Hanley Spur in Print: CN Lines and Kingston Life

Thanks to the kind invitation of Al Lill, Chairman of the Canadian National Railways Historical Association and Kevin Holland, Editor of the CNRHA magazine CN Lines, I was pleased to contribute an article to the latest edition of this fine magazine. After all, as a minor terminal on a major subdivision bearing its name, Kingston's CNR and Grand Trunk Railway connections did much to link the city to the rest of Canada. Many readers will know about the Montreal Street Outer Station, the Counter Street Station, and even our long-gone locomotive manufacturer, the Canadian Locomotive Company. But how many readers would otherwise know of the existence of the diminutive Hanley Spur?

Kevin did the article justice; it runs ten pages with photos and maps. Kevin included colour images of CLC's contributions to the CN motive power roster, and my article is bracketed by other interesting articles on CN steam, ACI labels on CN, Automobile Transporters and much, much more!

It's unlikely that my Dad would have thought that our city streetmap, a decades-long denizen of our family-car glove compartment, would have ever made it into print! It's a folding fan o' fun showing streets and tracks. I have found no better map, and no easier way to orient readers to the convoluted and congested CN Hanley Spur and CP trackage that once wandered its way along our waterfront:

While anticipating the publication of the above article, I had an enjoyable Zoom interview with Kirsteen MacLeod for an upcoming issue of Kingston Life magazine. I was mightily impressed that Kirsteen led with the term 'railfan' early in our conversation! It's sometimes difficult to orient a non-railfan to why we do what we do, or why some of us build model railways. But Kirsteen seemed to understand, and I'm looking forward to more column-inches describing Kingston's waterfront industrial heritage, whether it's in 1:1 or 1:87 scale.

Photographer Rob Whelan visited the layout on January 24. We spent an enjoyable hour talking about the Hanley Spur, and finding the angles and lighting that achieved the shots Rob wanted. He put our old kitchen stepstool/chair to good use, getting some high angles that I know will show the layout to advantage!