groceries, oh my!

When this photo appeared in the Kingston Whig-Standard, I couldn't help but think how an area with the longevity of the Hanley Spur would necessarily change its focus through the generations. From gritty industrial era to artist colony, it was bound to happen. Interior complete in January, 2020 showing robotics practice facility on the main floor:

A look inside the NGB colony reveals artists hard at work in a former warehouse. The building remains, its function changes, but it's clearly still serviceable. And visitable. And relatable. And hopefully, modellable!

Layout Fascia - Coals to Newcastle?

Or more precisely, limestone to Kingston? Not content with my brown Masonite Hanley Spur layout fascia, a recent trip to Dollarama found me in the home decor aisle. Looking me straight in the eye were these faux wood wall stickers (see package below). To my Kingston eye, they looked like limestone more than faux wood!

Picking up three packages, each with eight two-foot stickers, four inches wide, I was peeling and sticking up a storm! The exact width that my father-in-law had 'ripped' these fascia boards for me! The pattern matches, and there are different patterns in different packages. (There are also wood-grain and various patterns, too!)

Looking up-close at the Outer Station, the sticker leads the eye to the limestone-paper station building and the light blue walls. And if I don't like it, the stickers are easy to un-peel and un-stick! Dollar Tree lettering added later:

Here's what to look for if you go:

Modulizational Behaviour, October 2019 Update

Last December, I posted the first modulizational behaviour post which detailed the formative steps of our journey as the ARK (Associated Railroaders of Kingston) Hanley Spur module group. We filled a large table this past Thursday, discussing many issues, including actual construction (see above).

Some interesting points from the meeting:

• Portable not modular - since the modules will be placed in a specific order, they're not interchangeable like most modules. They will be able to be set up in various locations. Hence, portable!
• Module dimensions - what is the ideal length and width that compromises total module setup size with including specific structures and industries?
• November Railfair show - we'd like to have something to display at ARK's November train show
• Electrical standards update - the DCC control system and wiring capabilities are well-planned
• Costing per module - who bears the cost of module equipment like wires, track, roadbed?
• Who builds, who keeps - the modules will stay with the group, though they may be billeted with various members.
• Learning more - about CN and CP's waterfront rail operations, especially the Rideau and Cataraqui Streets nexus, along with the industries located there. Great discussion!

This meeting was a self-set deadline to complete my Bailey Broom Factory structure, which will appear on the portable layout and my own home layout. It was fun to share the build with the group, including the steps and thoughts that went into it, as well as the completed model.

Modelling the Bailey Broom Factory

At last night's ARK Hanley Spur Module group meeting, we moved from discussion to goal-based construction. We're planning to have a model module available for the November Railfair train show. Starting with the River/Rideau/Cataraqui  nexus, it's time to finally build the Bailey Broom Factory. Stay tuned here for progress updates! A 1949 aerial view, while serving as a fuel oil dealership:

September 29 Update: In my scrap box,I found some wall parts that I can use. But I really need some measurements! Going to the RAW architectural drawings for the revamped Bailey, I found millimetre measurements and converted them to feet. The entire east-west length of the office and factory is 118 feet (15 inches in HO), and the width is nearly 29 feet (3 inches in HO). The concrete addition to the north along Rideau Street is 59 feet, and the office is about 20 feet square, with the small sloping wall to the north about 9 feet. On a two-foot wide module with two tracks running down the middle, 118 feet of building simply will not fit! Even on my layout, where the tracks are closer to the backdrop, it won't fit. Time for selective selectivism!

October 5 Update: The walls of some long-forgotten engine shop train show purchase are the feedstock I need. They include pilasters, thought not cast in brick. The foundation is nice, and will have limestone paper attached to it. That end wall is too narrow, so will be discarded. The side walls are too tall, but the Dremel brought them down to an acceptable height:

My on-site photos from 2001, as well as online photos from the city report provide inspiration. Before long, the side walls are tilted up, an end wall has been installed, and the office walls are being pieced together. Measurements are out the window at this point. I've dropped two bays from the north-south original factory, and will drop at least one from the concrete addition. The office is more-or-less full-size. This phase of the construction is taking place on the layout, to make sure I have room to shoehorn the finished structure in between River, Rideau and Cataraqui Streets! Look sharp and you can see that while Dremelling, I've collected lots of those cooled hot-styrene shards. I like to use these for scrap remnants glued into gondola car bottoms!

October 6 Update: During our grandson's naps, it was quiet time for some quiet construction and surreptitious structure-building. Shhhh! The Dremel is not in use and I've added the office bay and some more wall pieces. I've covered over the top third of the engine house windows with brick styrene, and will cover most of them further with 'plywood' styrene.

October 9 Update: Bridging the gap to the concrete addition (along Rideau Street) is a bit of a guessing game. Apparently the office was not built exactly to Newlands plans, so that gives me some licence. The office walls and brick pilasters come from DPM structure add-on kits.

October 10 Update: Doesn't everything look better with a coat of paint? I used some brown and green hobby paints to paint all the brick, and the trim, doors and windows respectively. I used strip styrene to represent the aluminum-covered window sills, and added a scratchbuilt loading door on this, the Cataraqui Street side. Notice the built-up brick over the front door. At this point, the bay is not glued on, ready for its window.

October 11 Update: Office windows and door are in. Roof is ready for the factory. Starting to look 'right' to me:

Another nap means more time to work! I've added the back of the office walls, with some roofing left over from a Superior Bakery kit. Styrene from another kit is being cut to shape for the factory roof sections:

October 12 Update: Generous work block during a dreary fall afternoon! Roof in place on office and factory, so it's time to add the concrete addition. To keep this wing in scale with the factory wing, I've shortened it by one bay, and will use grey styrene, to be reversed and painted white, for the walls. 

Measurements made on the back of the grey styrene walls, Dremel in use and chopped windows and doors from the scrap box are ready to add:

The walls are up and painted. I may still 'plywood over' some of those windows. On the prototype structure, some of the original windows were still in place under the plywood! Depending on the date this factory will be 'set' in, I've decided to keep it in semi-serviceable condition. No-one viewing it would remember the factory in its oil-dealership use, so I'm placing the exterior appearance date somewhere close to my 2001 photographs.

Coming full circle. Returning the structure to where it all began. Roofing, detailing and scenicking still need to occur, but it seems to fit! Though the prototype structure was set on a grade sloping down along Cataraqui Street, and the concrete addition 'bent' slightly backwards to parallel Rideau Street, I've built this (mostly) level and square. Perhaps I can set it 'into' a grade when finally scenicked.

A 'drone view' of where the structure will sit. It will be used on both my home layout and the Associated Railroaders of Kingston modular Hanley Spur layout. I'll be adding lots of cross-bracing and details that will not get knocked off in transit!

With the ARK module group meeting four days away, I hope to have this structure ready to take along to provide some inspiration!

October 15 Update: The concrete addition is attached and styrene roofing completed between all parts of the structure, and pilasters added to concrete addition.

 Limestone-paper foundation added as well as some weathering done:

October 17 Update: Shingles! Realizing the factory, as most structures on a layout, are viewed from above, I would need to add some shingle detail! A piece of cardstock, cut into strips a few millimetres wide, were then cut to individual shingle size with manicure scissors, and glued in parallel from the eaves up. Some shingles were bent up with an X-Acto knife. The roofing between the two wings seems to always have been a problem on the prototype, patched and re-patched!

Tonight's ARK module group meeting went well. Excellent discussion led by Andrew Jeanes focusing on the Rideau/Cataraqui Streets area. So much modelling interest in such a small, two-module space! It was great to have this impetus to finish my structure, and it looks like it will fit in well on my home layout as well as the module/portable layout!

October 23 Update: Now that construction is done, it's time to scenick. Since the factory is on a grade, with Cataraqui Street running downhill along its length, the scenicking should run downhill. But now wanting to change the whole grade on my layout, I decided to built the structure up a bit. So it was off to Dollarama, to pick up a package of plasticene. Setting the structure on the plasticene, I built it up till it looked good:

Then added scenic material up to the bottom of the structure.

Street level view...so far! Now to decide whether to make it vacant (unlikely), roofing contractor (somewhat likely), oil dealership (quite likely) or broom factory (also unlikely) in reverse chronological order. The fun continues. Next door, the National Grocers building awaits...

Kingston's Coal Trucks

If you were buying coal from one of Kingston's coal dealers, you needed delivery. Here's a list of coal dealers in 1919:

Coal trucks from Anglin, Swift and others. On the Wolfe Island ferry ca 1950 (top photo)

 Anglin newspaper ad (above) 1960s

Richardson coal truck overturned heading to DuPont near the grain elevator, giving us a great interior view (above) and Swift (below - Clarence at Ontario Sts.), both from 1948.

Another Anglin truck, this one at Bank of Nova Scotia in October, 1966:

Another Anglin truck, undated:

Restricted Clearances

End-of-the-timetable Restricted Clearances which are not marked by tell-tales or restricted-clearance signs, from the September,1940 CN Belleville Division employees' timetable. Note that the Gananoque Subdivision is now known as the Kingston Subdivision, and that the Kingston Branch would later be referred to as the Hanley Spur.

Imperial Oil Tanker and Bollards

It's difficult to find a photo of an oil tanker discharging its combustible cargo in the Inner Harbour. After looking in all the usual places, I finally found such a photo in an unlikely place! Arlie Robb often crossed the causeway to Barriefield. And he photographed some interesting marine sights. The Queen's University Archives holds the Arlie Robb fonds, photos of various diverse subjects, including the Imperial Collingwood* in June, 1976 (top photo) with Canadian Dredge & Dock visible in the background. The photo would have been taken from the former coal unloading dock on the west side of the Cataraqui River  (extreme bottom left corner of George Lilley aerial photo, taken in April, 1951, also from the QUA):

Across the few feet of water was that whitish area (above) where the Imperial (Imperial Collingwood, Imperial London, Imperial Simcoe) and Shell tankers would have docked to unload (furnace oil, stove oil gasoline) filling the nearby oil tanks. Their loads were either taken on in Sarnia or Toronto (via pipeline from Sarnia). Surrounded by Canadian Dredge & Dock scows and vessels. In a subsequent post, I'll list some of the marine traffic including tankers that visited the Inner Harbour. 

This Whig clipping shows Imperial Windsor passing through the causeway at the start of the 1963 navigation season:

Here's a Whig clipping from March, 1974 showing Imperial Collingwood docked as the first vessel of the shipping season, seen riding high in the water:

Two years earlier, Imperial London couldn't risk entering the Inner Harbour to unload due to high winds on November 27, 1972: 

Bollards for mooring still exist:

There was wood cribbing (shown on my diagram as decayed dock) between the bollards. Bow of a laker at Anglin's coal dock with retaining wall, bollards and equipment in the background:

A recent walk finally put me on this hallowed ground on the Inner Harbour! Bollard in water:

Walking a little farther back toward Doug Fluhrer Park, MetalCraft Marine (former site of Canadian Dredge & Dock) is in the background with marina docking in foreground:

 A little farther along, another view including the Leeuwarden Condominiums on the far shore:

A few days later I returned to get some close-up photos of the installation, largely overgrown. A schematic, with Frontenac Village (south) at top, across the narrow docking channel. Going counter-clockwise around the installation, I encountered the large bollard, two metal retaining walls out of which most of the retained rocks had disappeared, two small bollards, two unloading pipes near a decayed and submerged wooden dock, a welded-shut steel box, two more small bollards, the large bollard, and a light pole and small steel box:

 Looking across to Frontenac Village, the first of the two smaller bollards are shown with red arrows:

 The smaller bollard carries the name Drydock Engine Works Detroit:

One of the weed-grown unloading pipes:

This welded-shut steel box probably contains a valve to connect the ship's hose to. Ron Hawkins has kindly noted that the ship would pump the oil itself, not needing any additional pumping equipment to unload the tankers:

 Two more smaller bollards, the retaining wall and blue No Wake sign and Causeway bridge:

And the second large bollard, still with cables and ropes around it:

An aerial view from the Whig 1994 Neighbourhoods series:

The Queen's University Archives turned up a hidden gem, with this view of Imperial Windsor approaching the causeway bridge. The tanker was the first vessel of the year to enter Kingston harbour at the start of the 1969 shipping season, on April 10, reportedly carrying 680,000 gallons of fuel oil:

Closeup (above). The causeway bridge is up:

Neat memories from Ron Hawkins via the Hall Corporation Shipping (HALCO) Fleet Page on Facebook:

"In 1978 I was a cadet on the [HALCO] Chemical Transport. We did several trips to the inner harbour to Anglin Fuel. A very tight turn to port once our ass cleared the causeway. The buoy marking the channel for the Rideau Canal was under the bow as seen from the wheelhouse. Twin screw helped mightily getting to the berth."

"The steel box you mention on your page was unlikely to be a pump facilty. Ships pump it themselves, but if anything there it’s likely a valve to connect the ship’s hose to."

More information on the Imperial Collingwood:

• The tanker Imperial Collingwood began service on April 15, 1948, built at Collingwood Shipyards. 
• Lengthened 1961 at Montreal QC by Canadian Vickers Ltd., remeasured to 293.5 x 43.6 x 17.4, 2530 GT, 1610 NT;
• Lengthened again 1969 with new bow and stern at Sorel QC by Marine Industries Ltd., remeasured to 324.0 length and 2620 GT, 1671 NT.
• Sold 1977 to Shediac Bulk Shipping Ltd., Moncton NB and renamed Seaway Trader.
• Sold 1984 for off-Lakes service and left the Great Lakes.
• Renamed Patricia II (Panama) 1987, Balboa Trader 1992 and Rivas 1995.