CP Switches 'Kingston's Hanley Spur'

As the basement/modelling season winds down for the nice weather, I wanted to try out my new iPhone and decided to follow the CP wayfreight from Smiths Falls to Kingston (arriving in town along Railway Street - top photo) as one of the last trains I operated for the summer! My approach was to follow the train as it switches the industries requiring switching - usually about half of the total CP industries on my Kingston's Hanley Spur layout. These photos were not posed, and the entire operation and shoot took only about 45 minutes.

Compare this to one of my early Hanley Spur layout posts from February, 2019. At that time, only the location of C.E. MacPherson and the Sowards coal trestle seem to be in place. Even then, both structures have since been completely rebuilt or replaced! This November, 2023 post shows most of the structures as they are today. 

The first stop is the deepest - at least the farthest toward the end of the CP Kingston Subdivision. A shared spur for Shell Oil and Anglin. Tail-end of the move lifting two Shell tank cars (above) and head-end under the River Street bridge (below):

Two CP boxcars of wood products being spotted at Anglin. (You'll notice that brakeman in many of the photos.)

Spotting one tank car:

Switching Soward's (later Anglin's) coal-unloading trestle on Place d'Armes. Two empties out:

And looking from the other side atop the covered trestle as two Pennsy cars are spotted:

Weldwood Lumber on Railway Street. BAR boxcar out, with the CN/CP interchange in the foreground:

All-Door boxcar being set out:

At Montreal Street, K-D was not rail-served, but a short spur nearby had many owners over the years. Quintane Gas at this point. Lifting a CGTX tank:

Setting out this bigger one:

Frontenac Floor & Wall Tile was jointly-served by both railways, being on the stump of the former pre-bridge CP entry into Kingston from the north. So you'll usually see one CN-spotted and one CP-spotted car here, either empty boxcars for loading or inbound coal or minerals:

Lifting a (pretend it's empty!) B&M coal hopper and setting out a CP empty for tile loading:

Last stop this run. CP leaves most of their train on the lead and heads down to the CP team track and freight shed along Ontario Street, opposite City Hall. CN's trackage is at left, while CP has a ramp, freight platform and team track:

WM/CP boxcars for lifting (above) and covered hopper being loaded seen during switching moves (below):

Opposite view, setting out a D&H boxcar and PRR reefer. With CP's station no longer in use, a crane outfit and the train's Angus Shops van are spotted while the section men are on the platform:

Then it's just a quick run up the lead to couple on to the rest of the train and head back to Smiths Falls!

Brian TheCaptain Johnson

Thy sea, O God, so great

My boat so small.

It cannot be that any happy fate

Will me befall

Save as Thy goodness opens paths for me

Through the consuming vastness of the sea.

--from The Prayer of the Breton Fishermen by Winfred Garrison

Gone from our sight but not from our memories. This past Thursday night, Kingston harbour lost a storied sailor - Brian Johnson formerly the Captain (nautical) of the Wolfe Island ferry, four decades with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation Eastern Region Ferries, instructor, mentor, historian, writer, author, social media contributor (his 'handle' is the title of this post), man of faith and family, people-person, relaxing retiree:

Brian's biography is beyond the scope of this post, but his unsurpassed knowledge of all things nautical in and around Kingston harbour, after a fifty-year career on the water, was not kept just to himself, it was shared. He relished spreading his stories and those of the ferry service predecessors, both human and hulled, with diverse audiences. As fellow historians, Brian sent me photos of him enjoying his copies of both my books about Kingston's industrial waterfront on his patio.

We were at the Iroquois Lock in August, 2016 when the Canadian Empress approached unbound, heading for stops at Prescott and overnight at Brockville on its Ottawa-Kingston six-day cruise. Brian watches from the bridge wing as the plucky cruise ship progresses through the lock:

This began an online association with Brian. While spending time at the Queen's University Archives, I would come cross archival views of the Wolfe Island ferry in various eras, sharing these with Brian, wondering if he'd seen them before. Often he hadn't, though he was rarely stumped by a photo, and his enthusiastic responses invariably included block capitals and lots of exclamation marks. His interest in seeing what I'd sent him jumped off the screen at me!

While discussing a transportation topic online (buses not ferries), we discovered that we had a family connection: Brian and his Dad knew my wife's uncle Lloyd who was a bus driver and later a part-time supervisor. "Lloyd was also a driver at my Dad's car lot - Johnson Motors - for years. Bringing cars back from Toronto-area auctions. I knew his Dad Mervil as well.  Just GREAT guys!" Mervil was a farmer and ended up operating farms for Brian's family. Brian was his 'apprentice' at the tender age of 11. 'Merv' taught him all about farming: cutting, raking, haying, and Brian said he really looked up to him. 

Brian continued, "I can't believe the connection either! After these many years the dots connect! I consider Eric THE FOUNDER of the many 'jigsaw puzzle' pieces missing in our local Kingston and area history. And now the family "connection"! Mr. & Mrs. Snider (Merv & Ma) also looked after us kids when Mom went into hospital for emergency surgery in mid-sixties. They really were "aunt and uncle" to us. Thanks Eric!!! - Brian Johnson".

I'm 'borrowing' this great photo posted to social media by Shauna Kingstone, Brian's fellow board member of the Wolfe Island Historical Society (WIHS) showing him in his home setting, a nautical chart of Wolfe Island surrounded by photo mementoes on the wall:

 Finally meeting Brian at my presentation to the WIHS on the island last summer:

Brian will be missed by his wife Cathy and family. When I arrived at the church where the WIHS meeting was to be held, I met Cathy as she was driving away to pick up another attendee but she told me, "I just put him in there". I still smile about that one and I am grateful we finally had that chance to meet. A view toward Fort Henry from the ferry on the trip home - one that would be very familiar to Brian from his many passages on that three-mile crossing:

I am standing on the sea shore, a ship sails in the morning breeze and starts for the ocean. She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her till at last she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says: “She is gone.” Gone! Where? Gone from my sight—that is all. 

She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination. The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her, and just at the moment when someone at my side says, “She is gone” there are others who are watching her coming, and other voices take up a glad shout: “There she comes!” 

-from I Am Standing on the Seashore by Henry Van Dyke

Here is Brian's obituary published online by Arbor Memorial:

On the evening of May 8, 2025, encircled by the love and tears of his family, our beloved Captain sailed his final ship into the distant sunset. With Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra playing in the background, we held his hands and recounted many of his countless stories as he took his final breaths. Like the journey of life itself, it was as beautiful as it was tragic and we will be forever grateful for having been there with him.

Brian leaves behind his treasured wife of 48 years, Cathy (nee Bricker), his adored children, April and Paul Di Rinaldo, and Patrick and Kay (nee Kenney), his cherished grandchildren Ruby, Georgia, Freddie and Frankie, and his niece Ciera Deir. He is predeceased by his parents Jack and Lorna (nee Patterson), his siblings Barry, Lu-Ann and Cheri, and his best friend Don Strople.

Brian was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario, however his heart and soul belonged to Wolfe Island. His was not an easy childhood and the steady and predictable life provided by his grandparents, Johnnie and Violet Johnson, at their farm on the 5th Line provided him with the peace and stability he needed. Indeed, his Nana and Grampy were his anchors, keeping him close to the Island for the rest of his life.

At the ripe old age of about six, he captained his first boat, a rowboat, across the St. Lawrence Seaway from his family cottage to Milton Island, and the rest, as they say, is history. At seventeen (a year after his first solo flight as a pilot), he was officially licensed to captain his family’s Lyman cruiser, the Jamie-Lyn, for harbour and charter tours of the area. Around this time, he would tell people that one day he would be captain of the Wolfe Island ferry. And, after devoting years to the tour boat operations in Rockport and Gananoque, he had enough sea time to get his Minor Waters license. On September 11, 1981, he walked on board the Wolfe Islander III as the newest crew member, and knew he was where he was meant to be. He worked hard, studied everything he could, got his Master Inland 350 license, and on April 20, 1989 he achieved his ultimate goal: being appointed Captain of the Wolfe Islander III, where he would stay until beyond his retirement.

In 1970, Brian had to leave high school before finishing to join the workforce and promised himself he would finish one day. In his 30s, while working multiple jobs, he not only attained his diploma with honours through correspondence, but achieved a mark of 100% in OAC English. Not long after that, one of his beloved mentors, Captain Buck Mullin, passed away. Brian felt that that Captain Mullin's legacy of tireless service to the people of Wolfe Island needed to be told and preserved, so he wrote an article for the Kingston Whig Standard. Thus began his passion for writing. For the next nearly 40 years, he married his love of storytelling with his love of marine history, Kingston, Wolfe Island, and the many characters he came to know, to become a rather prolific writer and storyteller in the area. His speaking engagements - wherein he would share the oral history and a slideshow of historical photos of Wolfe Island, the boats that served the Islanders, and all of the lore that gets passed around by locals - were attended by thousands of people over the years.

In the early 2000s he met Wolfe Island resident, Victoria Stewart, who shared a passion for local history, and together they founded the Wolfe Island Historical Society. Brian was working on the ferry the night they appointed the first board of directors, and when the phone rang in the wheel house after their meeting, he was shocked to learn that he was unanimously appointed president - a title he wore almost as proudly as Captain.

The ‘boats’ were a significant part of his identity, but anyone who spent time with Brian knew that his family was at the centre of everything in his life. He loved his wife and children so much, and when the grandchildren arrived, he was beside himself with pride and joy. The last few summers spent together in laughter and joy at the family cottage on his beloved Wolfe Island will comfort his family as they try to continue on without him.

Brian had an impact on so many people in his 71 years. It is hard to believe he isn’t just around the corner with a book in his hands, or getting ready to catch the next boat because he’s been called in for overtime, or in his office lost in papers and thoughts, or having his 17th cup of coffee of the day, or prank calling someone, or writing his next story, or trying to make someone laugh at the worst possible time…

He was a beacon of integrity, strength and generosity. He believed in finding the humour in life - no matter how bad things got. He believed in the underdog. He believed that empathy is born in the sharing of our stories. He believed in forgiveness. And he believed in life after death. So, the next time you look out onto the water, know he is out there somewhere, plotting the course, watching the weather, and making sure we get home safely.

O Captain! Our Captain! You were truly one in a million. We will miss you for the rest of our lives.

2025 Heritage Fair - The Kids are [Still] Alright

'The Kids are Alright' was a 1979 soundtrack by The Who. It's perhaps a sentiment often expressed by practitioners in any field concerned about the future. Today, I had the honour of serving as a volunteer citizen judge in the King's Town School (KTS) Heritage Fair - and I can assure you - the future of historical interest and preservation are alright! 

The nine Heritage Fair entries that I had the pleasure of judging, actually learning about, were:

Whoa Canada - Wild Horses in the West and Sable Island

Star Forts and Martello Towers - Kingston's Fortifications

Transportation in Canada's History [mainly the CPR]

Whiskey War [between Canada and Denmark]

Vikings and Vinland

The Halifax Explosion

Dogsledding

Kingston's Fire of 1840

Canada's National Park System

There were 12 judges in this, my second year -  clearly a group with deep interest in history - that meant our goal was to judge three entries each, about 15 minutes per entry. The students were more than capable of discussions and answering questions on their chosen topic, most with a deep knowledge, all with unique ways of presenting their displays. Teacher/fair coordinators Paige and Amey were welcoming and really looked after us, especially when we occasionally got lost in the rabbit-warren of display rooms!

At the Davis Drydock on Wellington Street, one of Uncle Sam's boats was in for work:

Cochrane's Convenience:

Something Old, Something New and Blue: Kingston Transit electric bus 2402E on Kingston Express route 601, surrounded by limestone near the former site of the Grand Trunk Railway freight shed.

Modelling Kingston Emergency Vehicles

After modelling the Ontario Street fire hall, and dabbling in early Regional Emergency Services ambulances (referred to colloquially as "Regional"), I repainted one fire truck I already had, and found another through an online auction to inhabit the firehouse. 

This led to the challenge of modelling a late-60's-early-70's ambulance.  I had bought a Hot Wheels 55th anniversary van for my grandsons. It nominally represents a 1994 Dodge van, but it's the closest thing I had to represent what I wanted to represent. Oh, those orange tinted windows and sunroof! Plus the fact that it's nominally 1:64 scale, instead of the 1:87 of HO scale. 

The Hot Wheels Old Number 5 firetruck was a popular model, nominally representing a 1920s Ahrens Fox. The one I successfully bid for had obviously been previously-enjoyed!

The firetruck was first. The main structural issues were replacing those mag racing tires with more narrow ones, and pulling together the side-ladders with thin wire. The rest was mostly repainting of the red finish, detail painting, plus adding old-timey licence plates (not pictured).

The ambulance also had a wheel replacement, painting over of the sun-roof solid white and windows. watered-down black hobby paint. Hand-painting the blue stripe, adding printed 'AMBULANCE' fore and aft, and drilling small holes into the sunroof to add flashing lights and plopping on a rooftop 'cherry' flashing light. I shied away from adding the small lettering on the blue door stripe and/or the early provincial crest. Also, licence plates and detail painting. 

Now, for the Kingston Police...in the era I'm modelling, I believe they were blue and white. I already have these black and white stand-ins of various eras. For now...

River St. Bridge Redux

After already 'redux-ing' the diamond crossing of CP and CN under the River Street bridge, it's now time to improve my modelling of the aforementioned bridge. This was brought about by my grandsons' love of driving vehicles up and over the bridge when they visited my layout. The railings were the first to go, and having moved the scrap yard to the left of the bridge and considered expanding Anglin's yard into that space, I took a look at the topography.

Both railways' lines under the bridge are in a depression, and the CP was particularly poorly-drained and prone to flooding that made the ballast and ties sub-optimal. CN seemed to have a little better ballast and roadbed. My bridge, by contrast, arises out of complete flatness, so some scenic remodelling would be of primary importance in dealing with the bridge's approaches and abutments.

First, I copy-paste-printed several images of the bridge for modelling inspiration, three views looking south and two looking north (below). The drawback to the top four images is that they show the appearance of the bridge after the 1970 rebuilding. A concrete foundation was poured, underpinning the vertical wooden bridge piers and the road approaches. Comparing that to the fifth image, the roughness of the limestone, the gap where the bridge was raised during WWII, and the stone/vegetation of the supports become apparent. I was modelling circa 1970, but now I've backdated that to circa 1966, so I need to reflect that fifth image.

I'll post my progress here as the rebuild evolves...

The first step was an unexpected one. I realized I had to reverse the direction of the Queen City Oil spur to preserve it in the face of the re-scenicking. That's OK because this would the direction it would have been, a trailing-point spur when heading north. Current underneath, new arrangement taking shape on top:

The next step was to clear off the bridge approaches, the sides of which I'd affixed some self-adhesive lichen backdrop, as a sheer vertical. I firmly attached the near bridge support to the layout surface from underneath. This approach was really too long anyway. The prototype River Street bridge was notoriously short, thereby steep, on the Rideau Street side.

I then decided that I needed to simulate the depression on the near side of the bridge. To do so, I built up 'Rideau Street' in the foreground then made some topography sloping down to the tracks on both sides of the approach from Rideau Street. I did so by screwing a piece of foam-core, scored to alter the topography, to the layout. I used two blocks of wood to raise the near side of the foam-core, shaping it in a 'U' up and over the near side of the approach. This has resulted in a shorter, more gradual but more believable near approach to the bridge. The shorter far approach remains unchanged because it covers a 'hidden' track to Dyeco under which I need adequate clearance for switching movements.

I then cooked up some papier-mache' [to reflect my surname, I say "papYAY-MASH-ay" as opposed to my good wife's Ontario-speak "PAY-per mashAY"]. I covered the foam-core and its edges and the approaches with newspaper strips. The near approach now much looks shorter and better. Though I'd like to have the depression slope up from the tracks on both sides, there are other elements in the way and I think it would stand out too much. This more subtle topography is better, at least for now...

Queen City Oil spur reverse, and paint is on. I also put a new limestone pattern on the near support. Now to work on the bridge railings and scenicking that green expanse. The first step was to sand off some of the sharp edges and newspaper wrinkles. I added a piece of basswood along the layout edge, and though I painted it I'll be working to make it more unobtrusive. 

I told my grandsons that I'd be scenicking a path through the scenery here for kids and others to use as a shortcut. Prototype aerial photos clearly show such paths criss-crossing grassy parts of Swamp Ward waterfront. That was part of the next phase. I'm working up the side of the depression scenically. Closing in the limestone abutments with greenery, because they aren't that prominent prior to the 1970 rebuild. I also strengthened the railings, streamlining the wooden bents and adding some timbers at their base. 

Our grandson was operating a Ford dealership at left during his recent visit! That is abetting my writer's block with scenicking those green spaces!

My newest locomotive crosses the CP on the diamond beneath the bridge:

A New Blog about Kingston Transit!

Just as my main Canadian railway blog 'Trackside Treasure' begat my 'Kingston's Hanley Spur' blog, now that blog has in turn begat the not-so-imaginatively-named 'Kingston Transit' blog. If you check it out here, you'll notice that the transit-related posts from this blog can also be read there. It's like asking the driver for a Transfer!

But that's just the first few coins in the fare-box. Watch for more history and stories of Kingston's history 'on the buses', definitely an under-represented part of Kingston's multi-faceted history!