Introducing Steam Through London |
JUNE 2002
This month’s topic, which showcases some of the highlights of our next book, may as well be titled "Onto the Mainline". Predecessor volumes described the branchline and secondary mainline activities at CNR Southern Ontario division points Allandale, Stratford and Palmerston. "Steam Through London" will marshal the consists of all those Ten Wheeler-, Pacific- and Consolidation-powered mixed trains, way freights and short hauls, and put them behind Northerns and other heavy eight-coupled power on double-tracked mainline. While on the light single-track we explored short passenger trains puttering about a myriad of rural stations, now we will witness a parade of name trains whose head end cars alone outnumber the consists of their branchline cousins."Steam Through London" will largely tell the story of late steam era operations on the CNR mainline corridors from Bayview (through London) to Sarnia and Windsor. However, there will be a hearty dose of branchline activity along the Exeter Subdivision from Hyde Park to Clinton, and spurs to Hickson, Petrolia and Alvinston. Motive power will be the widest possible range offered by the CNR of 1954: from light 0-6-0s (next to useless in large yards, but able to earn their keep on spindly spurs) to 4-8-4s. The Moguls, Ten Wheelers, Pacifics, Mikes and Consols, familiar to the Allandale, Stratford and Palmerston environs, will be represented, and even a Montreal suburban tank engine will stroll onto the London stage. Most significantly, the early vestiges of dieselisation in June 1954, in the form of cab units and yard switchers, will be featured.
Where previous books have described microcosms of larger operations, "Steam Through London" will shake out the operational mysteries of the big picture: perishables and other hot traffic being hustled between Chicago and the Eastern Seaboard via the CNR mainline; routing of freight between CNR manifests and those of the Lehigh Valley, New York Central, Erie, Pennsylvania, Wabash and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western; the transfer and forwarding of less-than-carload traffic over a network of railway lines which connected thousands of combination freight-and-passenger stations with big city terminals across North America; the servicing and turnaround of steam locomotives from power pools at Toronto, Mimico, London, Sarnia, Niagara Falls and Fort Erie; the procession of name trains such as the Inter City Limited, La Salle, International Limited, and Maple Leaf hustling passengers, mail and express to and from international connections; and the early imposition of internal combustion power on manifest freights and yard operations.
Through correspondence from hundreds of readers over the past few years, I have gained an understanding of what you are appreciating in the series of books, and what you would like to see enlarged upon. The track maps, locomotive rosters, train profiles, time tables, description of day-to-day operations, and dramatic steam era photographs will return with a flurry. Expanded will be the coverage of the larger environment "down by the tracks": the coal yards, industries, station platforms, roundhouses, freight sheds and the like. "Steam Through London" will be laden with pictorial goodies ranging from loading of sugar beets in autumn at Centralia to Northerns coaling in a matter of seconds under the concrete dock at Paris Junction; from freight truckers muscling l.c.l. packages into boxcars to the night time repose of locomotives at Windsor in front of a glowing Detroit skyline; from doodlebugs slithering along a grassy branchline to doubleheaded freights thundering up the Niagara Escarpment at Dundas.
With "Steam Through London" scheduled for release at the Copetown Show in February 2003, we are hereby tabling our pre-publication offer. New with the issuing of the London book will be the first-in-first-out practise for shipping of books: all books, to individuals and dealers alike, will be delivered in order of receipt of payment. Buy now and be among the first to receive your copy! Also new is our ability to process credit cards for existing books; see the order form for details. Finally, while previous press runs were either 3000 or 3500 books, only 2000 copies of "Steam Through London" will be printed. Based upon the patterns established by the Allandale, Stratford and Palmerston books, the London volume will be out of print roughly six months from date of release. Pre-ordering is the only guaranteed means of receiving a copy. On to London, then!
Ian Wilson
June 4, 2002
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