Out With the Old, In With the New

Posted on October 7, 2024 by admin

Though our layout is essentially shut down each year over the summer months (from mid-May to the end of August), it is hardly a quiet time for the CP Sudbury Division. The summer season is when layout expansion work, heavy construction and miscellaneous major projects can occur without the interruption of club operating sessions or open houses to get in the way.

The summer of 2024 was particularly busy with a number of major projects including; a complete change-out of the turnout ground throws for Tortoise switch machines within our Copper Cliff / Creosote industrial area, CTC signaling and logic programming at Stinson siding, fluorescent to LED valence lighting replacement over many aisles, and the construction of a maintenance platform within our ‘sky helix’ that spirals between floors connecting Sprecher and Larchwood.

The ‘sky helix’ spiralling between floors connecting Sprecher and Larchwood. Preparations to finish the mainline required a maintenance platform be built to climb into this helix from the main floor.

Possibly the most exciting project of the summer was a complete clean-out of all the stuff we’ve stored for many, many years now on the top floor. Well, the actual cleaning part sucked as it was tough and took what seemed forever, but it was done to clear the way for our Cartier Sub mainline to finally be completed. As August ended, we had already begun the benchwork for Sturgeon Falls, and planning for the huge 14-track staging yard (representing the entire CPR west of Cartier ON) that will be built above it. That is the exciting part.

Autumn and colder weather also marks the beginning of another operating season for the CP Sudbury Division layout, with five op sessions and two dates where we’re open for the public. A number of operational projects also occurred prior to the operating season beginning, mainly involving the addition and preparation of new equipment (weathering rolling stock, DCC programming of locomotives, etc.) along with any modifications or updates required by our car-forwarding/waybill system.

Two strings of our new Rapido NSC reefers form a backdrop behind recently retired stand-ins. The three reefers in the middle are the first Rapido models we weathered. Though they served faithfully for nearly two decades, these old stand-in ‘foobies’ were never accurate models.

In addition to the usual operational projects, this summer also saw us replace an entire fleet of cars, and even a piece of office furniture. Replacements of car fleets are not common, as the vast majority of our rolling stock are high-quality models which fairly accurately represent their prototypes. But some of our freight cars are ‘placeholders’ so to speak. These are cars too important or iconic to not have within our operations, and so we utilize inaccurate models or ‘foobies’ (to use modeller’s jargon) that appear close enough. If or when accurate replacements become available then these foobie fleets get replaced, and we have blogged about this topic in the past.

Duelling CP 286381’s. Only a minority of CP’s 400+ fleet of 50ft mechanical reefers were ever repainted into the CP Rail scheme, so it shouldn’t be surprising that a road number Rapido selected would conflict one of our old cars. Rapido’s accurate model (left) versus an old Athearn ‘blue-box’ repainted version (right).

The mass replacement which occurred this past summer was our CP mechanical refrigerated boxcar fleet. These reefers were staples on CP’s hot transcon freights through the 1970s, with large blocks appearing right on the head-end of freights like #952. Our operations wouldn’t be right without them. So with the exception of a single 40ft kitbashed model of a CP 285600-series car, our entire fleet of mechanical reefers were stand-ins consisting of Athearn ‘blue-box’ models, and some Accurail outside-braced 50’ boxcar bashes. These were all retired thanks to a club bulk purchase of brand new Rapido NSC-built CP reefers.

Side-by-side comparison of an old Athearn ‘blue-box’ reefer (left) with a new Rapido NSC model (right). Though the Athearn cars represented another prototype (the Hawker-Siddeley smooth-sided reefer) they were all retired thanks to the Rapido car being a 100% correct model of an NSC-built outside-braced reefer.

Replacing office fixtures is even more uncommon than rolling stock retirements, since there are so few that we utilize in club operations. In fact, we believe this to be the first instance. Our venerable and iconic Crew Call Board, a grid-marked whiteboard employed since our first operating sessions began well over 20 years ago, had to be replaced.

As the layout expanded and new freights continued to be added to our operations over the decades, we’d been stretching the old board past its original capacities. Three additional rows were squeezed in over time. We even saved room by listing both the Montreal and Toronto sections of “The Canadian” within one line. However, we broke the board after our first nickel ore train was inaugurated (INCO Job 2), and had no room left when the time came to add hotshot transcon freights 901/902 to our operating scheme.

Comparison of our old Crew Callboard (as photographed in 2021) with the new replacement board ready to go for our 14 September 2024 op session. After adding transcon freight 949 and INCO Job 2 to club operations a few months ago, we ran out of room for trains 901/902.

With our resent summer work beginning the push to finish our Cartier Sub mainline from North Bay to Cartier staging, it wasn’t hard to think of building towards the future. So, we acquired a very large whiteboard and grid-marked it with 40 rows. All those rows will allow us to list every mainline freight and local that was ever run on a daily basis over the CP Sudbury Division, with accommodation for a few extras and second sections too. Our only worry now is will we have enough operators to run them all? Thinking back to our lean beginnings during the WRMRC’s fledgling years, that is actually a remarkable thing to have to worry about.

Falconbridge Nickel Mines Railway

Posted on August 14, 2024 by Chris van der Heide

While INCO (now Vale) was always the dominant player in the nickel mining and processing scene in Sudbury, Falconbridge (now Glencore) was the major independent competitor to INCO. This post will look at Falconbridge and how it relates to CPR’s railway operations.

Map showing location of Falconbridge smelter (top right) and rail lines. Red lines are Canadian Pacific, blue lines are Canadian National.

Falconbridge Mine and Smelter

Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd. was incorporated in 1928 to develop mining claims near the village of Falconbridge to the north-east of Sudbury. The first mine on the site was brought into operation in 1930. At the same time, development of a mill and smelter adjacent to the mine site was begun, with the smelter beginning operation in 1930 and the concentrating mill in 1933. A second mine at Falconbridge opened in 1935.

Due to patent restrictions in North America on nickel refining processes, Falconbridge purchased the Nikkelverk Refinery in Kristiansands, Norway in 1929 to acquire access to the refining processes they required. The smelter in Ontario produced a semi-refined nickel product known as “matte”, which would be refined to cathodes in the Norway facility.

Rail map of the Onaping-Levack area. Red line at bottom left is the CPR main line. The (now-abandoned) FNM railway is in purple. Yellow is the INCO line to Levack Mine.

Hardy Mine/Mill

In the early 1950s, Falconbridge expanded their mining operations from their original mines on the east side of Sudbury and developed some mines on the north west rim of the Sudbury crater in the Onaping-Levack area. By 1955 these operations included a pair of nickel-copper mines, Hardy Mine and Mount Nickel Mine, and a processing mill (Hardy Mill) located alongside Hardy Mine on the south-west edge of the town of Levack, capable of processing 1,500 tons of ore per day into concentrate which would be shipped to the smelter at Falconbridge east of Sudbury in open cars (hoppers and gondolas). This dry concentrate has been described as “pyrophoric”, meaning it can spontaneously undergo oxidation reactions (combustion) in contact with air and/or moisture, and could arrive at the smelter in a clumped or “burning” state.

To serve the new mines and mill, a new private rail line was built between Hardy Mine/Mill to the CPR Levack siding where several interchange transfer tracks were built. FNM locomotives would haul loads from the mill to the CPR and bring back empties delivered by CP. Hardy Mill was FNM’s rail base of operations, with a single stall engine shop, repair track, and a turning wye located next to the mill loading tracks.

1975 aerial photo of Hardy mine and mill. City of Greater Subdury aerial imagery. (Click on image to open larger size)

The Hardy Mill operated until 1977 when it was closed, with the older mines in the area reaching end of life near the end of the 1970s, and newer replacement mines having their ore processed at the newer Strathcona Mill (see below).

Fecunis Mine/Mill

In 1956 a new pair of mines, the Fecunis and Longvack Mines were in development on the north-east side of Levack. The odd name of “Fecunis” is based on the chemical symbols of the primary minerals found in the rocks here – iron (Fe), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and sulphur (S). By 1957 these mines and a new mill at Fecunis to handle the production were on line capable of processing 2,400 tons per day of ore into concentrate, which like Hardy Mill was shipped in a partially dry concentrate in open cars. The FNM private rail line was extended past Hardy Mill to serve the new mill. Additionally another large mine, the Onaping Mine, was opened by the end of the 1950s.

Fecunis mine and mill aerial photo from 1975. City of Greater Sudbury aerial imagery. (Click on image to open larger size)

The Fecunis Mill closed operations in 1979.

Strathcona Mill

Also in 1956 the Strathcona Mine was discovered, though it would be 1967 before this mine went into full production along with a brand new mill which would serve as the basis for all further Falconbridge expansions in the Levack/Onaping area.

Strathcona mill Aerial 1975. City of Greater Sudbury aerial imagery. (Click on image to open larger size)

The new Strathcona mill opened in 1967 with a 6,000 tons per day capacity, but was upgraded quickly to 7,500 tons per day capacity to support increased production from various new mines in the area.

In contrast to the Hardy and Fecunis Mills, the concentrate produced at Strathcona Mill was shipped to the smelter in a slurry form, with the concentrate mixed with water. To handle this traffic, CP provided a small fleet of specially designed short cylindrical hoppers to carry the slurry from Strathcona to Falconbridge. The first 20 of these cars were built in 1967, with another 40 cars added in 1969. These cars operated to the late 1980s or early 1990s, as the cars were starting to wear out due to the rough effects of the concentrate slurry on the interiors of the cars. At this point, rail service to Falconbridge’s Levack operations came to an end, as Falconbridge elected to ship their product by truck rather than agree to CPR freight rates that would have covered replacement costs for the rail cars.

CP 381930 represents the special hoppers that were constructed for the slurry concentrate service from Strathcona Mill to Falconbridge. Bill Grandin Collection photo.

While no longer rail served, Strathcona Mill remains an important and active processing site for nickel ores from Glencore’s (Falconbridge’s current successor) mines in the area to this day.

Nickel-Iron Refinery

In 1970 Falconbridge opened a large new facility on their property on the south-east side of their main smelter to recover the trace amounts of iron from the processed nickel ores in order to directly market it to the steel industry. Unfortunately this operation was short-lived and closed in 1972.

Aerial photos from 1975 show a rather significant set of railway yard tracks and loading (and/or unloading) structures at this (then shuttered) facility, and CN (which also accessed the Falconbridge smelter via the north side) also built a spur crossing the CPR spur to directly access the iron plant. However given the short lived nature of this operation we have very little other information on its operation from a railway perspective; what went in and out by which railway and what kind of cars used.

Falconbridge Smelter Upgrades

Another major project at Falconbridge was the construction during the 1970s of an upgraded smelter using new modern technology. This modernization project opened in 1978. The project included new fluidized bed roasters which removed iron sulphide from the ore, and electric furnaces to smelt the roasted ore. The upgrade also included an acid plant which captured sulphur compounds from the off-gas of the roasters and produced large quantities of sulphuric acid. Some of the tracks leading to the shuttered iron plant (which was itself demolished) were reused to built large tank car loading racks for the sulphuric acid.

Railway Operations

Operations at Levack should have been fairly simple. While the exact operations of the FNM railway aren’t really documented, it seems Hardy Mine is their base of operations with a small engine shop and repair track. Operating from this base of operations, FNM switchers would gather up outbound loaded cars from the Hardy, Fecunis, and Strathcona Mills and deliver them to the CPR interchange tracks, pick up empties left by CP and spot them at the mills for loading. As noted in the individual descriptions of the mills above, Hardy and Fecunis mills loaded dry or semi-dry concentrate into open cars and Strathcona loaded a liquid slurry into special cylindrical hoppers. On the CP side, a local operating out of Sudbury yard would run up to Levack siding to deliver the empties and lift the loads left by FNM, which would then operate to the smelter where the loads would be dropped off in interchange tracks for the Falconbridge plant switchers.

After Hardy and Fecunis Mills closed (in 1977 and 1979 respectively), the trains from Levack to Falconbridge became “unit” trains of cylindrical slurry cars from Strathcona Mill. By the 1990s rail transport of concentrate from Strathcona was replaced by trucks ending FNM’s rail operations in Levack.

CP-FNM interchange tracks at Falconbridge smelter site. Note that a CP track is actively performing an interchange here (locos and caboose visible at left.) This shot gives a good overview of the traffic between Onaping and Falconbridge, showing a mix of open cars of dry concentrate, and the distinctive little short slurry cars from Strathcona. At bottom right the FNM switcher appears to also be lifting or spotting covered hoppers probably for nickel matte. (Click on image to open larger size)

Outbound traffic from the smelter was in the form of powdered nickel matte. Due to patent restrictions on refining processes in North America, the matte was shipped to the Falconbridge owned refinery in Kristiansands, Norway for refining. Originally the matte was shipped out of the smelter in barrels, but changed to bulk shipments in covered hopper cars in 1968. As both CN and CP had rail access to the Falconbridge smelter, it’s a little unclear how much product went out via each railway during the 1970s. By the 1990s, CN had abandoned their spur line to Falconbridge and contracted a switching arrangement with CP, wherein CN would supply cars via the interchange at CN Junction between Sudbury and Copper Cliff and CP would exclusively switch the plant.

CP local heading up the spur track to Falconbridge in the late 1990s. The train consists mainly of CN hoppers for nickel matte loading (as CN had abandoned their access to Falconbridge by this time and engaged in a switching agreement with CP) and tank cars for sulphuric acid. By this point rail moves of ore concentrate to the smelter had ended. WRMRC collection.

After the new plant upgrades in 1978, sulphuric acid also became a major outbound commodity; with again CN and CP both having direct access to the acid loading tracks until CN’s abandonment of their line to Falconbridge, making it hard to know how much traffic was split between the two railways.

After the 1978 electric furnace upgrade, coke was used as an input. This was sourced from the US and we have noted the occasional presence of various hoppers from the Eastern Seaboard in Sudbury yard in some late seventies photos. An additional input to the mill was powdered dolomite or limestone, which mostly arrived in Penn Central/Conrail covered hoppers.

After the late 1970s upgrade, separate locals handled the ore concentrate from the Levack region and the acid/coke/dolomite/matte traffic to the smelter.

Equipment

Diesel locomotives operated by Falconbridge consisted of a small collection of ALCO/MLW S-series switchers and GE centre-cab models. The larger ALCO and GE 80-ton units seem to have seen service at either Falconbridge or Levack, while the smaller 45 ton models were probably exclusively used within the Falconbridge smelter complex.

Falconbridge S-4 #108, built new for Falconbridge in 1955, showing its 1970s era paint scheme. At CP’s Sudbury shops for maintenance or transfer between FNM operations.

FNM Railway Diesel Locomotive Roster
No.	Builder	Date	Model	Notes
101	ALCO	5/49	S-2	ex-NW 3321, ex-Wabash 321; to FNM 3/71
103	ALCO	12/46	S-1	ex-EL 309, ex-ERIE 309; to FNM ?/66
104	GE	8/26	45 ton	New
105	GE	1/48	45 ton	New; fire damaged 3/71, sold
106	GE	12/51	80 ton	New
107	GE	4/53	80 ton	New
108	MLW	7/55	S-4	New
109	MLW	1/50	S-4	ex-Canadian Commercial #1, to FNM /68

In terms of freight equipment, Falconbridge would have operated the usual assortment of hot-metal and slag cars for intra-plant movements within the smelter complex, and other freight equipment for the shipment of ores and concentrates from the Levack operation and shipment of refined products out from the smelter were provided by CN and CP.

INCO Ore Operations on the Sudbury Division

Posted on August 6, 2024 by Chris van der Heide

It’s hard to have any discussion about the Sudbury region’s industrial base without an extensive discourse on the mining industry. Sudbury is well known for being one of the world’s major sources for the production and refining of nickel, and the largest mining and smelting company in the area was the International Nickel Company, or INCO (today owned by Brazil’s Vale). Other companies in the area such as Canadian Copper Company, British-American Nickel Co. (BANC), and Mond Nickel were absorbed by INCO in the early 20th century helping to make INCO the biggest player in the Sudbury region.

INCO operated a large smelting and refining complex west of Sudbury at Copper Cliff, expanded from and replaced the original Canadian Copper Co. smelter in this area. Another older smelter at Coniston, built by Mond Nickel in 1913 was at the end of its useful life in the 1960s and finally closed in 1972. From the late 1970s to 2010s ore from all of INCOs mines was processed at the Clarabelle Mill, which opened in 1971 to consolidate all ore processing at a single mill.

INCO operated several large mining operations in the area, most of which were served by rail, and this posting will survey the mine and ore train operations of the 1970s which are (or will be) represented on the WRMRC’s layout.

Map of INCO mines and interchanges on WRMRC’s modeled territory. Mines are highlighted in blue, and CP-INCO interchange locations in green. Crushed quartz was also shipped from Lawson Quarry (highlighted in yellow) to Clarabelle in modified ore cars.

The key map above represents the Sudbury Division as modeled by the WRMRC. CP-served mines are highlighted in blue, and the interchanges connecting to INCO’s railway operations at Copper Cliff are marked in green.

In the 1970s, CP ran three unit ore train assignments for INCO. These were known as “INCO-1” (Creighton Mine), “INCO-2” (Crean Hill Mine), and “INCO-3” (Levack Mine). This posting will act as an overview of these operations and the mines they served.

Note: For a survey of the cars that CP used in ore service see the previous blog post The Sudbury Ore Car Fleet

INCO-1 (Creighton Mine to Clarabelle)

Creighton Mine, 1970. John Brown photo, WRMRC collection.

Creighton Mine is still active, and one of the oldest currently operating mines in the country, and while served by a CPKC line, is located so deep in Vale INCO private property and away from public roads that these trains are not easily seen.

Fans of astronomy and astrophysics will also note Creighton Mine as being the location of SNOLAB, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory/Detector built deep underground in a cavern connected to and accessed via the Creighton Mine shaft system.

Train symbol INCO-1 would have been based out of Sudbury yard, running as a caboose hop on the Nickel Subdivision to Clarabelle where empty ore cars would be lifted from the INCO interchange yard, then on to the end of the line at Creighton to switch out loads and empties at the mine shafts. Then the train would head back for Sudbury, shoving the loads into the INCO interchange at Clarabelle on the way back.

While the Creighton Mine is still active today, as mentioned, there have been many changes over the years and in the 1970s the old No. 3 and 5 shafts would have still been active, while today the modern No. 9 shaft is the main access and the older shafts are abandoned and capped with the associated structures demolished, so the track arrangements around Creighton are quite different today.

INCO-2 (Crean Hill Mine to Clarabelle)

Crean Hill Mine in the late 1990s. WRMRC collection.

The second INCO ore job serviced the Crean Hill Mine west of Sudbury on the CP’s Sault branch. This mine was accessed via the “Victoria Mine Spur” which connected to the Webbwood Subdivision at Victoria Mine. Why the different names? Well in the early 20th century CP had a previous station at or near the same location where the spur connected to the main line called Victoria Mine, which served a Mond Nickel mine of the same name. So the railway location and spur inherited the historical name.

The Victoria Mine Spur/Crean Hill Mine is the first of the INCO nickel mines and ore trains to be built and placed into operation on the WRMRC layout, with 3D printing technology enabling us to finally build and place into service a train of accurately modeled ore cars.

Ore train at Crean Hill Mine on the WRMRC layout.

A second mine, INCO’s Totten Mine at Worthington, was also located on the Webbwood subdivision, however this mine was closed in 1972. Due to its short period of operation relative to our modeled era, space constraints, and the fact that we already had one other mine on this line, this location was excluded from our model layout. (Interestingly, this mine was redeveloped in the mid 2000s, however ores are today shipped to Clarabelle Mill by truck, not rail.)

Abandoned loading conveyor at Totten Mine (Worthington) in the late 1990s. WRMRC collection.

Train symbol INCO-2 would have again been based out of Sudbury yard, running up to the Victoria Mine Spur on the Webbwood Subdivision to swap empties for loads at Crean Hill Mine, then back to Sudbury to runaround and head onto the Nickel Subdivision to Clarabelle to deliver the loads to INCO and pull empties for the next run.

Crean Hill Mine was closed in the mid 2000s, ending this service, although currently there is a mining company exploring redevelopment of the Crean Hill Mine property..

INCO-3 (Levack Mine to Sprecher)

1950s view of Levack mine.

This job would operate out of Sudbury yard and lift empty ore cars from the CP-INCO interchange tracks at Sprecher, on the Cartier subdivision main track west of Sudbury. Having lifted the empties, the ore train would then operate over the Cartier subdivision west to Levack siding, where the empties would be exchanged for loads on a series of interchange tracks with INCO’s spur line to Levack. Like most of INCO’s operations, this line was operated with electric engines under trolley wire catenary, which would bring the loads down from the mine to the interchange at the CP siding, and then spot the delivered empties up at the mine.

INCO 100T electric #126 at Levack in 1970. John Brown photo, WRMRC collection.

Today CPKC still runs ore trains to Levack, although the old fleet of CP drop bottom ore gondolas have been retired since the late 2000s, and the ore is coming not from the same Levack Mine, but nearby Coleman Mine. Vale INCO now owns their own fleet of 220 modern ore gondolas built by Freightcar America in 2008, replacing both CP cars and INCO’s own previous fleet of aging cars. INCO’s old electric operations have long been abandoned, and CP locomotives handle the ore train all the way to the loadout tracks and do the switching themselves. While a few other mines are also still served direct by Vale INCO, this is the only ore train operating out on a CPKC main line.

CN Garson Ore

CN 198750. Bill Grandin collection.

Another source of ore for INCO was Garson Mine, located east of Sudbury between Sudbury and Falconbridge. This mine was served by a CN spur which accessed Garson Mine, a sand pit, and the Falconbridge smelter which will be discussed elsewhere. CN trains operating out of Algo yard in Sudbury would assemble a train of empty ore and sand cars, run out to the spur and switch the mine and sand pit, then run back across Sudbury to the CPR connection at CN Junction and joint trackage on the CPR Nickel Subdivision to interchange with INCO at Clarabelle to deliver the ore and sand to INCO’s operations. As CP did and does have exclusive physical access to INCO’s operations, all interchange traffic to INCO operated through Clarabelle, with CN sharing CPR tracks from CN Junction to Clarabelle and both railways jointly operating over this section.

Garson Mine appears to be still active today, but is no longer rail-served.

Other INCO Mines

INCO Copper Cliff South Mine in the late 1990s. The track at right next to the highway (Highway 55) with the stored cars is the CPR Copper Cliff Spur which accessed the INCO Iron Ore Recovery Plant, now closed. WRMRC collection

A few other INCO mines were rail served directly by INCO’s own private rail system connected to the Copper Cliff mill and smelter operations, and therefore would not impact CPR operations, although parts of these operations could be seen from CPR rails. These mines included Frood and Stobie, which were and are accessed via an INCO private line heading north from Clarabelle which crosses the CPR Nickel sub at grade at Clarabelle, and bridges over the Cartier sub near Sprecher. Copper Cliff South Mine is located alongside the CPR Copper Cliff spur near where it connects to the Webbwood Subdivision, and can actually be included on the layout as static non-operating tracks here. Frood and Copper Cliff South are still active, and served exclusively by Vale INCO’s private railway. There is also a Copper Cliff North mine, but being located immediately next to Clarabelle Mill it was not rail served.

A loaded INCO train of ore returns to Clarabelle Mill from Frood/Stobie Mine. CP cars on the tracks in the background are loads from Levack on the Sprecher interchange track.

Lawson Quarry

An honourable mention, the quarry at Lawson Quarry south of Espanola on the CPR Little Current subdivision quarried crushed quartzite rock which was shipped to INCO to use as a flux in their smelting process. While not an ore-bearing rock, the quartz was shipped in modified ore cars with side extensions (as the quartz was lighter than the nickel ores) from the quarry to the INCO interchange at Clarabelle. The INCO quarry operation began in 1942, and rail operation ended by the early 1980s, although a quarry is still active here today.

Abandoned crushing/screening building and loading tipple at Lawson Quarry, late 1990s. WRMRC collection

While we don’t have solid information on the frequency of this operation, there is some indication that this was shipped in occasional “stone train” extras. We don’t have solid information on how often these trains operated, or any evidence on whether individual cars of quartz were occasionally handled by the regular trains 73/74 on the Little Current branch, although the limited information does point towards dedicated extra trains. Any further information or clarifications (on any of the topics and articles we post) are always appreciated.

Doubleheaders Layout Tour – Saturday, 06 April 2024

Posted on April 3, 2024 by admin

It’s that time of year again!

On Saturday, 06 April 2024, our club’s CP Sudbury Division layout will be open to the public in participation with the annual Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge-Guelph and area tour, organized by the Doubleheaders Model Railway Club. This is a self-guided tour of a large number of club and private home layouts in the area.

If you are new to the Doubleheaders tour there are approximately 25 different layouts you can visit, varying from large club setups to small N-scale pikes, and you can see everything from tinplate trains to scratch-built prototype models. However the layouts are spread over a large area, which makes it difficult to see them all in a day. So you should prepare for a full day of layout touring, and also maybe consider making this an annual, or at least semi-annual event to frequent over the years.

For more details and ticket information please visit the Doubleheaders Model Railway Club web site.

Please note: Though some layouts on the tour are open later, the WRMRC will only be open from 9 am to 5 pm.

Hope to see you then!

State of the Layout – Doubleheaders Tour 2024

Posted on March 22, 2024 by admin

It has been a while since our last blog post, so we thought a quick status update may be in order to show some of the exciting projects we’ve been working on over the winter. Also with the 2024 Doubleheaders Tour date quickly approaching, this will serve to advertise some of the new things you can expect to see if you make the trip to Maryhill.

Victoria Mine Spur (INCO – Crean Hill)

Located approximately 45km west of Sudbury, this area is situated on the southern-most end of the Sudbury Igneous Complex. The original Victoria Mine was opened in 1906 after a vein of copper-nickel ore was discovered here near the newly completed CPR line to Sault Ste Marie (the present day Webbwood Sub). A town of over 1000 residents sprang up here quickly, and thrived until the mine closed in 1930. Though Victoria Mine became a ghost town, the CPR maintained a siding here and the name lived on in employee timetables.

But as is usually the case in the Sudbury Basin, after one digging pays out another mine will usually spring up years later. And sure enough just three and a half miles away from Victoria Mine, another ore discovery was made which caused INCO to open a new mine in 1965 called Crean Hill. This caused the CPR to construct a whole new spur to service the facility, and to erect a train order station at Victoria Mine where the spur joined with the Webbwood Sub.

INCO’s Crean Hill Mine rock loader facility, as it appeared in 1991.

Our club actually built the spur down from Victoria Mine very early in layout development, as the helix that carried the Webbwood Sub between Copper Cliff and Nairn had to be built immediately, and the Victoria Mine spur ran along within the same helix. The Crean Hill mine trackage was laid early too, sometime around 2002 as best we can tell. Some rudimentary scenery sprang up, and construction of a rock loader had even begun. However the whole project sat for decades until we could re-create a large enough fleet of ore gondolas. That was the stumbling block as these ore gondolas were only used in one place on earth, Sudbury, with Canadian Pacific and INCO being the only operators. We had managed to build a small fleet of 1970-built CP cars that were produced by Sylvan Scale Models (the only correct Sudbury gondola kit ever produced) but these are craftsman resin kits that require time to build en masse. They are also long out of production.

3D printed car from series CP 375800-375999, which was a conglomeration of cars originally built between 1926 and 1942 (ex CP 376350-376849) that were rebuilt with solid floors in the mid-1970s after INCO installed a rotary dumper at Clarabelle Mill.

But time and technology march on, and present-day modellers now have the benefit of the 3D-Printer. Through the purchase of a machine and many hours of research and CAD work, our own Chris V. has been going through the whole fleet of Sudbury ore gon types, and has been very busy printing, assembling, painting and decalling the large fleet we require.

CP RS-18s 8766 and 8765 bring in the first train of empty ore gondolas to open the WRMRC’s miniature re-creation of the Crean Hill mine. The small GE 43-tonner is on loan from a member, and is substituting for INCO 65-tonner #201 that was once assigned here.

With around 50 ore gondolas now in service on the Sudbury Division, we installed all the remaining track feeders, a Tortoise switch machine on the junction switch at Victoria Mine, and cleaned all the trackage that’s been mothballed for all these years. As the photos show, the first “INCO Job-2” Crean Hill ore train has operated over the spur, exchanging 20 empties for 20 loaded gons bound for INCO’s Clarabelle mill.

The first loaded INCO-2 ore train is ready to leave Crean Hill mine. If you didn’t notice from the photos there is a real-life puzzle to switching the mine, because as the CPR Employee Timetables directly state; “Diesel units and equipment higher than ore cars must not enter rock house at Crean Hill.”

All these new 3D-printed ore gondolas, and the Crean Hill mine operation will be there for you to see if you take the 2024 Doubleheaders Tour on Saturday April the 6th. It will also gives you the chance to see how the crews running INCO-2 get around that rock house switching puzzle.

Victoria Mine Station

This project goes part and parcel with the Victoria Mine Spur entering service. With the ore trains soon becoming a reality, member Julius O. took on the task of scratch-building the diminutive Victoria Mine train order station and tool shed which stood guard over the junction switch.

Victoria Mine train order station, tool shed, and station name sign, as they appeared in 1970.

Even though the structures are small and Julius is a seasoned structure builder, there were enough outstanding questions that he required consultations with the real-life experiences of fellow WRMRC member Robin A.. As it just so happens, Robin used to be a former CPR train order agent on the Sudbury Division in the early 1970s, and had worked at Victoria Mine many a time.

Our 1:87 scale recreation of the Victoria Mine structures.

One of the more colourful anecdotes that Robin shared was of the bathroom situation at Victoria Mine, in that there was none. The station was remote and not manned 24 hours a day, so instead the CPR provided the agents with an outhouse should (more like when) the need arouse. The INCO-2 job was a night train, and so the walk to relieve yourself was dark, long, and one that could potentially cross paths with a black bear. So agents had to light a standard railway fusee to scare away any potential bruins that may have been near.

The inaugural run of the first loaded INCO-2 Crean Hill job approaching Victoria Mine.

After the tour as we turn our attention to finishing off the scenery in Victoria Mine and hide this helix for good, Robin’s story has us thinking of 3D-printing a much younger 1:87 scale version of him running from the outhouse with a lighted fusee in his hand. Apparently reddish-coloured flickering mini-LEDs exist, so this silly idea may be a thing. Stay tuned.

The INCO-2 crew stop at the Victoria Mine station to pick up orders from Agent Robin A. to return to Sudbury Yard. The infamous outhouse was moved closer to view in this photo.

Sudbury Station & Division HQ Building

The CPR station and Sudbury Division headquarters building were off-site over the past year and had a lot more work done to them. Both are now nearing completion, and are back on the layout again for the public to view on the Doubleheaders Tour.

CPR train station and Sudbury Division Headquarters buildings on the WRMRC layout.

Aside from adding the roofing shingles, the station building is pretty much completed.

Back view of the station building and division HQ.

The basic structure of the division headquarters and roof profile are now complete. The remaining windows and assorted details are still required.

Still a work in progress, but the overall division HQ structure is now completed.

The second floor on this corner of the division HQ building once housed the Sudbury Division’s dispatch offices.

Good as these photos may be, they don’t do justice to how truly impressive these structures are when you see them in person. If you can’t visit us on April 6th you’re missing out.

The combination of the station building plus nickel ore gondolas leaves no doubt as to the only place this could be; Sudbury, Ontario.

Miscellaneous Items

In addition to everything highlighted thus far there has also been a new structure completed in Sudbury, in addition to scenery expansion to Coniston (the next town east of Romford). However we’re keeping everyone online in suspense, so for now you’ll need to visit us on the tour to see what else we’ve been up to over the past while.

However one thing we’ll leave you with is something the average person will probably not see on the tour. Our signalling/electronics staff have been busy over the past months as well, and one of the more visible projects (for those of us working behind the scenes) they’ve completed is the Romford operator’s local control panel. If it looks to you like a CTC interlocking panel, that’s because the real one did too.

The local control Operator’s panel, mounted within the Parry Sound Sub staging yard / Romford Operator ‘mole’ position. It is located under the layout by the Romford junction scene.

The panel is not operational at the moment, as it and our signals are waiting on quite a bit of work before CTC can be fully implemented. But we are getting closer.

We’re looking forward to opening our doors to the public again, showing off all our latest efforts, and sharing ideas and stories with fellow modellers. That is really what our hobby is about after all. If you can’t make it, there is always our own Fall Open House to look towards, or next year’s Doubleheaders Tour. However if you plan on making it out this April the 6th, all that we’ve shown here will be there for you to see. That and around 30 other layouts to tour. Hope to see you then.

WRMRC Fall Open House – Saturday 14 October 2023

Posted on October 1, 2023 by admin

The Waterloo Region Model Railway Club cordially invites you to our Fall Open House on Saturday October 14th, 2023.

Here is your chance to see everything we have been working on over the past year.

The layout be open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Feel free to invite any friends or family members interested in model railways, and plan on a fun day of train watching and socializing.

For maps and more information visit our WRMRC website, or our Facebook page.

Extra 5025 East rolls under the LaSalle Blvd bridge on the CP Sudbury Division Layout.

Admission:

Adults: $5.00
Seniors and Students: $3.00
Children (12 and under) are FREE, but must be supervised by an adult

Begin/End CTC Romford

Posted on September 25, 2023 by admin

Our big push for the Doubleheaders Tour this past March was to finally fill in the scene at Romford ON, the junction where the Parry Sound Sub from Toronto joins in to the Cartier Sub. This finally enclosed and hid the helix we had built in this corner of the layout that carried the tracks from the Parry Sound Sub staging yard to the upper level deck where Romford is situated. But really the scenery was just roughed in at the time, and many more details were required to finish the area. Our upcoming Fall Open House has provided us with a cause to continue the scenic efforts from here further down towards Coniston ON (diamond crossing with the CN Bala Sub), and to populate Romford with more details.

Romford cabride CP train 12 - 06 October 1971

Approaching Romford junction in the cab of the Toronto Section of the ‘Canadian’ at Sudbury, ON on 06 October 1971 (Roger Puta photo – Marty Bernard collection)

Being a mainline junction, Romford was a controlled interlocking. In the 1970s Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) governed train movements over the Cartier Sub from this point (mileage 72.4) eastward to North Bay ON (mileage 0). Westward for the six miles between here and Sudbury, the Cartier Sub was double-tracked with Automatic Block System (ABS) signals protecting movements in one direction only (right-hand running). The Parry Sound Sub travelling south was single-track ABS territory. Because the CTC section began, or ended (depending on which way you were going) at this interlocking, dispatchers would refer to this spot as ‘Begin/End CTC Romford’.

Beyond the obvious signals, real life interlockings are filled with all sorts of trackside details such as large signal bungalows, relay cabinets, battery vaults, electric switch motors, and if you’re railroading in Canada; switch heaters, and associated fuel tanks. With this in mind, we felt further enhancement of this scene should be done before our next open house.

Looking east from signal 724 – Romford. From this point east to North Bay, the CP Cartier Sub was CTC territory.

Signal 724 and its companion dwarf signal, along with a GRS model 5H dual-control switch motor, an oil-fired switch heater (it gets very cold here in winter), and signal relay cabinet. The old-school switch stand here guards a storage track, which is obviously controlled manually by crews.

We are still waiting for the actual station to be completed, along with a custom-built cantilever signal bridge that is required to elevate signal 1217 over the Parry Sound Sub (both are in development). But in the mean time with telephone poles added, more vegetation and ground cover, and all these interlocking details, we are at a level where Romford can almost be called complete.

Guarded by signal 723 (westward signals are odd-numbered, and eastward even) this area of the junction is full of assorted CTC details. The Parry Sound Sub to Toronto is the line curving to the south here. A cantilever signal bridge that governs this line will be added in the future.

Signal 723 with associated relay cabinet and a battery vault. The manual switch stand here controls the Romford set-off track.

Not just CTC details, we’ve also finished off the swamps surrounding the Parry Sound Sub’s approach into Romford. Oh, incidentally, don’t drink the water here.

We’re starting to get excited about the open house, and wanted to share these photos of our progress. There are many other additions and improvements we’ve made since the Doubleheaders Tours this past spring, let alone last year’s open house. All of this will be here for you to explore this Saturday October 14th. Hope to see you there.

WRMRC at Breslau Train Show – Sunday 24 Sept 2023

Posted on September 17, 2023 by admin

The Waterloo Region Model Railway Club will have a display at the Breslau Model Train Show this coming Sunday, Sept 24th, 2023.

Some of you may remember this as the former Paris Train Show. It may have a new location, but it is still the same great show presented by the Western Ontario Division – Niagara Frontier Region NMRA. There will be more than 75 tables of manufacturers and retailers available, and at least five operating layouts on display. Also there will be NMRA craftsmen showing how they build their models, free public clinics, and door prizes. More information can be found here: https://www.wod-nmra.ca/upcoming-events/

Our display will feature club photos, a video presentation, and club members working on various modelling projects. As always, we will also have a side table with surplus models and equipment for sale. If you are attending the show please stop by and pay us a visit.

Hope to see you there.

C&BT Shops Boxcars

Posted on September 2, 2023 by Ted Kocyla

During my latest kitbashing job, it occurred to me that probably few modellers today have ever heard of C&BT Shops boxcar kits. Back when they first came out in the late 1980s, these were a big deal. After years of nothing but generic ‘Blue-Box’ boxcars from Athearn and MDC, HO-scale modellers were being supplied with affordable, yet good quality models with separate detail parts. We now had kits to build specific prototype models, like the PS-1 from McKean, or the 1950s-era AAR boxcar from Front Range.

The C&BT Shops kit added to the variety by offering the 1944-AAR designed boxcar, an importance predecessor model to the car Front Range produced. This was an even bigger deal for Canadian modellers because the ends of a 1944-AAR boxcar, what hobbyists coined the 4-4 pattern Dreadnaught end, where found on thousands of Canadian-built boxcars well past their usage dates in the USA. These ends were utilized from the late 1940s right until the early 1960s, and helped us Canuck modellers by making it easier to re-create accurate boxcars with minimal effort. Back in the WRMRC’s early years, these were a critical model for us.

C&BT Shops kit for the 1944-AAR Boxcar with 6ft-door. They also offered a 1949-AAR car, and both kits were available in 6′, 7′, 8′, and double-door versions. Though the main body, doors and underframe are all good quality, the detail parts provided were rather crude and brittle.

There was however a big drawback with the C&BT kit. Though the moulding of the boxcar model itself was very good (they stand up to many models still in production today), the detail parts provided were coarse and of poorer quality. Also the plastic used was brittle, so you’d easily break these parts just cutting them from their sprues. This probably was what ultimately doomed C&BT from becoming a bigger player in the hobby, like Intermountain or Proto 2000 became, even though those manufacturers arrived on the scene later.

Over the decades, I’ve come to learn the history behind C&BT’s troubles. The story was their original tool & die maker had passed away just after finishing the main model, and another person of leaser experience was rushed in to complete the detail parts. Then once on the market, rather than upgrading the parts sprue, they decided to go the Accurail route (who just started up in the early 1990s) by re-engineering the moulds with cast-on details. The company lasted a number of years like this well into the 2000s, but with their momentum gone, they eventually exited the market.

This started off as a later C&BT car with moulded-on detail, and pre-painted in the CPR ‘stepped-Gothic’ scheme. Look close you can still see the original lettering under the primer. All moulded labbers and grabirons were removed, new resin NSC-3 ends added, and miscellaneous details applied. Grabirons will be added later as they will get in the way of Multimark application.

The impetus for this project was a gift of surplus equipment given to the CP Sudbury Division. The donation consisted of several CPR boxcar models from different manufacturers, and included this C&BT blast-from-the-past. It was a later-issued kit with moulded details, and pre-painted in the Canadian Pacific ‘stepped-Gothic’ paint scheme. Additionally the paint was a very bright oxide red, much more like CN oxide than CP tuscan, and also the lettering was too thick. It was however an accurate model for a CPR boxcar featuring; a diagonal panel roof, 4/4 pattern Dreadnaught ends, and appropriately numbered in the CP 258xxx-series. I initially considered salvaging the original paint, but the detail-nut in me could not tolerate the moulded-on details.

‘B’ end details shown here before a primer coat was applied. Ladders and grabirons are Intermountain parts. Brakewheel is Kadee, in an old Front Range (I think) housing. The brake platform was fabricated with re-bent staples and a piece of photo-etched roofwalk material.

The ladders and grabirons were removed and sanded down from the car-sides easily enough, but cutting into the ladders on the car ends was a challenge. I found the plastic much tougher that the polystyrene which Accurail uses, who’s kit’s I’ve hacked and modified many times over the years. So I chose to cut the ends off entirely, as I reasoned that replacement had to be easier than all the hacking, gouging and sanding my original approach would take. That and I’ve collected many different boxcar ends from various old kits over the years. Then as I looked though the collection, I noticed how many stored Sylvan NSC-3 ends were in there (now offered by Yarmouth Model Works). Rather than kitbashing a run-of-the-mill 40ft boxcar that Intermountain and Atlas already offer ready-to-run, why not make it an uncommon car? And heck, if I’m going this far, it deserves a new paint job. My quickie kitbash job soon turned into the dictionary definition of mission creep.

Now that this project had gotten well into the weeds and had become a serious kitbash, I had to choose a prototype to work from. The decision to add an NSC-3 end onto a car equipped with a 6ft Youngstown door and a diagonal panel roof narrowed it down to just one specific order of Canadian Pacific 40ft boxcars; series CP 140950-141699 delivered in 1954 from National Steel Car. Using Chris vanderHeide’s invaluable Canadian Freight Car Gallery website, I found a great photo of CP 141184 within this specific series.

Built in 1954 by National Steel Car, CP 141184 was photographed by Andy J. Broscoe at Bowness, Alberta on 29 August, 1980. Photo courtesy of canadianfreightcargallery.ca

These 1954 built cars were among the last 40 foot boxcars with 6 foot doors received by the CPR, as North American industries began to adopt palatalization and forklifts for logistics and shipping. The following year railways would adopt the 8 foot door as the new standard, and Canadian Pacific was no exception to this.

The CPR received four different orders of 40ft boxcars through 1954, two a piece from Canadian Car & Foundry of Montreal, and two from NSC in Hamilton ON. After receiving literally thousands of near look alike 40-foot boxcars from three different builders within the 250/260xxx series from the late ’40s to early ’50s, these last four orders were each unique. To start, CP was running out of space in the 260xxx’s, and placed these in a new 140xxx-series of road numbers. Next, each one of these orders featured variations in end, roof and door designs; so even the same builder’s two deliveries that year each had visual differences between them. This is another case why prototype modellers should use photographs and reference materials before embarking on any super-detailing projects. This also provides a segway to mention that we have a multi-part series on CP 40ft steel boxcars in the works, so stay tuned.

Since I wished to paint this boxcar in the Action Red 1970s CP Rail scheme, all details were added except the grabirons found on the lower, left-hand sides of the model. The simple reason is they would interfere with the future application of the Mulitmark, and thus are easier to apply after all painting and decal work is complete.

C&BT car at the spraybooth with a fresh coat of Vallejo Air 71085 ‘Ferrari Red’. Click on this image and you can see traces of the old CPR lettering. Normally I remove old graphics before repainting a model, but a barely detectable older scheme showing on a CP Rail boxcar was a real thing.

I am a long-time convert to airbrushing with water-based acrylic paints, and I’m often asked what product I’ve switched to with Polyscale being gone. For a few years I continued to use Testors products, as their ‘Chevy Engine Red’ aqueous acrylic was a close match. But with them leaving the market for good, like most everyone else I’ve switched to Vallejo. After my first few sprays, my initial reaction was Testors who? Vallejo manufactures a superior product. Full stop. The problem of course is they offer no railway specific colours, though that is slowly changing.

For CPR freight equipment tuscan oxide, I find 71039 Hull Red is a good match. Please don’t let the internet fool you, the colour is lighter and more reddish than that image appears, at least from the one displayed on my screen anyhow. For Action Red, I don’t think you will at all be displeased when you spray with 71085 Ferrari Red. To my eyes, it is an almost exact match to the old Accupaint Action Red, which I’ve always considered was the closest thing to the real deal. The daylight LED lighting at our club may affect photography, but the image below is straight from my phone. To my eyes, that’s the orange-red appearance typical of good old CP Rail Action Red.

CP 141184 after all decals and grabirons were applied. There is a colour mismatch after brush painting the grabirons to match the Multimark, but that will all disappear after final weathering.

For decals, the CP Rail herald, road numbers, ACI lable and COTS plate are all Microscale products. The black dimensional data lettering is a personal set I printed using inkjet decal paper. The Multimark, diamond-shaped reflector stickers, and end lettering were from a old used Herald King boxcar set. Yes, I pieced together the tiny road numbers decal by decal on the ends. No, it wasn’t fun.

Lightly weathered CP 141184 in revenue service on the CP Sudbury Division.

For weathering, I applied some Pan Pastels ‘raw umber’ along the rivet seams, doors, and roof panels. This would be a 1970s repaint, so it should be lightly weathered for the club’s modelling era. Some dark soot weathering powder was used around the ladder rungs and grabirons, to simulate the grimy gloves and boots of the employees climbing around the equipment. Then a very light coat of Mission Models Rail Tie Brown was sprayed along the bottoms of the model, to simulate dust and dirt kicked up from the tracks. The whole thing was then sealed with a flat coat to protect the decals and weathering.

When you look at this final photo of the finished car, you see it compares well to many current production models on the market. Not bad for a 1980’s tooled product. So if you’re at a train show or flea market and spot a grey and maroon C&BT box, maybe stop and take a look inside. If you’re lucky and find an early production model, don’t let the detail parts discourage you. Chances are it’s selling for cheap, and all the replacement details you need are available from Tichy Trains and others. If you still decide against it, as least you know the story behind the C&BT Shops boxcar.

Intermodal Traffic via The Soo

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Ted Kocyla

Over twenty years ago when our club began holding its first operating sessions, we had to employ a lot of stand-in equipment to fill up our freights. Accurate HO-scale ready-to-run Canadian prototype models were only just starting to come into existence in the early 2000s. At the time our members understood most of the equipment we required would have to be assembled either from kitbashed US-based models, complicated resin kits, or built completely from scratch. We are very grateful (and relieved) that this didn’t turn out to be the case, as Rapido, Bowser, Atlas, North American Railcar, True Line Trains (RIP), etc, have produced so many wonderful Canadian prototype models over the years to help us emulate the operations of the 1970s-era CP Sudbury Division in miniature.

Despite the state of our early rolling stock fleet there was one operation we were able to model fairly accurately right from the beginning, and that was the intermodal traffic which used to be ferried via the Sault Ste Marie gateway. Canadian Pacific along with their US affiliate the SOO Line (Minneapolis, St Paul and Sault Ste Marie Railroad) had for many decades operated a pair of freights between Côte Saint-Luc QC (Montreal) and Schiller Park IL (Chicago) numbered 911 (westbound) and 912 (eastbound). These symbol freights were routed via the CPR’s transcon route between Montreal and Sudbury, and traversed across the north shore of Lake Huron between there and the USA at Sault Ste Marie. The border crossing was done via the CP/SOO international bridge, and the SOO Line’s network across the Michigan upper peninsula and Wisconsin was used to reach the Chicago area.

The route of joint CP / SOO trains #911 & 912 shown in the dashed blue line (click to enlarge). Despite the circuitous routing, CP was able to lure New England customers away from Penn Central’s direct ex-NYC ‘Water Level Route’ between Albany NY and Chicago.

Throughout the 1970s, CP Rail was transporting a healthy level of New England – Chicago bridge traffic via their Sudbury-Soo gateway, regardless of its extended length and customs legalities. Despite Penn Central possessing the most direct route between Albany NY and Chicago (the former New York Central ‘Water Level Route’), the fallout from their bankruptcy coupled with the overall degradation of the Northeast US rail network resulted in conditions which allowed CP to offer competitive transit times for New England shippers. Additionally, Canadian Pacific had devoted a lot of capital throughout the 1950s and ’60s in intermodal operations, and that investment had cultivated a respectable level of container-on-flat-car (COFC) traffic rolling between Chicago and the Port of Montreal via trains 911/912.

CP Transfer at SOO MI 05Sept80 Mike Cleary

CP S-4 7099 arrives on a transfer run at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan with a COFC cut for SOO Line train #911 on 05 September 1980. (Mike Cleary photo)

Not only did this 911/912 intermodel service offer an interesting facet to our operating sessions, but as an added bonus this Chicago-Montreal COFC traffic was easy to model as it was carried on US-built Trailer-Train flatcars. It was also serendipitous that Accurail had introduced their Bethlehem 89ft piggyback flat kits just as we were planning our first op sessions. Naturally, we assembled a large pool quickly, and over the years that fleet has been augmented by various newer Atlas, Athearn-Genesis and Walthers intermodal flatcar releases as well.

A very healthy COFC block off train 911 at Sault Ste Marie, Ontario on18 June 1983. (Ted Ellis collection)

In direct contrast to these Trailer-Train flats on trains 911/912, all the transcontinental priority freights (901, 902, 949, 951, 952, etc) we need to model all operated with nothing but Canadian-built CP intermodal flat cars, for which no accurate models have even been produced. However, there is some great news here, as Rapido Trains will be producing Canadian piggyback flats as we’ve written about in a previous blog-post. We hope this is just the beginning.

TTAX 990569 flat at Sault Ste Marie on 9 6 80

Pullman-Standard built TTAX 990569 89ft container flat at Sault Ste Marie, Ontario on 06 September 1980. (Ted Ellis collection)

What might have been?

Despite the advent of Conrail and its significant improvement of the northeast US rail network, CP Rail was developing plans in the early 1980s to make trains #911/912 true run-through freights with pooled SOO/CP power and expedited schedules. However this was always held back by the money required to rehabilitate the international bridge and increase its weight limits. Rather than making that investment, instead the CPR negotiated trackage rights with CSX over their C&O / ex-Pere Marquette line across southern Michigan to Detroit. That resulted in the introduction of hot new CP/SOO intermodal trains #500/501 in 1985, operating on a much more direct Chicago-Detroit-Toronto-Montreal routing.

Travelling via the CP’s Galt Subdivision across southernwestern Ontario, the local railfans of the Cambridge / Kitchener-Waterloo area were pretty excited (myself included) seeing SOO/CP run-through power on hot container trains. By the 1990s this had grown to three pairs of joint CP/SOO freights operating daily. But it came at a cost, namely with the withering in importance of trains #911/912 over the Sudbury Division. Eventually the CPR spun off their Sudbury-Soo route (the Webbwood Sub) to the Huron Central shortline. Even more surprising, they sold off most of their Michigan/Wisconsin SOO Line network to the newly reconstituted Wisconsin Central Railroad. Ironically, it was the WC who fixed the bridge so that a 6-axle unit could finally cross it. But it was too late by then.

A large cut of COFC intermodal traffic makes up the tail-end of train #912 as it rolls through Nairn siding enroute to the Port of Montreal. Model photo from the CP Sudbury Division layout.

However it is always the 1970s back in the time-warp that is our club’s CP Sudbury Division layout, and trains 911 & 912 roll over our territory daily. As a consequence whenever we hold an operating session and I happen to spot a cut of US-northeast and Chicago-area freight cars rolling by, followed by that oh-so familiar string of Trailer-Train COFC flats punctuated by a bright Action Yellow van; I can’t help but wonder what might have been had CP stuck with their original plan.