Kingston 1908 Insurance Maps

Library and Archives Canada's Collections Canada hosts 53 historic maps of Kingston from 1908. These beautifully-rendered images include buildings, streets, and most importantly, CN and CP trackage to the waterfront. Sample map - Kingston's Outer Station (below) including K&P right-of-way (top of map) and Grand Trunk station, yard trackage and Hanley Spur (bottom of map).

Start your journey through the streets of Kingston, 110 years ago, here.

Potential Hanley Spur Modules

Wondering what to model? 

The following Kingston city map view shows some suggested, labelled boxed areas that would be approximately module-sized. Click on the map for a larger version.

Hanley Spur: Where it all Begins

April, 1974: looking timetable west, the above photo shows the Elliott Avenue level crossing over CN's Kingston Subdivision, just timetable east of the Outer Station. Diverging at left is CN's Hanley Spur. At right are backyards of houses along Montreal Street. The Montreal Street subway under the mainline was removed in 1976. Notice that dark-red sectionhouse just to the right of the spur? The spur is running downgrade, at right, behind the same sectionhouse (below). The dirt roads lead to the mysterious Rosen-leased-to-Canfor lumberyard just east of Montreal Street, site of Skyline Living apartments, and still part of the site's maintenance garage.

October, 1985: these three black-and-white photos show the sectionhouse, looking in the opposite direction. From below grade and the rear (above). At grade, along the remnants of the Kingston Subdivision with the Elliott Avenue crossing in the background (below) crossing the Hanley Spur single-track connection to the Kingston Subdivision still intact:

 The front of the section house.

All photos by Wilf Coombe, posted to online photo-sharing site.

At Kingston's Outer Station, Summer 1970

Before there was the CN/VIA station on John Counter Blvd., there was the CN Outer Station on Montreal Street. Another post here. Occasionally we would see or meet CN passenger trains there.  On an August day in 1970, my Dad snapped the photos I'm sharing in this post. CN 6776 leads a westbound (top photo) and an FP-9 leads a westbound (below). Note the boxcar at the lumber shed at right!

The Outer Station would be a logical starting point for a Hanley Spur layout. After all, just to the east is the connection to the spur from CN's Kingston Subdivision. And I'll have to build a model for my home HO scale Hanley Spur layout. It will be the first thing visible as one enters the layout and it will be the starting point of the spur trackage as it makes its way around the layout.

But back to 1970! Here I am, watching an eastbound CN passenger train pull into the station:

 Seconds later, the B&W version:

And what's this? In the yard, CN 1290 has a Norfolk & Western hopper, a CN hopper and a wooden caboose in tow. So far, the power I've seen recorded on CN includes GP-9's, RS-18's and SW1200 RS's; on CP it's RS-23's and S-3's. The Outer Station wasn't big - it was compact. Look at the wide open spaces in the yard in the above photo. (Oh, and the NKP hopper!) And so were the trains that headed down the spur - compact:

The above unit was pushing some boarding cars at one point:

All photos by L.C. Gagnon.

Canadian Locomotive Co. Loads and Dimensionals, Part 2

STR35386a.001.aa.cs CLC plant undated

The modest Canadian Locomotive Co. plant on Kingston's waterfront produced an astonishingly wide range of locomotives and industrial products. In the first post, I merely scratched the surface! In this second post, there are even more photos from the CSTM Picturing the Past Collection worthy of a second look. Each is captioned with picture reference number then some caption information. In this post, newest to oldest. Note the flatcar deck bracing - so important to making a convincing-looking model of a flatcar load.

STR31724a.001.aa.cs Calcutta Port Commissioners switcher at Market Battery 1967

STR31565a.001.aa.cs Contract C662 for India on CP flatcar 301468  in 1960

STR31518a.001.aa.cs contract c659

STR31068a.001.aa.cs flotation cells on CN flatcar 1964

STR30878a.001.aa.cs1958 diesel switcher on  CN flatcar

STR30816a.001.aa.cs combustion chamber 1956 note bracing

STR30758a.001.aa.cs Autoclave

STR30432a.001.aa.cs evaporator vessel on depressed-centre flatcar 1955

STR30428a.001.aa.cs evaporator vessel 1955

STR30418a.001.aa.cs evaporator vessel 1955

STR30359a.001.aa.cs classifier 1957 with shop switcher

STR30407a.001.aa.cs evaporator vessel on CN flatcar 1955 note IC boxcar in background

STR30358a.001.aa.cs classifier 1957

STR30333a.001.aa.cs Spiral 1957 good view of end bracing

STR29785a.001.aa.cs Indian State 1955 contract C630 with Shoal Tower

STR25915a.001.aa.cs Consolidated Sand & Gravel with laker in background

STR25900a.001.aa.cs Indian Government shipment contract C611 undated

STR25887a.001.aa.cs Indian Government shipment 1943

STR25627a.001.aa.cs Indian Government contract L3010 in GTW gondola

This post highlights the diversity and range of products produced by CLC!

STR24240a.001.aa.cs Beauharnois Construction Co tank engines on depressed-centre flat cars and Hanley Station

Hanley Spur Layout Plan

Two lines: CN and CP comprise my HO-scale, 10x11-foot layout plan for the Hanley Spur. Essentially an industrial switching layout, the point-to-point has a continuous-run drop-in option.

CN originates at the Outer Station on Montreal Street, top left, wending its way around the front of the layout, the CP comes in and does the same, though closer to the wall. The two lines cross at River Street, then peter out near the waterfront. Each line includes at least a run-around track to switch and serve the industries, and there will be one or two interchanges between them. 

The usual left-west, right-east sensibility is absent. Plotting the schematic on paper would look like a bowl of fettucine. This is not a straight-line thing. In order to incorporate the scenes I want, and more importantly the traffic-generating industries I need, this plan has more twists and turns than a James Bond movie plot. Some industries are flats, some are partial buildings meeting the backdrop, and some will be complete structures.

It's taken several iterations, but this is the final one.

From the River Street bridge to Guyana!

STR31878a.001.aa.cs contract C669 south of River Street

The Canadian Locomotive Co. is not easily modellable in its entirety, as the compact plant packed quite a physical punch on Kingston's waterfront, occupying the waterfront south of Ontario Street from Johnson Street west to Gore Street. 

One of the last contracts filled by the plant was for two 80-ton Diesel-Hydraulic center-cab switchers for the Guyana Railways. The Davenport-Besler designed 0-6-6-0 switchers originally had two Cummins prime movers were shipped to Guyana on February 24, 1967. While digging through the CLC photo archives in the Canadian Science and Technology Museum Picturing the Past photo collection, these two views really caught my eye. It appears that one of the two switchers is making its way north on the Hanley Spur.

In the top photo, the unusual switcher is on the far track. Your eyes are not fooling you - in the photo below, the switcher is on the near track. The CP crossed the CN under the River Street bridge, from which these photos are taken, judging by the shadows, perhaps mid-morning on a snowy day, and including the photographer's shadow!

Rideau Street parallels both lines just to the west. The photo below includes four billboards, vehicles, the interesting lettering on the C E McPherson plant and its spur running off the CP, garages and at extreme right, the Davis Tannery. The switches have been swept clear of snow by the sectionmen. Both photos show the telltales to warn approaching brakemen riding car-tops of the approaching bridge. Concussions averted!

STR31943a.001.aa.cs Contract C669 north of River Street

CN & CP Employees' Timetables

To support my Hanley Spur research, my brother Dave did a scan-a-thon, and kindly shared the results with me. These are CN and CP employees' timetables.

The CN timetables show the Hanley Spur as the 'Kingston Subdivision' in 1957. During that time, CN's Montreal-Toronto mainline was known as the Gananoque Subdivision in 1963, with the Hanley Spur shown in its subdivision footnotes. The mainline subdivision subsequently was known as the Kingston Subdivision by 1967, with its subdivision footnotes again incorporating the Hanley Spur through to 1979.

Click on each timetable image to view a larger, much more readable version. Phil Jago kindly sent a scan of the CN Kingston Subdivision from 1950:

The CP timetables show their Kingston Subdivision from 1950 through to 1978:

I have yet to fully mine these images for all the nuggets of information they contain, showing the changes to the spur through the decades. Thanks to David J. Gagnon for providing the images for this post!