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.