Comments on: Canadian Pacific Railway “Royal Hudson” H1d 2858 (built by MLW in 1938) departs Ottawa’s Union Station with train #504 to Montreal on a cold day in late 1955, seen alongside the Rideau Canal showing the Mackenzie King bridge and downtown Ottawa railway facilities that were once located here. The downtown Ottawa Union Station closed in 1966 when the station and railway facilities were relocated to a new station built outside of the downtown area, eliminating the trackage running along the Rideau Canal. The old station building later became the Government Conference Centre. After retirement, 2858 was one of a handful of Royal Hudsons preserved, going to the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa. There’s some dispute about the exact date of the photo. Photographer Robert Wanner notes it was taken in late October 1955 (also mentioning this is one of his favourite CPR steam photos), but the description on the mount of this duplicate slide shows November 4th 1955, and yet other photo sources show December 2nd 1955. Airman Robert Wanner photo, Dan Dell’Unto collection slide (duplicate).

By: awmooney

awmooney — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 21:55:50 +0000

Bob’s quality photos can be found in the book “Across the Canadian Shield” in which he was probably the only photographer up in Armstrong, Ontario back in the 1955 era.
All those years and the lad still rides the trains.