To
the casual railway
transportation observer in Kingston,
Ontario, it looks
like there is
nothing here but the great sweep of the Canadian National (CNR) main
line north
of the city proper. In fact, there is plenty of railway infrastructure
left
from the past in and around Kingston.
Since almost none of this is identified for the public, I felt that an
outline
of local "railway archaeology" would make an interesting story.
The
view from the fireman's side of 487, coming
into Tichborne. The station platform is evident at the left, and the
coaling
tower down the line. We coaled and watered there before departure for Kingston. We
also picked
up a cut of freight cars (see photograph below).
A
quick look at local
railway history sets the stage for an exploration of current remains.
The Grand
Trunk Railway (later CNR) arrived in Kingston
in 1856. Its broad-gauge (1676mm) track cut the land travel time from Montreal to Toronto
from over a week to just 12 hours. A few years later, in 1884, Kingston saw
another rail line established,
the Kingston & Pembroke Railway (leased by Canadian Pacific in
1912). The
"Kick and Push" as it was always referred to, never did get to
Pembroke, but provided connections with CPR main lines at Tichborne and
Sharbot
Lake.
Other
railway lines in the Kingston area
included the Canadian Northern (CNoR) main
line through Yarker and Sydenham, the Thousands Islands Railway, and
the Brockville
and Westport
Railway. Traces of all of these railways are still visible if you know
where to
look.
Let
us start with the city
of Kingston.
Kingston
has had four
railway stations and all the buildings still exist. The CN "Outer
Station", on Montreal
Street,
is a “listed” building of sorts, is in poor condition and wanted by
neither the
CNR nor the City. It was opened by the Prince of Wales (later King
Edward VII)
in 1860 and is a classic Ontario
stone building. The shape of the "long curve" at the station is still
visible, particularly westward (follow the right of way along Hickson,
Harvey
and Elliot Streets), as is the platform. Across Montreal Street, in the "Village
on
the River" park, old railway bridge abutments poke up through the grass.
The
CNR also had an
"inner station", located at the SW corner of Johnson and Ontario
Streets. The building is now a restaurant. Usually referred to as
"Hanley
Station", the agent's name, it was the terminus of the shuttle service
to
Kingston Junction near the Outer Station. The CNR shut down this
service in
1929, but prior to that one could board a sleeping car in downtown Kingston and wake up in Toronto the next morning!
The
CPR station was
strategically located right across from City Hall. It is now the
tourist
bureau. CPR D10 class (4-6-0) locomotive 1095, in poor condition, sits
near
where the buffers would have been. For an excellent 1950s aerial photo
of the
CPR station, with a train departing, look in the ground-floor meeting
room at
the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour building.
The
newest and only active Kingston
station is the
VIA one on John Counter
Blvd. It
was opened in 1974 and serves Ottawa,Toronto and Montreal trains
daily. In preparation for re-locating
the station, the main line was shifted north to eliminate most of the
long
curve.
Taken
from the fireman's side of CP 4-6-0 487 in
the 1950s, we are approaching the cross-over over to the east side of
the CN
Kingston Branch (Hanley Spur). The River Street bridge is visible,
as is the CN signal
mast. The top signal is set at clear, presumably for CN northbound....
I cannot
tell if there is also a lower arm at stop, or is that part of the
warning
device for personnel on top of cars. There is a fixed stop sign on the
right
for CP trains approaching the crossover. I have no idea how this was
controlled
unless it was through some form of shared train orders.
Within
the city limits a number of former railway alignment
features are still visible. On the K&P line, look for the angle-cut
building on the north side of lower Princess Street, diagonally
opposite the
Holiday Inn. The railway line passed by here, crossed Ontario Street
at steep angle and
proceeded toward the Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan building area and
on
through to the Wellington
Street
extension. The roundhouse footings and sector shape of the building are
still
visible east of the right of way and north of the Kingston Marina
property. See
if you can spot the cornerstone and date (note: this unrecognised site
will
probably be torn up to make way for the LVEC)[2007 note:
this did not take place...the dreaded LVEC site shifted
downtown]. The K&P line continued more or less parallel to Rideau Street,
sharing the right of way with the CNR. It crossed Montreal Street near
Quattrocchi's store,
where I remember seeing boxcars sitting at the freight platform. The
next place
you can see the K&P alignment is where it crosses Sydenham Road
about a couple of blocks
before Highway 401. You can walk back toward Kingston on this alignment and see a
different view of the entry into the city. The walk includes some
cuttings and
embankments and takes about 15 minutes each way. One final nearby
K&P
feature still extant is the Highway 401 flyover over the alignment just
before
the Highway 38 exit …..glance northward and you will see the now-trail
heading
to the bush. There are many other K&P features visible further
north,
bearing in mind that this line was torn up only in the 1980s.
Back
to the CNR. There is no evidence of
CNR downtown lines
still visible, except for bits of the right of way out on
Montreal Street, on the east side. The City
tore down the River Street
wooden bridge over the old CN line a couple of years ago (see photo).
The
locomotive works (Canadian Locomotive Company - the infamous "Block
D") and the shipyard on Ontario
Street were served by a CN spur from the
Hanley
Station which ran to near the Pumphouse Steam
Museum.
This was an important industrial line ..... I recall seeing many steam
and
diesel locomotives awaiting shipment in the yard on the north side of Ontario Street. All gone now.
A
typical CN heavyweight passenger train of the
day, powered by a 6200-series Northern, awaits departure from the Outer
Station. There appear to be white flags fluttering above the class
lights, so
the train must have been an extra section. The lower track to the left
(east)
of the locomotive was probably the Kingston Branch which was still in
use for freight at the time.[2007 note: I was subsequently corrected on this last
statement...the
Kingston Branch was a hundred yards further east/left]
One
shouldn't forget Kingston's
street railway
which ran from the 1870s to 1930. Today there are only two faint
reminders of
this fairly extensive system: look up the east side of Barrie Street
from King
Street, in the park, and you will see the parts of the double line of
trees
which flanked the streetcar line; look on the north side of King
Street,
opposite the Penitentiary, where there is a dirt path for a
sidewalk.... the
wide verge was the streetcar alignment, on its way to Portsmouth
village and
Lake Ontario Park. The streetcar double track down Princess Street
existed for many years
after the service was terminated ... it was still there when I was kid
in the
early-1940s.
CP
D4g No. 487, rear quarter view, with
wood mail-express car, at the
station at Sharbot
Lake, ready
for
departure. Blower exhaust and very full coal bunker are evident. The
train for
Renfrew was back-to-back with the Kingston
train, but unfortunately I did not take a pic of it.
Outside
Kingston
there are a number of interesting
bits of railway archaeology. The former CNoR line high-level bridge at
Yarker
is still there, as is the "new" (1960s) plate girder bridge high
above Harrowsmith Road,
between Harrowsmith and Sydenham. This latter structure, the design and
installation of which was supervised by my friend Mike Vigrass, then
CNR
regional engineer, is quite complex because of its steep angle to the
road's
deep cutting and the fact that a new, higher alignment was required for
the new
bridge (to allow for unbroken train operations). Mike says he held his
breath
as they lowered the bridge into place, hoping all four corners would be
in the
right place. They were! Both old and new alignments are still visible.
The CNoR
(latterly CNR) alignment crosses County Road 10 near Perth Road
Village,
on its way to Smiths
Falls.
Aboard
CP 4-6-0 487, coming into Kingston,
approaching the CPR roundhouse, along the shore of Anglin's
Bay. There is now a paved footpath
at this exact location. Another locomotive is visible to the right of
the
roundhouse.
The
little Thousand Islands
Railway has most of its line visible, above and below the "Susan
Push" locomotive plinthed where the line crossed King Street in Gananoque, a town
of 5,000
some 18 miles to the east of Kingston.
Even the mainline station (Gananoque Junction) is still there and
sports a
latter-day makeover by VIA. One train a day, in each direction, still
calls
there.
Looking
back from the cab of 487, just after
departing Tichborne. You can see the six or so freight cars which have
been cut
in behind the engine, with the wood mail-express car and wood coach on
the
rear. This photograph is not great quality but you can imagine that
487's cab
was not exactly a stable platform for me and my clunky 616 camera!
At
the outer limits of our
exploration is the Brockville & Westport Railway, of which little
remains
except the station in Westport.
Check out the little museum in Westport
which has quite a bit of material about the B&W. The curator,
Gerry, is
knowledgeable and friendly[2007 note:
Gerry is no longer the curator] . The B&W stopped running in
1952 and
so I consider myself lucky to have seen a train in Westport
that same summer from a cruise on the Rideau
Canal.
The
railway museum in Smiths
Falls
(on the former CNoR line referred to earlier) is worth a visit ... it
is the
only one of its kind around here.
One
final note: there are a number of good,
local books about Kingston's
railways and at least one good website (about the B&W)...look them
up
Bytown
Railway Society,
Branchline, November 2005, page 10.
