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A westbound CN freight lead by GP40-2LW 9627, HR616 2117, and an M636 that appears to be 2309 head through the plant at Bayview Junction, ready to begin the climb up the Dundas Sub. Trailing the power on the head end are a pair of UP wing cars carrying aircraft wing assemblies bound for the US, enroute from the McDonnell Douglas plant in Malton ("MDCan") along CN's Weston Subdivision (which was formerly the famed A.V. Roe plant, home of the Avro Arrow).

Douglas Aircraft (later McDonnell-Douglas) purchased the Malton plant from de Havilland in the mid-60's and set up its branch plant operation there to make wing assemblies and other components for DC-9's. The DC-9 wing assemblies were transported on flatcars in pairs, forwarded to the MD plant in Long Beach, California for final assembly. When production of the DC-10 started up in the late 60's, specially-built "wing cars" were built by Maxson to handle the larger DC-10 and later MD-11 wing assemblies. They were essentially 88' long cushion-underframe gondolas outfitted for transporting the wings. Douglas Aircraft owned six of their own (DCCX 1001-1006), that were later joined by a group from Union Pacific (UP 229580-229587). Because the wing assemblies were so long, UP spacer flatcars were used in the middle of two wing cars to account for the wing overhang from each, and were usually handled on the head end of freights. From a bit of research, routing of the wing loads was from Malton via CN to GTW at Port Huron, who interchanged them at Blue Island (Chicago) to the Rock Island, who forwarded them to UP at Council Bluffs for final delivery to the Long Beach plant.

The old Malton plant operated for decades under McDonnell Douglas, was taken over by Boeing in 1997, and finally closed in 2005. The site was demolished in short order, and presently remains vacant. The big wing cars are also gone from the rails.

Michael Bannon photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection.
Copyright Notice: This image ©Michael Bannon photo, Dan Dell'Unto coll. all rights reserved.



Caption: A westbound CN freight lead by GP40-2LW 9627, HR616 2117, and an M636 that appears to be 2309 head through the plant at Bayview Junction, ready to begin the climb up the Dundas Sub. Trailing the power on the head end are a pair of DCCX wing cars carrying MD-11 aircraft wing assemblies bound for the US, enroute from the McDonnell Douglas plant in Malton ("MDCan") along CN's Weston Subdivision (which was formerly the home of A.V. Roe, maker of the famed Avro Arrow).

Douglas Aircraft (later McDonnell-Douglas) purchased the Malton plant from de Havilland in the mid-60's and set up its branch plant operation there to make wing assemblies and other components for DC-9's. The DC-9 wing assemblies were transported on flatcars in pairs, forwarded to the MD plant in Long Beach, California for final assembly. When production of the DC-10 started up in the late 60's, specially-built "wing cars" were built by Maxson to handle the larger DC-10 and later MD-11 wing assemblies. They were essentially 88' long cushion-underframe gondolas outfitted for transporting the wings. Douglas Aircraft owned six of their own (DCCX 1001-1006), that were later joined by a group from Union Pacific (UP 229580-229587). Because the wing assemblies were so long, UP spacer flatcars were used in the middle of two wing cars to account for the wing overhang from each, and were usually handled on the head end of freights. From a bit of research, routing of the wing loads was from Malton via CN to GTW at Port Huron, who interchanged them at Blue Island (Chicago) to the Rock Island, who forwarded them to UP at Council Bluffs for final delivery to the Long Beach plant.

The old Malton plant operated for decades under McDonnell Douglas, was taken over by Boeing in 1997, and finally closed in 2005. The site was demolished in short order, and presently remains vacant. The big wing cars are also gone from the rails.

Michael Bannon photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection.

Photographer:
Michael Bannon photo, Dan Dell'Unto coll. [932] (more) (contact)
Date: 04/08/1993 (search)
Railway: Canadian National (search)
Reporting Marks: CN 9627, 2117, 2309 (search)
Train Symbol: Not Provided
Subdivision/SNS: Bayview Junction - CN Oakville Sub (search)
City/Town: Burlington (search)
Province: Ontario (search)
Share Link: http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=40429
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Photo ID: 39224

Map courtesy of Open Street Map

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5 Comments
  1. Oh yes, I remember the “plane train” which kept a rather regular schedule back in those days.

  2. Fabulous Dan. Greatly appreciate the research and background information you always include. Sadly, a reminder of how much manufacturing has left the province. Also great to see the big MLW’s, late in the game for them by this point.

  3. I have to agree with Stuart on the fact the research is amazing. We used to see this train most days, often with wings behind the power, but because we did not have internet or anything of that type, we relied on what someone in the know would verbally tell us back the, and of course I, like most, have long forgotten.
    Many thanks, Dan. You should get some sort of “research” award from the other lads who maintain this site.

  4. Almost certainly 393.

  5. Thanks for the comments guys, I try to add a bit of historical background to some of the slides I post. There’s a lot of neat stuff that used to be around back in the day that the younger fellas missed out on (present company included). :)

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