Comments on: Looking a little worse for wear but still able to fulfill her lease obligation to CP, Boston & Maine Alco S4 switcher 1270 is seen at Woodstock, Ontario near the station in May of 1966. Due to her lack of MU, one could only assume she was assigned to local switching or yard power. Ever the power-short railway, CP turned to leasing power in the early 60′s rather than reactivating some of its stored steam locomotives. The financially ailing Boston & Maine was one of the handful of US railroads that lent some of its older or surplus power out to CP, including RS3′s, GP7′s, F-units and even a group of little Alco switcher. According to the February 1992 issue of Branchline, a total of six Alco S2/S3/S4 switchers including 1270 were leased from the B&M by power-short CP between October/November 1965 and February 1967. Information suggests they were assigned out of St. Luc Yard in Montreal QC, but evidently at least one unit found its way to the southern Ontario area to work.

By: RonaldB

RonaldB — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 16:22:21 +0000

I misunderstood part of Ray Kennedy’s post hence my comment about yard jobs in 1973. I would note that since the ‘yard’ jobs were actually “Roadswitcher” assignments they were advertised as “except Saturday & Sunday, unless required on Saturday and/or Sunday”. On the 1830 job, we worked many Saturdays and they let us come in at 1200 instead of 1830. This was usually because a company in Ingersoll (“MotoMower”?) had a car to be shipped out. We typically only put in 4 hrs on those days, but since it was coming off our guaranteed 2600 miles a month we were actually working for free. On one Saturday we had to report at 1830 for a special run to Tillsonburg which was within the 30 mile radius of Woodstock that we were authorized to operate.

By: RonaldB

RonaldB — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 16:14:32 +0000

There is at least one photo of one of these units on a work train on the Goderich Sub. That photo appears on Page 31 of the book Rusty Rails by John R. Hardy.

By: RonaldB

RonaldB — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 23:33:59 +0000

By 1973 there were no yard jobs at Woodstock & no sparebaord. Relief came from London road crews. 1200 Wayfreight &2345 Roadswitcher on the Port Burwell Sub trains out of Woodstock usually had S-3 6589 or 6590. Replacements would show up from time to time & that’s what this unit likely was. I see that it is ‘road equipped’ i.e has a pilot between the footboards. The 0800 day and 1830 roadswitchers (often called yard jobs by crews) switched the yard (both were ‘road’ crews) and the afternoon job went to Ingersoll & back most days. Those jobs used the ’6500′ that wasn’t on the Tillsonburg/Pt. Burwell jobs. This unit might have gone on the Pt. Burwell Sub or the ‘yard’ jobs.

By: R.L.Kennedy

R.L.Kennedy — Thu, 16 May 2019 22:57:17 +0000

Definitely news to me! While I was aware of all those leases I did not know any worked locally.

There was a local job in Woodstock however, since Woodstock was not recognized by the unions as a “yard” it was manned by road crews even though it did not leave the yard.

Woodstock was home terminal for several assignments working the various branches. A one trainman spareboard covered all jobs as required. If there was “yard assignment” it would belong to switchmen and that spare trainman could not relieve on it. It would require deadheading a man from Quebec Street.

Additionally, yard jobs worked 5 days per week. Freight jobs 6 days (straight time). More stuff to complicate a crew clerk’s job!

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Thu, 16 May 2019 12:11:47 +0000

Wow.. this is neat.