Caption: [Editors note: While not to quality standards, we're still working to improve this. This is one of the last movements or the last on the CPR Waterloo sub in Waterloo and is quite historic. These would move at night for the last move not long after] In 1993 I began really taking an interest in the railways that operated near my house in Waterloo, Ontario. I grew-up on John Street and both CN and CP crossed it on opposite sides of King Street. CN ran through on their Waterloo Spur and CP reached the city with the Waterloo Subdivision. Growing-up the CN line was the closest so naturally I gravitated to it when I first really started watching trains. The CP line always seemed to be less active than I remembered when I was younger, however its industrial trackage in the city always intrigued me, especially the long stretch where it ran down the middle of Caroline Street. I had no idea about railway operations or when trains ran to Waterloo. In my mind a train had the potential to just show-up at any time. So, in early 1993, while it was still snowy and cold, I had to do all my exploring on foot as my trusty bike was still put away for the winter. I would often follow the tracks on walks from my street to downtown Waterloo.
At the time, Waterloo was barely holding onto its roots in the industrial and manufacturing sectors as change had already arrived. The effects of a deepening recession in the early 1990’s was evident, and many local industries were feeling the impacts. In 1992, the massive Seagram's distillery had ceased production and by 1993 was slowly being torn down. In November of that year, Canadian Pacific had filed an application with the Canadian Transportation Agency to abandon the operation of a section of the Waterloo Subdivision between mileage 13.00 in Kitchener and mileage 15.8 in Waterloo. Canbar Inc, which manufactured large mouldings made from fibreglass was CP’s last active customer in Waterloo. They had opposed the railway’s abandonment application citing possible loss of jobs within its business and other expenses they would have for movement of their wood products and fibreglass tank covers. In early 1993, Canbar Inc had a large contract they were fulfilling with the city of Winnipeg to manufacture several large mouldings for a sewage treatment plant that could only go by rail.
So here I was on that winter afternoon looking for trains on a weekend when nearing the Canbar Inc. plant I saw something that caught my eye. I was almost in disbelief at the sight of actual railcars loaded behind the fence with these large loads. These were the first cars I had ever seen set-off here and unknown to me, they would be some of the last with the pending abandonment looming. Luckily, on this walk I had come prepared. I didn’t yet own my own camera; however I had borrowed my mom’s small disc film camera and had taken it with me. Also, thankfully in front of the Canbar Inc. property was a municipal parking lot that had a conveniently placed snow bank, more like a big mountain at the time. I climbed up to try and get a decent view of the car sitting there without the fence obstructing my view. I pointed the small thin camera and clicked its shutter. The recently restored image seen here is what was produced. At the time I was just excited to photograph a CP Rail freight car in Waterloo. As 1993 would progress, so would my knowledge of what I was actually photographing. Now looking back 30 years later I’m extremely grateful I climbed that snow bank.