Freight Trains |
SEPTEMBER 2001
Our most recent title, Steam Over Palmerston, describes the activities in and around a CNR division point in the 1950s. Other Southern Ontario points Allandale and Stratford have been described in our previous volumes. All three of these CNR terminals had something in common: a classification yard which was used for the purposes of marshalling freight cars to and from a network of branchlines and secondary mainlines. This month we will examine the types of trains which moved freight cars during the 1950s on the CNR and other lines, in the interest of applying these practices to our miniature representations of portions of that transportation system.
Some definition of the trains which served yards at Allandale, Palmerston, Stratford and other locales is in order. On every railway line, regardless of traffic density, local service was performed by a way freight or similar train. By agreement, such trains had to depart the terminal before noon. Customarily, they worked six days per week. Depending on the length of run, a way freight may have worked out and back on the same day with one crew. Allandale's Meaford way freight, Stratford's Goderich way freight and Palmerston's Guelph way freight are examples of this operation. On longer runs, a single crew may have worked out one day, and back the next. Allandale's Hamilton way freight and Stratford's Sarnia way freight illustrate this scenario. On territory incorporating a long run and/or significant volume of switching, two crews may have worked the territory, starting at each terminal on a given day. Allandale's Toronto way freight, Stratford's Georgetown way freight and Palmerston's Owen Sound way freight represent examples of this service.
Other assignments having the same status as way freights were know as "Switchers". They were way freights dedicated to working significant industrial towns. Beginning at the home terminal, the crews would run as a caboose hop (or with a minimum of cars such as boxcars of merchandise) to their assignment, pick up their cars which had been left by a short haul freight the night before, and spend the day switching the industrial sidings. At supper time, the cars were left in a siding to be lifted by a short haul freight for conveyance to the division point. Allandale's Orillia Switcher, Gravenhurst' Huntsville Switcher, Stratford's Galt Switcher, Hamilton's Simcoe Switcher and Woodstock's Ingersoll Switcher were examples of this service.
On lightly travelled lines, mixed trains served as way freights in terms of local switching. Allandale's Penetang Mixed and Palmerston's Durham Mixed were but two assignments in this category. In other cases, short haul freight trains were called upon to perform way freight services. Examples of these were the Stratford-Fort Erie freights.
This is perhaps a good time to illustrate the difference between a short haul freights (the next step up from a way freight) and manifest freights. The latter, often running in multiple sections, did not do much switching en route. Along the way, they may have had a scheduled lift or set out or two, in order to maintain important connections. Short haul freights, on the other hand, could be called upon to lift and set out cars at any principal point. These blocks of cars were prepared by the previous day's local train, and cars left by the short haul were spotted on individual sidings by the same.
Allandale was served by short haul freights 455 and 410, which ran between Toronto and Gravenhurst, and northbound 451, which ran to North Bay. Stratford yard received cars from westbound 401 and 457 from Toronto, and despatched them on eastbound 400 and 458. Short hauls 516 and 517 worked between Toronto and Palmerston. True manifest freights bypassed all these branchline division points. London, on the other hand, witnessed the nightly passage of First and Second 475; First, Second and Third 476; and 477 between Windsor and Mimico. At Huntsville, the station operator watched First and Second 453, 452 and 454 sped between Toronto and North Bay.
When division point yards had excess cars for other terminals which exceeded the tonnage capabilities of its regular trains, "turnarounds" were despatched. These could run at any time of the day or night. Extras could also be called upon to move grain (from Collingwood, Owen Sound, Midland, Goderich and other points), livestock (on Stratford's Forest Subdivision, Palmerston's Kincardine Subdivision and the St. Thomas Division), fruit (Hamilton's Grimsby Subdivision), vegetables (from Bradford on the Allandale Division, Chatham on the St. Thomas Division and Woodstock on the London Division) or stone (Lindsay's Midland and Coboconk Subdivisions, for example).
All these trains--way freights, mixeds, Switchers, short hauls and manifests--fed cars into and ferried cars out of division point yards such as Allandale, North Bay, London, Mimico, Fort Erie, Stratford, Palmerston, Niagara Falls, Sarnia, Hamilton, Windsor, St. Thomas and Belleville. In October, we will take a look at the division point yards themselves, and examine the nuts and bolts of making up and breaking down freight trains.
Ian Wilson
September 25, 2001
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