Of Railways and Streetcars

Of Railways and Streetcars

Bernie was kind enough to send along a few more images from yesterday's WDWD maintenance session.

Lots of planning & planking & 'measuring two times' and 'cutting once' took place!  👍👍 

All our workers still have all of their digits firmly in place on their hands!  😵

This is the general neighbourhood where we were working yesterday...the location of the Fallentree Mine up above the passing train on the escarpment.

Of course, the mine had to be removed temporarily and all of the tracks lifted leading into the mine and over to the main line leading into Nelson Yard on the upper level.

Here is the general area from a different angle.

Bill & Bernie cut out all of the trackage leading off the main into Nelson Yard as well as the trackage trailing off to the right of the image which would lead onto the Lawrence Watkins Trestle...as shown by the yellow arrow.

As mentioned before, the Fallentree Mine was removed to enable all this work to be accomplished and the two spurs leading into the mine were temporarily removed as well.

The subroadbed timbers were rotten and required replacement.

Chris joined in and lent Bill & Bernie a hand.

I was able to give an assist as well...although I was occupied with other chores on this morning.

Henk lent a hand as well.

Our workbench over in Craig Leigh comes in handy.

Looking good there lads!

While all of us no doubt will have a few aches & pains today, this kind of work keeps the body moving...leading to great longevity!  

(Google "The Blue Zones!)

In my role as "Company Photographer" I am able to snap the maintenance crew in action each Wednesday morning!

My job was to replace the trackwork which is a tad tricky as there are tolerances in laying a few sections of track to meet two already existing ends...but I got the job done...under the surveillance of Foreman Scobie!  Heh heh!

I just received a lovely email from Mark Shumelda sharing the CTV news segment of Ottawa's very own Streetcar 696 now finding a new home at the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario.

Photo courtesy of the Ottawa Citizen/Rheaume Laplante

A number of fellows from my old HO scale operating group have devoted countless hours in the refurbishment of this wonderful specimen...even though many thousands of hours are still required.

Photo courtesy of the CBC.

Here are a few photo snippits from the news feed with Patricia Boal hosting the newscast.

Indeed, the streetcar was trucked from its home in Ottawa down to Smiths Falls.

Arriving the museum grounds.

The Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario is housed in the town's restored 1912 Canadian Northern Railway Station - now designated a National Historic Site.

Smiths Falls is a beautiful town of about 11 000 people located on the historic Rideau Canal system.

Many years ago when the car underwent its initial phases of refurbishment it was housed in a back shop of the OCTranspo facility at the corner of Industrial Road and St. Laurent Blvd.

Many OCTranspo employees with skills such as sheet metal working and general carpentry, when finished their regular shift at OCTranspo would then head over to the barn and devote many volunteer hours on the streetcar before heading home.

Many OC workers also volunteered their time on specific evenings and weekends as well.

Now the folks at the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario can lend a hand along with the original staff to bring the process to completion.

I recall during one of the number of evenings work was going on, I headed over to the OC barn to find the group working on one of the trucks of the streetcar.

Indeed...she's a heavy puppy!

My research tells me that streetcar 696 was built in 1917 and is the last surviving 600-series streetcar from Ottawa's electric rail era.

Streetcars ran in Ottawa from 1891 until 1959.

The car was originally built by the Ottawa Car Company and carried passengers between Rockcliffe Park and Britannia until its retirement in 1959.

The refurbishment has been decades in the making thus far!

Becky Allen from the museum is thrilled to have this gorgeous piece of history in the collection.

Smiles abound with the museum volunteers.

A number of our local OVAR members have dedicated a tremendous amount of time refurbishing many of the museum's railway heritage items.

In the past I have supported the project by purchasing a variety of items including this print of a painting done by local artist and live steamer Peter Cunningham.

I have also bought this wonderful book on the history of streetcars in Ottawa as authored by Bill McKeown.

I was also tasked with interviewing a number of the streetcar operators who were well up in years.

That was many years ago and I would imaging most, if not all, have passed away by now.

The purchase of this golf shirt in my closet also helped aid in the project's fundraising.

Lovely.

Bill McKeown's book contains many b&w images as well as a number of coloured photographs from the past.

In the above image we are one block west of Holland Junction with a 600-series streetcar on the right approaching the stop at Harmer Avenue on the Britannia Line on May 15th, 1951.

Image courtesy of CRHA Archives, fonds William H. Bailey

Streetcar 825 has run through the countryside from Britannia Village and is coming to a stop at Richmond Road nearby the Richardsons Crossing 'materials and reclamation' yard on September 15th, 1956.

Image courtesy of Bill Volkmer.

On May 14th 1951, car 669 is Britannia-bound at the Woodroffe Avenue stop.

Image courtesy of CRHA Archives, fonds William H. Bailey.

It's the 'dead of winter' as car 800 waits at the Britannia Loop.

Image courtesy of R.J. Sandusky

To view the newscast segment, simply copy and paste the link below into your computer's browser.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/ottawas-historic-streetcar-696-relocated-and-viewable-by-the-public/

Well that's all from me for now!

Thanks to Bernie for the great pics from yesterday's work session and thanks to Mark for the link to the CTV newscast on our city's beloved 696 streetcar.

And, a great deal of thanks goes out to Padre Frederick for hosting us as he always does!

For the time being we will continue to operate without cars visiting the Fallentree Mine and the facilities at Lilly for the next few ops sessions.

Rest assured, the work will get done and the railway will keep all of its customers happy!

We are the WDWD crew of the OVGRS based in Canada's National Capital.