The Kawartha Voyageur and Don McQueen

 Mike Meets Author Don McQueen While Following the Kawartha Voyageur

While I know that this is not a railroad story, it does have a railroad connection!  

This morning while Lisa and I were following the Kawartha Voyageur on the first morning of its five day transit of the Rideau River system I unexpectedly met renowned Railroad historian and author, Don McQueen who was traveling aboard the vessel.  You'll find him near the end of this posting.

This opening image is of the vessel approaching the Long Island locks with the bow pulled into its upright position to effectively shorten the length of the ship to allow clearance within the confines of each lock.  The ship's full length is 120 feet while the lock chambers are 108 feet long.

(Click on any image to enlarge and click outside the image to return to the default look of the page.)

In this photo from the night before in Ottawa at the Hartwell Locks the bow is down.  The total height of the vessel is 34 feet while the bridge clearances along the route are only 22 feet.  To accommodate this discrepancy, the bridge collapses as does the canopy awning.

The simple, yet brilliant machinery involved in the process of opening and closing the lock doors is found at Hartwell and all other locks along the system.

Hartwell Locks.

The water cascades in.

Video footage of the arrival at Long Island locks.

(To view the video, click on the white arrow in the centre two times...once, then again.)

Back to Long Island.  Passengers have the option to remain aboard the vessel as it climbs the lock system or head onto terra firma for a walkabout.

I presume hydraulics are involved in maneuvering the bow, the bridge and canopy awning.

Very interesting appearance.

Such a great summer job for these young folks.

Their mates across the way.

Careful navigation of the lock as captured on video.

Getting tucked in.

The bridge.

 The summer employees "doing their thing" for a successful transit of the locks as found on video.

Video taken of the vessel moving from one lock to the next.

 Side-on video of the vessel's passage.

Video of the closing of the lock's doors.

 A single summer employee captured on video swinging the entire road bridge!

 Swing bridge video continued.

Video footage of that young summer employee and my puppy dog, Lilly!

The final lock at Long Island preserved in video format.

Here's Don McQueen!

Such a wonderful human being who is a great ambassador to the hobby.

Image I took with my camera of the incredible eight book series Don has authored where our good friend, Ian Cranstone, had a hand in developing.

Video of a message from Don McQueen to Ottawa's railroad community.

To learn more about the books Don has authored, copy and paste the link below into your computer's browser.

http

s://49thshelf.com/ContributorsMcQueen-Donal-R

Safely through the set of locks.

We traveled a few miles south, parked the vehicle and walked atop the road and pedestrian bridge leading into Manotick.

The passage of the vessel beneath the road bridge in Manotick as captured on video.  Notice how the bridge has been collapsed while the captain's head and his vantage point rises above!

These remaining images were taken in the summer of 2016 when our family headed down to the Rideau Canal in the heart of Ottawa.  Here you can see the bridge of the ship and canopy collapsed to navigate below the Corktown Footridge.  Our daughters, Karen and Alison are the two folks you see up on the footbridge.

Heading beneath The Queensway.

Impressive.

Such an amazing feat of engineering!

Beneath the raised Pretoria Bridge.

Southward bound...

...and on their way! 

To view a two minute informative video about the vessel itself, copy and paste the link below into your computer's browser.

https://ontariowaterwaycruises.com/about-us/the-ship/

When Malcolm shared this blog entry with the members of Bytown, David Jeanes responded with this lovely image with a wonderful family memory.

My Dad didn't make that many trips but he did Kingston to Ottawa numerous times, as well as all the other itineraries operated by the Kawartha Voyager. Here he is on the foredeck in May 2009. His last trip with my mother was in 2007. If he was still alive, (he died in 2014), he would have racked up a lot more trips. I think he started his trips when it was quite new.

Later, David sent me this image of the crew and invited me to share it with you.

They used to hand over the microphone to my father to do some colour commentary as the Kawartha Voyager arrived in Ottawa, so as we were waiting, we heard his voice as they came under the Mackenzie King Bridge. I also have a picture of the entire crew, if you would like.

Thank you for checking in on this most unusual blog entry.  It will be back to train operations next posting!

All the best, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada