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Caption: CN train 393 rolls through Bayview Junction in the morning with two special loads up front: a pair of Union Pacific "wing gondola" cars carrying two large airplane wing assemblies built at the Boeing/McDonnell-Douglas plant in Malton, bound for their assembly plant in Long Beach, California. The train, with three CN GP40-2W or SD40-2W units for power, is seen taking the crossover in order to head up the Dundas Sub, ultimately bound for the US.
A unique car for a unique operation:
In the 1960's, McDonnell-Douglas Canada, who was operating the old A.V.Roe (Avro Arrow) plant in Malton (originally opened by National Steel Car in 1939 as their aircraft division, later sold to the government during WWII), needed a bigger car to ship wing assembles for the new DC-10 model from their Canadian branch plant in Malton to their Long Beach, California plant for final aircraft assembly. They purchased 6 unique 88-foot long "wing gondola" cars from Maxson in 1969 (DCCX 1001-1006) and began shipping DC-10 wing assemblies in them, and Union Pacific followed up with an 8 car order in 1971 (UP 229580-229587), likely due to increased DC-10 production.
Both groups of cars were used in pool service between Malton and Long Beach, shipping completed wing assembles from the "MDCan" Malton factory in Canada down to California for final assembly, and empty cars forwarded back. They were typically shipped out in pairs (one left wing, one right), with an idler flatcar equipped with a container full of wing assembly parts separating them. Research indicates the smaller wing assemblies (DC-9) being built at the Malton plant went out on flatcars, the larger assemblies (DC-10, MD-11) were shipped out on wing gondolas. CN switched the cars out of MD's plant off Airport Rd via a long spur off the Weston Sub near Malton GO station, that passed through the grounds of De Havilland's old Malton plant (later the International Centre, that featured a retractable walkway between convention buildings to let MD cars pass through). Sometimes they could be found spotted on sidings in the Malton area near the plant, including around the former Malton Station (Scarboro Rd), by Woodbine Racetrack (Woodbine East), and Malport where freights to the US via Sarnia would sometimes lift them.
Intelligence suggests routing was CN from Malton to GTW (via Port Huron) to Rock Island (interchanged at Blue Island in Chicago) to UP (interchanged at Council Bluffs, Iowa) for their final trip to Long Beach CA. There's even a photo out there of three Rock Island passenger E8A's hauling a freight train through the US midwest with a pair of wing gondolas heading back to Malton in-consist.
This operation continued after Boeing bought McDonnell-Douglas in 1997. Being this is a 1999 photo, production indicates these are either Boeing MD-11 or MD-80 wing assemblies, or possibly those for the then-new 717. Apparently around 2000, they started shipping wing assemblies out by truck and discontinued the use of wing gondolas. Following the last shipment of 717 wings the Malton plant was closed by Boeing in 2005 and was demolished, and the Long Beach plant appears to have been initially closed in 2006 after completion of the last 717, but continued producing military C17's until 2015. Some indicate a bunch of the DCCX wing gondolas were scrapped by CN in the early 2000's at the south end of MacMillan Yard, and some of the UP cars may have gone into MofW service.
Bill McArthur photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.
More wing gondola loads:
Ground-view at Bayview Junction: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=40429
Returning empty through Burlington: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=18567MD spur switch in Malton near Orenda Engines: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=36986
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