Kingston Inner Harbour Sediment Management Project

This blog is not one to promote a particular political or even environmental viewpoint. I don't profess to know enough about such issues to blog about them. However, I have learned a lot about Kingston's waterfront industrial history, and that includes the Inner Harbour upstream from the Lasalle Causeway. 

Just today I learned that the Kingston Inner Harbour Sediment Management Project website is live, and I spent some time looking at the information and materials presented there. I've heard pros and cons about remediating, stabilizing and even dredging the Inner Harbour after years of heavy industrial impact. 

The website opens with, "The Kingston Inner Harbour (KIH) Sediment Management Project is a Transport Canada and Parks Canada shared project to manage contaminated sediment within federal water lots at KIH. The goal is to balance protecting sensitive species, habitats, and valued features while reducing risks associated with contamination. Currently the project is in the planning stage with work anticipated to begin between 2025 and 2027." ...click previous to go to website

I would commend this information on the website to anyone with a sincere interest in discussing what's best for our city's future. We are in the early stages of discussing this issue I believe being informed is the first step, and this website is an early marker in the discussion. Several narrated slide decks, Q&A and other information sets are presented for public viewing. Sample slides:

Informative slides showing effluent that for many decades seeped into the harbour from tanneries and other industrial applications.

W.P. Peters Seed Co. - History

Imagine telling Kingston tourists that the glitzy entertainment district around City Hall used to be filled with dusty coal yards and seedy grain elevators! Early on, Kingston was a busy Great Lakes port handling grain, coal and lumber though its importance later diminished as other ports and canals developed. About five months after being sold to the United Co-operatives of Ontario, a nicely-lit 8x10 black 7 white photo of the Peters Seed Company limestone warehouse, variously listed as 267-269, 271, 267-275, 275 or "foot of" Princess Street was taken on August 2, 1959 (top photo - Queen's University Archives, Kingston Picture Collection V23.6-8 and George E.O.Lilley Fonds V25.5-34-78 C -below):

This 1929 fire-insurance map image (below) shows Ontario Street between Princess (left) and Queen (to right). The theme of this post is the W.D.[sic] Peters seed warehouse on Ontario Street (blue) and an additional warehouse with CN spur (brown) closer to the waterfront:

Fellow Kingston history enthusiast Marc Shaw recently shared these four clippings on the early years of the Peters operation - the inspiration for this post.

 

 

Marc added the following: As often happens, I was looking up something else when I happened on a couple of articles  about William Palmer Peters (1872-1968)  and his seed company. I was a bit familiar with him, having a very tangential relationship in that he was my great-aunt's brother-in-law.

He first appears in the city directories in the mid 1890s, working as a labourer and a weighman for the celebrated Richardson grain firm. By 1897, he had branched out on his own, and had begun what ultimately became a very large and successful wholesale and retail business dealing in flour, feed, and seed. Beginning at 65 Brock Street, he moved to 117 Brock Street after a few years and then finally to 267-275 Ontario Street. Concurrently with his business success, he dabbled in car sales and had a very long career in municipal politics, from about 1911 to 1946. He was the Mayor of Kingston in 1934.  He lived until the age of 96, and ran his company until well into his 80s. It was a very long and productive life!

W.P. Peters opened a feed and seed business in 1897, relocating its operation from Brock Street to 267-275 Ontario Street, circa 1918 when a CN spur was built at the rear of the building which could only hold a single car at the unloading platform.  A sample Peters Timothy bag:

Carrying products like Lake of the Woods flour, feed and mill stuffs, lawn and flower seeds, upon W.P. Peters' retirement in 1943 the business was transferred to Vernon Morrison, though retaining the Peters name. The upper-storey grain storage area caught fire on April 5, 1945. In 1960, the founder’s son, W.R. Peters became manager, changing the name of the business to Kingston Co-operative Seeds and relocating to a new location at 93 Counter Street in 1963. 

A door-open CN boxcar can be seen spotted near the two-storey Peters warehouse on the dock, formerly  a Naval Reserve training building during World War II, and James Richardson Grain office. Coast Guard buoys are in the foreground and the Topnotch mill at centre background (Queen's University Archives, City of Kingston Planning Department V123.1-file 4) taken in 1959 or 1960.

Two closeups from an aerial photo showing a Canadian Pacific steam engine with three boxcars behind the Peters building on Ontario Street, with a logo-less Canadian Pacific (?) boxcar sitting on their VERY short spur. Were it not for the pre-existing nature of the limestone building, it's unlikely a modern railway would install an expensive track switch for a one-car spot (Queen's University Archives, George E.O. Lilley fonds V25.6-8-1).

Another feed mill, visible in waterfront photos with its checkerboard elevating tower, was operated by Topnotch Feeds - May 1950 Whig ad (below). The business was moved to a larger building at Counter and Division Streets by 1970, now operated by Kingston Plate & Window Glass.

An intriguing series of five photos of the Topnotch feed mill taken on May 18, 1961 (Queen's University Archives, George E.O. Lilley fonds V25.5-28-63). 

Period billboards with the Public Utilities Commission (later site of Kingston Police headquarters) brick building across Ontario Street at right (above) and harbour view:

The loading/unloading door angled to meet the CN spur with a loading pipe from the elevator visible at the top of the White Owl cigar billboard:

Broken windows facing the harbour, the rails barely showing in the dirt:

View from Ontario Street toward the lake, with lighting for the billboards visible at centre. The warehouse was built for the Tweed Milling Co. circa 1935 and Moore Neon is operating the office at the time these photos were taken, originally built as Donoghue Grain.

Back to Peters....an early 1960s colour photo taken from the opposite side of Ontario Street (Queen's University Archives, Hazelgrove Slide Collection 1.71). Having already moved to 93 Counter Street, there's a "we have moved" sign in the ground-floor window and the building is for sale:

The new Co-op building at 93 Counter Street, from the Division Street end on May 12, 1960 (Queen's University Archives, George E.O. Lilley fonds V25.5-26-177). The current Executive House, former home of Hanson & Edgar, was built on the site in 1964.

Another view from the Rigney Street end (below). My Dad and I often stopped in on Saturday mornings to buy items such as winter coats, chicken wire and bird seed. Once no longer operated by United Co-Operatives, Tractor Supply/TSC and Peavey have been subsequent owners.

Modelling Presland - a Structural Flat

The Reliance Moulding building on Maple Street is presently operated by Presland Iron and Steel. On my HO-scale Kingston's Hanley Spur layout, I have a spur serving the property used by both CN and CP. It's a rambling structure, and I wanted to increase its profile as a structural flat. The finished product (top photo) and I'll describe the build and the prototype in this post.

The north side of the property as seen from John Counter Boulevard:

There was always a railway spur to this property, initially built by the CP but later jointly-served by CN once CP's alignment into Kingston changed. The spur was likely used for inbound and outbound loads for the various companies that occupied the property. In my modelled era of 1970, marking the start of Presland's use of the property, it's likely steel loads were received in gondola cars and handled by the overhead travelling crane.

Travelling from the north side of the property (above) to the south side (below), I only model a small portion of the crane. This is the third structural flat I've placed here. The first was a holdover from my Vancouver Wharves layout. The second was a cardstock/paper flat with a Gould Battery sign on the roof.

My first step was to rummage through my structure parts drawer to find some likely components. I found a side wall of the Walthers Municipal Pier Terminal kit (below-at left) and some other components with prototype photo printed off:

I decided I wanted nearly two full storeys, and selected this wall component before removing some height at bottom. With this done, it would line up with the travelling crane better:

Now to fill in some holes, to give the building a modified-over-the-years look. I used two brick wall sections, another at top right, a grey sliding door from the Walthers kit, and added one platform:

Colours are hard to distinguish from black & white photos, but I went with an overall cream colour:

Then some dilute black craft paint to add a patina of age:

Before and after. The previous cardstock/paper Gould Battery flat (above) and my finished structural flat (below), both showing the travelling crane in foreground. Note how the existing paper backdrop fits in to add depth.

Before and after, opposite end view. I would end up adding a garage door, a paper access door, small railing and platform at the left side of the structural flat, as well as a ledge to separate the two storeys. Due to the minimal car clearance here, any larger platform was a no-go. I also added acetate to the second storey windows then some printed factory windows in behind. The yawning opening at right will be filled with some interior details and/or a moveable door to add depth to the structure.

I think this completed third structural flat presents a more imposing facade and the look of a larger building extending beyond the backdrop.

Revising Outer Station Yard Operations

Every so often, I decide to revise the way in which some part of my HO scale Hanley Spur layout functions. In this case, it's the five-track yard at Kingston's Outer Station. 

Previously, I'd just bring cars from the mainline interchange at 'Queens' and push them into whichever of the yard tracks were emptiest. When it was time to make up one of the three CN switching runs that serve  in rotation the Outer Station area, Rideau Street area or Wellington Street area, I'd just pull out one trackful of cars at a time, cherry-picking the cars I needed and placing them on the run-around track before adding a caboose. That was really boring and I decided there was a better way.

(Though I've never seen photos of the prototype Outer Station yard anywhere near full of cars, I'm sure there was some system of organization therein. Most cars for area customers seemed to arrive from the mainline before being taken away be spotted, then put on a mainline eastbound or westbound freight as soon as they were brought back to the yard.)

So, I proceeded to designate one yard track for each of the above-mentioned runs, with a fourth track for overflow - if more cars are brought from interchange than fit in the track. The fifth track is used for company service cars, cabooses, or hold cars for Northern Telecom.

The tracks I designated (top to bottom):

• Outer Station (marked C)
• Rideau Street
• Wellington Street
• Overflow
• OCS/cabooses

I decided to put cars in the first 'Outer Station' track, even though that's needed for switching Frontenac Floor & Wall Tile and Presland Steel. I figured that the cars on that track would be the ones to be switched, meaning that track would be clear when needed for switching moves.

This revised system has worked well in practice. I've made up about five switching runs since its implementation. It's also a very easy way of seeing which runs/customers need more cars, since that track will now be empty.

"The Last Run" of CP Trains 612/613

When I visited the Queen's University Archives in April, 2019 my first exposure to their collection was viewing some of the digitized images of the George E.O. Lilley fonds. These included a very interesting series of photos taken aboard a CP mixed-train operating out of Kingston. Frustratingly, though I took some grainy 'redneck-screenshots' (pointing my digital camera at the computer terminal screen, with the accompanying annoying lines on the image), by the time I reached the negative envelope of those digitized images in August while making my way through the 51 packed boxes of the Lilley fonds, the negatives in box 38 were not present. I suspected they'd been withdrawn for digitizing. 

Eureka! According to the Queen's University Archives website, as part of the Archives' digitization project, 36 photos taken by George E.O. Lilley dated June 15, 1957 are titled "Last Run of [CP] Trains 612 and 613 from Kingston to Sharbot Lake", (V25.5-38-29-1 to 29-34). These photos centre on a steam-powered mixed-train run making its way north from Kingston, through Harrowsmith, Verona and Sharbot Lake. Added to the 1,100+ digital images available to website visitors, these were added on February 28, 2023 by Digital & Private Records Archivist Jeremy Heil. Since the website is not always the easiest to navigate, and because I believe these photos constitute an amazing record of a sample mixed-train run, albeit latter-day, I've included them in this post.  

The photos appeared as part of a Saturday, June 15, 1957 Kingston Whig-Standard news story written by staff reporter E.C. Beer. It seems photographer Lilley rode and documented the train north from Kingston to Sharbot Lake behind CPR D4g 485 on Tuesday, June 11. He then photographed a subsequent southbound run behind CPR 417 as it arrived in Kingston. Whig reporter Cliff Knapp rode and photographed the Saturday, June 15 "last daytime run" which was in turn published in the Monday, June 17 edition of the Whig. The night train would continue hauling passengers and freight but no mail as of Monday, June 17 departing Kingston at 8:30 p.m.

I've added some captions, since the negatives do not include captions, and some details from the Whig article. The train heads under the Highway 401 overpass under construction (near the current Highway 38 - top photo) as Conductor George Giff of Smiths Falls, an 11-year veteran of the run, sits at his 'desk' in the mail/express car reviewing paperwork with his grip on the opposite seat (above). The rattan-covered seats in the gas-lit coach:

The reporter noted that no 'bona fide passengers' were aboard, likely accounting for the discontinuance of the run that was now largely paralleled by a more modern, more convenient highway. Only a couple of 'sentimental observers' who came along to take notes and pictures were aboard, plus the six-man crew shown in the photos, listed below with their years of CP service. A Whig clipping published June 17 shows the crew posing with CP 485, left to right: 

• Mail car clerk Joe Lawless
• Baggageman Gerald Harris
• Trainman Ernest DeGracey
• Engineer Glen White (13 years)
• Conductor George Giff (17 years)
• Fireman Clifford Orr (11 years)

At Harrowsmith, there's a pause to re-line the switch after the CP train has gained the joint track section with the CN Smiths Falls Subdivision (receding to left beyond semaphores). The switches were normally kept lined for CN movements though CN was the 'junior partner' at this junction, albeit operating more trains than CP. The foundation of the former interlocking tower appears to be at right:

Conductor Giff steps down on the platform at Harrowsmith:

Harrowsmith and Sydenham mail courier Mrs. Arthur Harker exchanges mail bags with mail car clerk Joe Lawless:

Holding down the typical baggageman position in mail/express car CP 3450's wooden chair with California oranges, meat and auto parts for Verona, mattresses for Elginburg, a Deluxe Lawn Cruiser power lawnmower for Flinton, shoes and live chicks for Kaladar:

Lunch time in the mail/express car. This is likely baggageman Gerald Harris:

Elginburg-bound mattresses manhandled off the mail/express car. Could this be Hartington? Note the grass-choked siding and no platform:

Mail and express handled at the mail hook-equipped door:

Express shipments and cream can at Verona:

The local merchandise car, interestingly stencilled for CP's International of Maine Division to Saint John, NB handles consignments for Verona, Tichborne and Sharbot Lake. Transfer by hand-cart directly into the freight shed section of Verona station:

Typical views along the line, from bucolic farmland scenes to a hillside and rock-cut, taken from the front and rear vestibules of the coach. Could this be the rock-cut north of Murvale Creek that the train-crew (and my father-in-law) described as difficult at various times of the year due to falling caterpillars and falling leaves making the rails slippery?

The train's consist on this run comprised three empty cars, two gondola cars of scrap metal for Beauharnois, QC, a car of mining equipment for a uranium mine in Spragge, ON (near Sault Ste. Marie) all for Tichborne, and another empty for Peterborough via Sharbot Lake. Add the local merchandise car, mail express car and coach, and we have an exhaust-worthy job for little 485.

I can't be sure, but the above photo is either taken in Kingston as the freight cars are added to the mixed-train consist, or perhaps they're being cut off in Tichborne. Finally, CP 485 with passenger cars, plus 417 backing two boxcars and two passenger cars into the Ontario Street ex-K&P station across from City Hall:

Comparing the photos that George Lilley took with what was published in the Whig, well, there is no comparison. Only one of the above photos, cropped, was included in the article featuring the June 11 ride, published on June 15 (click on image for larger, readable version)...

...another June 15 ride was published on June 17: