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About Bill Linley

I am a lifelong railfan having been introduced to trains by my father, Leslie, in the early 1950s during trips to Front Street overlooking the approach to Toronto Union Station. I took my first colour slide of the CPR's Ottawa West station in April 1962 and have been shooting since. After retirement, I have authored four books for Morning sun, my latest Trackside Newfoundland will be released in April 2019. Please contact me if you are interested in my books and prints. bill.linley@gmail.com

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Bill Linley's 57 photos on Railpictures.ca:

Canadian National's newest name train, the Cabot, was just five weeks into its service life when I photographed it in Drummondville, Quebec, 62 miles east of Montreal on Tuesday, July 4, 1967. It began on Thursday, June 1, 1967, as a through 966-mile service from Sydney, Nova Scotia via Edmundston, New Brunswick to Montreal, Quebec. This route was the main route for freight to the Maritimes. Local services on the line that CN discontinued included a tri-weekly local from Moncton to Edmundston. They also cut similarly scheduled mixed trains that required an overnight stay at the intermediate division point of Monk if travelling between Edmundston and Joffre, the freight yard near Quebec City. <br> <br>

CN anticipated large travel volumes for Centennial Year events, notably Expo 67, the Worlds Fair in Montreal. Their new train reduced pressure on the Halifax - Montreal Ocean and Scotian services by offering a speedier, direct service for passengers from Newfoundland and eastern Nova Scotia. Train 18 left Montreal daily at 6.45 p.m. and arrived in Sydney at 9.15 p.m. the next day, easily connecting with the Newfoundland 'Night Boat' in North Sydney. In Nova Scotia, CN discontinued the overnight Halifax - Sydney conventional train on May 31, 1967, and added a through Sunday Railiner service. <br> <br>

The launch also saw the discontinuance of similarly numbered trains 18 and 19, the remnant of the old Maritime Express on the Moncton - Montreal route via Campbellton, New Brunswick. Local stops between Campbellton and Charny were then served by RDC's on Trains 618 and 619. On Wednesday, May 31, CN introduced another through coach, sleeping and dining car service to Gaspe on Trains 118 and 119 from a connection with the Montreal - Campbellton, Chaleur, Trains 16 and 17, at Matapedia, Quebec. At the same time, CN cut off Matapedia - Gaspe RDC's Trains 616 - 617 and except Sunday Mixed Trains 246 - 245. <br> <br>

The Cabot was a lengthy train. It included two coaches with reservations required for distances over 160 miles, unreserved coach(es), diner, lounge, coach-lounge, cafe car and four sleepers for the entire run. An Island series, 8 section 4 bedroom sleeper served Montreal - Edmundston and, an E-series 4 section, 8 duplex roomette, 4 double bedroom car ran between Montreal and Moncton. <br> <br>

The Cabot featured unusual motive power as CN assigned a pair of MLW C-424s and a steam generator car between Montreal and Moncton. They had 75 mph gearing, which was appropriate to both flat running and the curvy and hilly former National Transcontinental line through Edmundston. A pair of RS-18s often provided the power from Moncton to Sydney. However, the late James Hardie's photographs at Glen Bard show a pair of MLW cab units charging up the grade with 14 cars in tow. In this picture, MLW built MR-24b 3219 stands ready to depart Drummondville at 8:11 p.m. on the Fourth of July. MLW delivered 3219 in the summer of 1966. CN leased many of its 41 C-424s in the U.S. and Mexico. When MLW purchased 3219 on Tuesday, January 26, 1984, I think that they sold it to the NdeM. <br> <br>

An indication that the new Cabot was a success came in October 1967 when the premier train, the Ocean, added through Sydney cars at Truro and began to operate via Edmundston. The following summer season from late June through early September, the Cabot again ran as a through, separate train from Sydney but serving Campbellton while the Ocean continued to run via Edmundston. This seasonal pattern continued until Wednesday, January 7, 1970, when the Ocean once again travelled via Campbellton. From then until the end of though cars in late October 1979, the Scotian handled the cars west of Truro.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	07/04/1967
Location:	Drummondville
Province:	Quebec

1 Comments | 9 Favourites

The Montreal section of the westbound Expo Limited included a set-off sleeper for Sudbury on Sunday, August 20, 1967. SCOTSTOWN was the assigned car on Train 5 that morning. S-2 7092 cut the car and placed it on a siding to await its return to Montreal at 10.45 that evening. The CPR's Assignment of Space, Form 62-26, allocated it line number 520. This was a convenient way to allow passengers to recognize the car in which they were travelling. The line number appeared in a small box in the window alongside the vestibule. To assign a passenger to a berth or room within a car, Reservation Desks in Windsor Station and other major terminals would have a cardboard representation of each car on which they would enter reservation or ticket numbers. Smaller stations would wire or call the Reservation Desk to obtain a reservation for a passenger. <br> <br>

My friend and retired CP employee, Doug Phillips of Calgary, offers the following history of CPR sleeping car SCOTSTOWN. It was delivered from the Company's Angus Shops in Montreal in July 1930. The steel car body was built by the Canadian Car and Foundry of Montreal, and all the wood finish and interior fittings were completed by the craftsmen at Angus. The wood interior was of finished mahogany with rose flower inlays in the corners of the panels of each upper berth. The car was one of 25 ordered for 1930 delivery and was classified in the "S" series of sleeping cars and named after Scotstown, Quebec. A second order of 25 cars of the same series followed in 1931. The car's arrangement was twelve sections and one drawing room with a men's smoking room and a ladies' room. The first 25 cars of the 50 car order were assigned to the summer only 'Trans-Canada Limited.' Each car was 83' 10 ½" long, and three cars were assigned to each of the seven train sets required for the operation of the TCL, with the remaining four used as guard cars. With the discontinuance of the TCL, the cars were used on the 'Imperial' and' Dominion' trains. Sleeping car SCOTSTOWN would again be used in summer service in 1967 on the EXPO LIMITED and would be retired in October 1968 and subsequently scrapped. <br> <br>

The image shows the odd-numbered side of the car. The windows are in the toilet, the next three windows in the men's washroom, six sections eleven through one and three windows in the corridor opposite the three-person drawing room and the women's washroom.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	08/20/1967
Location:	Sudbury
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 14 Favourites

The Paris Street overpass in Sudbury, Ontario, provided an excellent vantage point to witness the combining of the Montreal and Toronto sections of CPR passenger trains. On Sunday, August 20, 1967, I was on hand to enjoy the various switching moves as the Expo Limited took the scheduled 45 minutes to prepare for its 8.35 a.m. departure for Vancouver. Later in the day, I would see the splitting of the Canadian into its Montreal and Toronto sections. <br> <br>

Budd sleeper-dome Banff Park is prominent in the foreground as a yard crew working with S-4 7092 has prepared the rear of the train for departure. Mate 7090 worked the coaches on the west end. In the distance, connecting RDC-2 9100 would depart as Train 427 for Sault Ste. Marie.<br> <br>

Although I did not record the consist, CPR's Assignment of Space booklet confirms that the Park car would continue from Montreal to Vancouver. The Montreal train also included a 10-6 homebuilt Grove series sleeper, followed by an N, S or T series 12 section-1 drawing-room car, and an R series 8 section, 1 drawing-room, 2 double bedroom car. Then a 12-1 sleeper such as Scotstown, which S-4 7092 had just set off after its trip from Montreal. An A or W series heavyweight diner from Montreal would turn back to that city on Train 6. Toronto cars arriving on Train 15 included an R series car and two 12-1s for Vancouver. <br> <br>

The switcher marshalled the Toronto cars ahead of the R series sleeper from Montreal. An A or W series diner just ahead of the Grove car would continue from Toronto to Winnipeg and a replacement provided for the remainder of the run to Vancouver. In Winnipeg, a switcher placed a 500 series Skyline cafe dome between the sleepers and coaches. The stopover in Winnipeg also saw the addition of another Grove series sleeper for Vancouver. Finally, in Regina, an R car series car was added for Vancouver. In both cases, the switching placed the sleeper immediately behind the Skyline. <br> <br>

Three of CPR's newest mechanically air-conditioned 2200 series coaches rode on the head end behind a 4700 series baggage car. Typical power from Montreal to Calgary was two boiler-equipped MLW RS-10s or FPA-2s. The Toronto leg drew a similar, single unit. A pair or trio of boiler-equipped GP9s was normal west Of Calgary. <br> <br>

The overall effect was a one-season re-creation of CPR's classic Dominion, which had crossed the country in heavyweight style on a four-night schedule for decades until Monday, January 10, 1966. The Expo Limited was part of the CPR's celebration of Canadian Confederation. Another significant contribution was the Canadian Pacific Pavilion at the World's Fair, Expo '67 in Montreal. The Expo Limited not only served tourism in the Canadian Rockies but took travellers to Expo '67. It was a grand year!

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	08/20/1967
Location:	Sudbury
Province:	Ontario

5 Comments | 21 Favourites

Drumming in the distance suggested that CLC-FM's were on CN Train 55, the Lakeshore. Sure enough, not one but two CLC passenger units were in charge of the Montreal - Toronto train on the evening of Monday, August 21, 1967, just east of the station at Marysville, Ontario. Marysville is at Mileage 207 of the Kingston Sub while the train is passing under Kings Highway 2. The trailing units were CPB16-5 6804 and MLW FPA-2u 6759. Train 55, the Bonaventure, was due at Belleville, Mileage 220.7, at 7.15 p.m., having left Montreal at 3.35 p.m. and, the previous stop, Kingston at 6.28 p.m. It was due in Toronto at 9.20 p.m. The Bonaventure was one of five daily Montreal - Toronto trains in the busy Centennial Year that attracted world-wide visitors to the Expo 67 World's Fair site in Montreal. <br> <br>

CPA-16-5 6703 was part of six A-B sets purchased by the CNR from the Canadian Locomotive Company in nearby Kingston. A pair of CPA24-5s, 4801 and 4802, toured the CNR beginning in August 1950 as Fairbanks Morse started its effective control of CLC. (After the tour, FM sold the demonstrators as New Haven 790 and 791.) Although GMD and MLW also provided demonstrators around this time, no order was forthcoming from the CNR for passenger units until 1954. CLC was modestly successful in selling units to both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. Amongst other models, the CNR took sixty 1200hp roadswitchers between 1951 and 1956 while the CPR bought fifty H16-44s. CLC delivered the 6703 in early 1955, and it became the last active CLC cab unit on CN when it was retired in May 1969.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	08/21/1967
Location:	Marysville
Province:	Ontario

4 Comments | 23 Favourites

VIA Train 152,the Evangeline, is running alongside First Avenue as it departs Digby, Nova Scotia at, 8.30 a.m. in September 1989. Just a few months away, on Saturday, January 13, 1990, the train would make its last run followed by its Sunday only counterpart, Train 154, to round out passenger service in Western Nova Scotia. The train had departed Yarmouth, 86 miles west of Annapolis Royal at 7 a.m.; Digby was at Mileage 20.2 of the Yarmouth Sub. The Train would cover another 151 miles before arriving in Halifax at 12.35 p.m. where it would make connections for Montreal, Sydney and other maritime communities. <br> <br>

The Western Counties Railway had completed a line from Digby to Yarmouth in August 1879. In the early days, the Joggins, Bear and Moose rivers prevented the completion of a through-line to Halifax. The Missing Link, as it was known locally, between Digby and Annapolis Royal, was filled by steamboats. In 1890, the Missing Link was finally closed with federal financial assistance. The Dominion Atlantic Railway purchased the Western Counties in 1893 and merged it with lines east of Annapolis Royal to provide a through route. Ironically, the end of VIA service led to the railway's abandonment west of New Minas in April 1990. Once again, the Bear and Moose river crossings were expensive to taxpayers as they paid the cost of their removal in 2013. <br> <br>

VIA 6221, was built in July 1956 (serial 6301) as MKT 20, their only RDC-3 although it lacked the customary RPO section. The Katy purchased it to provide a connection from Wichita Falls, Texas, to their Texas Special train at Denison. C&O acquired the car in November 1960, and it served as a backup to their two ex-M&StL RDC-4s along the Big Sandy between Ashland and Elkhorn City, Kentucky. The B&O borrowed the car and, CN purchased it in August 1965 and renumbered it as D-356, later 6356. VIA rebuilt the car as an RDC-2 and renumbered it 6221. Industrial Rail Services of Moncton bought the car in 2000. They could not find a buyer and scrapped the car in 2016. <br> <br>

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	VIA Rail
Date:	09/1989
Location:	Digby
Province:	Nova Scotia

2 Comments | 30 Favourites

VIA Train 14 was running some six hours late as it speeds through Harcourt, New Brunswick, about 5 p.m. on a wintery Monday, March 7, 2005. It is passing the deconsecrated Wesley Memorial United Church a few hundred yards north of the site of the CN station at Mileage, 24.4 of the Newcastle Sub. <br> <br>

The Ocean, on its way to Halifax, Nova Scotia, had a healthy consist of F40-PH2s 6416 and 6426 with baggage car 8619, coaches 8139 and 8127, dome 8505, diner Louise, Chateau sleepers Laval, Marquette, Papineau, Viger, Radisson, Jolliet and dome observation Laurentide Park. At Catamount, it would meet Montreal-bound Train 15, a Renaissance set behind units 6421 and 6413. <br> <br>

The Newcastle Sub extends from Catamount 173.2 miles north along the east coast of New Brunswick, ending at the division point of Campbellton. This route of the Intercolonial Railway linked Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to central Canada. Its completion on Saturday, July 1, 1876, satisfied one of the conditions that had brought the eastern provinces into the Canadian confederation. The Ocean began running on this route on Sunday, July 3, 1904, and had recently celebrated its 100th year of service as North America's longest continuously operating name train.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	VIA Rail
Date:	03/07/2005
Location:	Harcourt
Province:	New Brunswick

Comments | 3 Favourites

A CN westbound pulls down the Toronto - Vancouver mainline while awaiting an eastbound to pull up the siding at Mileage 190 of the Edson Sub at Entrance Alberta in September 1997. The train had just passed Hinton and is continuing up the valley of the Athabaska River towards the next division point of Jasper. Entrance derives its name from the fact that it is an eastern gateway to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

GP40-2L(W) 9554 (3-1975 #A3189) is one of 268 ordered new from GMDL in London, Ontario, with deliveries of four orders between March 1974 and May 1976. CN acquired a further ten from GO Train in 1991. CN's Research Centre developed a Positive Traction Control system that GMDL adopted and introduced as a factory installation on these units. The new system reduced wheel-slippage, which enabled them to accelerate high-priority, high-speed trains more quickly. The units traversed the system and became a mainstay on Toronto - Edmonton trains because their lightened and raised frames allowed the installation of 3,000 imperial gallon fuel tanks. The larger capacity eliminated refuelling between Toronto and Winnipeg. GMDL installed standard, 2,300-gallon tanks on the final 35-unit order, which are GP40-2s.<br> <br>

CN's Research developed improvements to the lateral clearance on the centre axles of C-C trucked locomotives beginning in 1975 so that the superior tracking abilities of the GP40-2s became redundant. Their higher fuel consumption as compared to newer units, led to their early retirement from CN. Today only 59 of the 278 units remain, mostly in yard and local service. <br> <br>

9554 left the roster in 2000, and it became Yadkin Valley 9554 in North Carolina and later RLHH 3049 in Southern Ontario. In March 2019, RLHH traded it in on a GP38-2 from Metro East Industries in Fairview Heights, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	09/1997
Location:	Entrance
Province:	Alberta

Comments | 11 Favourites

The Ottawa Central acquired CN trackage between Ottawa and Pembroke, Ontario, on their truncated mainline to Capreol. The agreement also included trackage rights on VIA Rail between Coteau and Ottawa. The OCRR began operations on Thursday, December 31, 1998, and continued for almost ten years until Monday, November 8, 2008, when Canadian National repurchased the assets from the Ottawa Central's owner, the Quebec Railway Corp. The Ottawa Central also contracted with the Ottawa - Carleton Regional Municipality to operate the former CN line to Arnprior. Ironically, CN is now discontinuing service on these lines, and the future of the Arnprior line is uncertain. <br> <br>

It is on the latter line where I caught the westbound local to Arnprior at South March, Mileage 5.5 of the former Renfrew Sub, at 925 on Wednesday, May 5, 2004. RS-18u 1834 wears the New Brunswick East Coast name as it served for a time on that subsidiary of the Quebec Railway Corp. <br> <br>

The CPR acquired RS-18 8776 from MLW in May 1958 (Serial 82457), upgraded it in June 1985, and renumbered it 1834. CP Rail sold the unit to the NBEC in April 1998, who later leased it to the Ottawa Central. CN acquired the RS-18u with the repurchase in 2008 and retired it the same year.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Ottawa Central Rai…
Date:	05/05/2004
Location:	South March
Province:	Ontario

Comments | 15 Favourites

For a brief period in the late 1990s, Sweeps found work in Halifax, Nova Scotia, often in the mu company of SW1200RS units. The odd couples worked the container piers, transfers and general switching at Rockingham Yard and downtown, at the Ocean Terminals. <br> <br>

At 3.30 p.m. on Sunday, October 26, 1997, CN 7104 rests on the radial tracks at the Fairview Roundhouse. <br> <br>

CN assembled the 7104 from major components of SW1200RS 1248, GMDL 11-1956 #A1020, the first of 21 units in class GR-12h. It was retired in 1986, rebuilt at Point St. Charles and released as 7104 on Friday, May 1, 1987, with class GS-412b. It was retired on Friday, February 29, 2000, and joined the Canac / Savage lease fleet, where it remains active.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	10/26/1997
Location:	Halifax
Province:	Nova Scotia

Comments | 19 Favourites

A gaggle of SW1200RSs cross over to the North Track at Bayview Junction, Ontario on, Tuesday evening, July 30, 1968. <br> <br>

Bayview Junction, Mileage 36.9 of the Toronto - Hamilton Oakville Sub marked the beginning of 78.9 miles of the Dundas Sub that ended in London. At the time, both of these subdivisions were double track, and ABS controlled. The units were likely to struggle over the next 9.6 miles to Copetown as they ascend the Niagara Escarpment. In steam days, this grade warranted a helper for the westbound climb. <br> <br>

The SW1200RS was a model designation offered to GMDL by my late friend and CN employee, Peter Cox, at the time he was researching his book, "Diesels from London" in the early 1960s. It was never officially applied by GM. As distinct from the SW1200 switcher, the immediately recognizable feature was the front protruding headlight/number board unit. GMDL included in the road switcher package Flexicoil trucks, 65 mph gearing, mu capability and larger fuel capacity. The builder installed CN's proprietary centrifugal spark arrestors on the last sixty built beginning in July 1959, and the railway retrofitted the others. CN bought 192 examples and used them from coast to coast in Canada. 1327 even served as a switcher in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.<br> <br>

CN 1230, serial A857, was one of 21 units, class GR-12f in the second-order delivered in the spring and summer of 1956. Interestingly, on Friday, February 22, 1985, CN retired the locomotive, and on Friday, April 10 1987, it emerged from Point St. Charles Shops as Sweep 7302, class GS-413b. It sported a GP9 hood, main generator, cooling fans, traction motor blowers and, by using 645 series power assemblies, an increase to 1300hp. CN ended the Sweep Program after completing just eight units showed that the high conversion cost did not achieve the goal. They had sought a sufficiently robust switcher for contemporary yard service. The 7102 was retired and sold to Canac on Tuesday, February 29, 2000. In August 2007 it was leased by Savage, successor to Canac, to Cargill in Eddyville, Iowa. In November 2012 it was leased to PBF Refining, successor to Sunoco, in Toledo, Ohio.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	07/30/1968
Location:	Bayview Jct.
Province:	Ontario

2 Comments | 17 Favourites

n the waning hours of a cold and blustery Sunday afternoon, the 28th of January 1968, CNR Northern 6218 heads home to Toronto. Passing Brechin, near Mileage 72 of the Bala Sub, the train has almost completed a circle around Ontario's Lake Simcoe. The trip, sponsored by the Upper Canada Railway Society, had traversed 98.8 miles of the Newmarket Sub along the west side of the lake to Washago, junction with the Bala Sub. After that, 88.9 miles down the Bala Sub would bring the excursion train back to Union Station. <br> <br> The consist featured B&O's Moonlight Dome, which CN leased for Centennial Year and into the early part of 1968. C&O had ordered the car from Budd for its ill-fated Chessie in 1946. Dubbed a Strata-Dome, it featured three drawing rooms, a bedroom and five roomettes. When delivered in December 1950, it was sold to the B&O and used every other day on the Chicago - Jersey City / Baltimore Shenandoah until October 1963. It then served as a backup car to mates Starlight Dome and Sunlight Dome on the Capitol Limited. B&O leased the three cars to the Atlantic Coast Line for use between Richmond and Miami on its Florida Special in 1965-66. After serving with CN, B&O leased it to the SCL in July 1968 and sold it to them in September 1969. Again it served on the Florida Special. <br> <br> With the advent of Amtrak, the car served until its sale in 1978. It had a variety of owners until 2014 when Birch Grove LLC purchased the dome and based it in Chicago.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	1/28/1968
Location:	Brechin
Province:	Ontario

5 Comments | 12 Favourites

Two CN RSC-13s amble by a typical Up-West house as they near Mileage 77.7, St. Louis, Prince Edward Island on an evening in July 1974. <br> <br>

At Tignish, Mileage, 84.6, the western end of the Kensington, Sub, the crew will tie up for the night and start their eastbound 68-mile trip back to Summerside the following morning. <br> <br>

CN 1734 was built by MLW in 1957 and was the last of 35 RSC-13s. The units began to be retired in the fall of 1975. CN used their trucks in a Moncton-based program to create "RSC-18s" as replacements on Maritime branchlines. CN retired 1734 on Monday, December 15, 1975, and its trucks were mated to RS-18 3864, becoming RSC-18 1765 two days later. It was retired on Thursday, September 30, 1993. Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia bought 1765 in 1995 and it served as a parts source for CBNS RS-18 3716.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	07/1974
Location:	St. Louis
Province:	Prince Edward Isl…

3 Comments | 29 Favourites

CN M-420 3501 (MLW 5-1973 #M6071-02) poses at the Sydney Shop in the dying days of CN service to Cape Breton in early September 1993. <br> <br>

In May 1973, the 2501 entered service as the world's first locomotive equipped with a Comfort Cab. CN worked with both Canadian locomotive builders beginning in the late 1960s to provide increased crash protection for crews as well as electric heating, improved insulation, armchair seats, a refrigerator and hotplate. After 1973, all newly built road units for CN would include a Comfort Cab. (See CNR Diesel Locomotives Vol 2, CNRHA 2014, for a detailed history of the Comfort Cab.) The MR-20a units also featured a freshly designed Zero Weight Transfer (ZWT-2) truck to reduce wheel slip. Finally, the order for thirty M-420s introduced the diagonal stripes to CN road freight locomotives. <br> <br>

CN displayed the 2501 for employees at Central Station in Montreal, while 2502 was on display in Sydney in early June 1973. Beginning in October 1986, CN began a 15-month program in Moncton to lighten the 2500 series units by restricting fuel and sand capacity. Upon returning to service, CN added 1000 added to their number, reflecting their assignment to secondary duties common to the dwindling number of ageing RS-18s. The unit was retired on Tuesday, November 25, 1997, and sold in 1998 by CN subsidiary CANAC to the St. Lawrence and Atlantic in Maine. It operated as their 3501 until the Hudson Bay Railway purchased it on Sunday, April 18, 2004. The Keewatin Railway running between Flin Flon and Lynn Lake, Manitoba purchased it in 2007 and assigned it the number 2400. It continues to operate, having borne the number 2402 since 2008. <br> <br>

In early October 1993, CN began to lease their trackage east of Truro. Railtex was the initial operator as the Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia. Their choice of ex-CN R18s and, particularly, C-630Ms as motive power introduced a golden era between 1993 and 1997 that attracted railfans from around the globe. In late 2001, Sysco, a provincially owned steel mill closed in Sydney as did nearby coal mines owned by Devco, a federal Crown Corporation. The closures hugely impacted traffic on the CB&CNS. By Tuesday, December 30, 2014, Railtex successor Genesee & Wyoming closed operation of the Sydney Sub east of Tupper near Port Hawkesbury on Cape Breton Island's southern shore.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	08/1993
Location:	Sydney
Province:	Nova Scotia

3 Comments | 22 Favourites

CP Rail 5000 pauses on its way back to Train 1-915 from the Smiths Falls, Ontario shop track in January 1974. <br> <br>

The GP30 was one of just two on CP Rail. Delivered as 8200 on Saturday, March 30, 1963, with serial A-2006, it was the CPR's first turbocharged unit. GMDl gave trade-in credit for wreck damaged F9B 1902. C-424 8300 followed a month later. GMDL had replaced the two-year-old GP30 model with the GP35 by the time the CPR placed a followup order for a dozen units in June. MLW received the next order for 32 C-424s in September 1964. CPR renumbered the 8200 to 5000 on Monday, April 12, 1965. It is now displayed in Edmonton, Alberta. <br> <br>

The CPR was chronically short of motive power, especially during the busy winter season from 1963 through 1975. In the following decades, CP Rail often experienced motive power shortages. Leased P&LE U28B 2810 (GE 1-1966 #35866) is today's solution. This unit travelled far and wide from western Pennsylvania during its career before settling on TTI, the Transkentucky Transportation Railroad based in Paris, Kentucky. It was one of seven former P&LE U28s that helped TTI haul coal fifty miles to an Ohio River transload at Maysville in northeastern Kentucky. Renumbered to 249 it was scrapped on the TTI. The TTI started in 1979 and became a CSX subsidiary in 1981. Since 2017 it has been reduced to transloading and car storage in Paris.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	1/1974
Location:	Smiths Falls
Province:	Ontario

1 Comments | 21 Favourites

The Nackawic Turn is close to its home terminal in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on a beautiful afternoon in March 1985. It is about to pass the site of the former CNR Fredericton station on the engineer's side of the tracks.<br><br>C-424 4218 was built in Montreal, Quebec, by MLW and delivered as the 8318 on Tuesday, October 5, 1965, with serial 84856. The CPR received trade-in credit with the return of Alco FB-1 4402 on Thursday, July 8. The unit was part of 32 unit order 4905, class DRF-24b, built between March and December 1965. Their delivery was followed immediately by order 4906 for 18 units of class DRF-24c. MLW built these without trade-ins from December 1965 through March 1966. CPR initially used the C-424s on priority freights, notably on the Eastern Region, as St. Luc was their original maintenance assignment. When they were new, I often saw them on Windsor - Montreal hotshots in combination with the nearly new GP35s, which had proven slippery. CPR quickly renumbered the units in the 4200 series. Retirement, conversion or sale came to the C-424s before 1996; however, the 4218 was not one of the 31 survivors. It was tied up unserviceable on Thursday, March 23, 1995, retired on April Fools Day and sold to MetRecy in Laval, Quebec for $8,750 on Wednesday, June 21.<br><br>The Nackawic Turn left Fredericton weekday mornings with traffic for the paper mill at Nackawic on the north side of the Saint John River. At Una Junction, Mileage 21.8 of the Fredericton Sub, the outbound train turned north on trackage rights at Mileage 0.2 of the CNR Fredericton Spur and joined their 70.5-mile Saint John - South Devon Oromocto Sub at Mileage 69.4. The Turn then crossed the bridge in the background. (On Monday, March 16, 1936, the ice blocked river destroyed the original crossing; this bridge opened on Wednesday, June 1, 1938. It survives as a walking path.) Reaching South Devon on the northern bank, the train turned north for a 37-mile run to Southampton on the Gibson Sub. At Southampton, Mileage 22, it turned south, travelling 9.4 miles to the mill at Nackawic.<br><br>Upon returning to Fredericton, the power was set up to do a nightly 133.2-mile turn to Saint John. This arrangement ended on Friday, October 25, 1985, thereafter power from mainline freights brought cars the 22.2 miles into town from Fredericton Junction on the Montreal - Saint John line. Prior to Friday, November 28, 1980, the nightly freight, the "Oriental', took its train to McAdam, forty miles west of the Junction.<br><br>The 1967 flooding behind the Mactaquac Dam caused the relocation of several communities. It spawned the province's first model community in Nackawic. The flooding also cut short the last 3.1 miles of the Southampton Sub that reached down to the Saint John River at Otis. St. Anne Nackawic Pulp and Paper opened their kraft pulping mill in 1970 and received a continuing supply of rail-hauled Bunker 'C' oil from the Irving refinery in Saint John. Rail shipments lasted until Monday, November 29, 1993. At the end of 1994, CP Rail discontinued its operations east of St. Jean, Quebec and abandoned its branchlines north of Fredericton. The present owner, AV Group NB Inc., produces up to 540 metric tons of bleach kraft pulp daily.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian Pacific
Date:	03//1985
Location:	Fredericton
Province:	New Brunswick

2 Comments | 10 Favourites

Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo SW9 58 rests near the railway's Aberdeen Roundhouse in Hamilton, Ontario, on Sunday, July 7, 1968. GMDL built the 1200hp switcher in nearby London, Ontario, in January 1951, serial A-124, as their 25th production unit. The 58 was the last of four ordered by the TH&B in 1950 to complete dieselization of their switching services. Retired in May 1988 and sold to Atlas Steel in Welland, it was resold that year to Lukens Steel's Brandywine Valley Railroad in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, as their first 8206. It was transferred to the Upper Merion and Plymouth at Conshohocken Pennsylvania in 1991, where it continues to operate as their second 9007. <br> <br> Facing the switcher is NYC E8A 4003 fresh from an early morning run from Buffalo on Toronto-bound Penn Central Train 371. Connecting Train 57 had departed Grand Central Terminal the previous evening with coaches and sleepers for Toronto. My friend, Bruce Mercer, was on duty at Port Credit that morning and reports that CP RS10 8575 handled the last 39.3 miles from Hamilton to Toronto as Train 322.<br> <br> New York Central 4003 was built as an E7A at LaGrange in March 1945 with serial 2868. It was involved in a wreck at Conneaut, Ohio, on March 27, 1953, and was rebuilt by EMD as an E8A. Not long after, it was on the September 1956 cover of Trains Magazine in an image by Phil Hastings and featured in the particularly famous story by David Morgan: The Mohawk That Refused to Abdicate. The unit was retired in June 1973.<br> <br> The TH&B completed its line between Waterford and Welland, Ontario, via Hamilton in 1895. NYC (73%) and the CPR (27%) purchased the railway in 1895. In 1977 CP Rail bought the former NYC shares and merged it entirely in 1987.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Toronto Hamilton a…
Date:	07/07/1968
Location:	Hamilton
Province:	Ontario

5 Comments | 24 Favourites

MPA-18a 6776 leads the westbound Halifax - Saint John - Montreal "Atlantic" at Onslow, Nova Scotia, on Wednesday, July 23, 1986. The "Atlantic" had a checkered history. Its first incarnation was from October 29, 1979, through November 15, 1981. It was then replaced on the eastern end by a daily Halifax to Fredericton Railiner. The "Atlantic" returned on June 1, 1985, and ran daily until the Titantic cuts of January 15, 1990. After that, it began running on a trice-weekly basis departing the end terminals each Monday, Thursday and Saturday. During this period, the Halifax - Montreal "Ocean" also ran via Campbellton, New Brunswick, with departures each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. CP Rail announced its intention to discontinue freight service east of St. Jean, Quebec, at the end of 1994. The service interruption ultimately lasted only a few days. Nonetheless, the federal government seized the opportunity to terminate the "Atlantic" and shift the trains to the route of the "Ocean" effective December 15, 1994.<br><br>CN provided most of the consist of the train included units 6776 and 6864, baggage 9667, coaches 5442 5569 and 5590, coach cafe lounge 2514, daynighter 5746, 6-6-4 sleepers GREENWAY and GREENING, ex Milwaukee Road 10-6 [Lake Keechelus PS-1948] WARPATH RIVER, diner 1358 and ex CP EVANGELINE PARK.<br><br>The "Atlantic" paused at Belmont to meet its eastbound counterpart, Train 12, at 2.30 p.m. Belmont at Mileage 7.6 of the Truro - Moncton Springhill Subdivision marked the west end of double track that improved traffic flow at the junction with the CN line to Sydney. The eastern end of the double track was at Hyde, 2.5 miles towards Halifax on the Bedford Sub.<br><br>FPA-4 6776 (MLW 2-1959 #83154) was one of several specially equipped with FRA glass and other features for operation through Maine on the route of the "Atlantic." You may see it today at the Grand Canyon National Park depot of the Grand Canyon Railway.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	VIA Rail
Date:	07/23/1986
Location:	Belmont
Province:	Nova Scotia

2 Comments | 23 Favourites

Passing Carleton, Mileage 40.9 of the Borden Subdivision, CN's Train 115 was just eight minutes away from the ferry dock at Borden, Prince Edward Island, on Saturday, October 12, 1968. No one had set the flag, so the trio of RSC-13s motored by with a baggage car and combine at 912 a.m. The abbreviated train had left Charlottetown, the provincial capital, at 730 for the 42.4-mile run. I had chased the same train in May of 1968, and it had then included a full coach, rpo and three express baggage cars as well as a steam generator. In both cases, the cars were transferred to the S.S. Prince Edward Island and off-loaded at Cape Tormentine, on the New Brunswick shore. From there, the train continued its 6-hour run to Moncton. I had wanted a shot at Carleton as I had graduated from the similarly named university in Ottawa in May 1967. <br> <br>

Leading RSC-13 1733 was one of 35 similar MR10 units on CN. They had arrived from MLW beginning in mid-1955 as a uniquely Canadian unit. Their A1A trucks made them suitable for CN's many branchlines. Tested from coast to coast, they settled in Southwestern Ontario until the mid-1960s. With CN's determination to retire their 1200hp CLC roadswitchers, the MR10s found new life in the Maritime Provinces. Several came to Prince Edward Island and promptly bumped a pair of H12-44s from the mainline passenger trains and 70 Ton GE's from many secondary routes, excluding those south of Mount Stewart, east of Charlottetown. By the mid-1970s, their 6-cylinder McIntosh and Seymour inline 1,000hp engines were out of favor on CN. So, they were retired, and their trucks placed under de-rated and lightened RS-18s in a program conducted by the Moncton Shops. For example, 1733 was retired on Wednesday, October 8, 1975, and its trucks installed under RS-18 3845, which became RSC-18 1752 when it re-entered service on Friday, October 24, 1975. CN assigned 1750 through 1756 to Charlottetown in 1979. On Wednesday, August 25, 1993, CN sold the unit for scrap to Met-Recy in Laval, Quebec. It was resold to the Deleware-Lackawanna but was subsequently rejected and presumed scrapped.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	10/12/1968
Location:	Carleton
Province:	Prince Edward Isl…

4 Comments | 19 Favourites

At 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 1, 1968, CN Train 406 is just east of St. Basil, New Brunswick near Mileage 213 of the Napadogan Subdivision. The two almost new C-630Ms, 2022 and 2025, are en route to Moncton. During the night, they had traversed the hill and dale National Transcontinental route from Joffre near Quebec City to Edmundston. Nearly a decade later, that trip would take them across the Pelletier cut-off that linked the former NTR line directly to the water level route along the St. Lawrence River. <br> <br>

CN sampled four-axle second-generation power from both MLW and GMDL in the early 1960s in the form of C-424s, GP35s and GP40s. As with many railways, the translation of high horsepower to effective tractive effort through four traction motors did not prove overly successful. Hence, following demonstrations of UP C-630s and EMD SD40xs in 1966, CN shifted their orders to exclusively six-axle units between 1967 and 1972. MLW supplied two sample units, 2000 and 2001, in August 1967 followed almost immediately by an order for 42 additional C-630Ms. They rode on hi-adhesion trucks newly designed by Dofasco in Hamilton, Ontario, that featured a very short 11' 2" wheelbase. The MR-30 class units served primarily east of Montreal during their lifetime until CN replaced them on priority trains with GE Dash 8-40CM in the 2400 series beginning in 1990. As CN retired the units, the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway obtained nine of these "Big Alcos," including the 2022, which uniquely became a parts source in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	Canadian National
Date:	05/1/1968
Location:	St. Basile
Province:	New Brunswick

4 Comments | 13 Favourites

The Canadian arrived at Lake Louise station at 0955 on Saturday, May 17, 1986. VIA FP9Au 6314 leads two ex CN F9Bs 6616 and 6617. VIA extended the life of fifteen similar ex-CN units before purchasing its first F40PH-2 in 1986. CN remanufactured former CN FP9 6527 at its Moncton Shops in New Brunswick in 1985. <br> <br>The former station is now the Station Restaurant that includes the heavyweight dining car "Delamere." The last Canadian passed here in January 1990 due to massive government cuts to the VIA network. The eastbound is at Mileage 116.6 of CP Rail's Laggan Subdivision on the original CPR alignment, as seen from the more recent lower grade line.

Name:	Bill Linley
Railway:	VIA Rail
Date:	05/17/1986
Location:	Lake Louise
Province:	Alberta

1 Comments | 24 Favourites

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Bill Linley's Map:

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