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History

Branchline Articles

Dec 2005

Branchline - December 2005, Volume 44, Number 11

A New Home for a Street Railway Relic

By: Chris Granger

The morning of May 17, 2005 started out quite busy for me. I had just moved my family to a new home, waiting for the heating duct installers to arrive and preparing my visuals for a railway presentation I was to give for my son’s class the following day. In the back of my mind, I was thinking about making time to get to the local music store to buy Def Leppard’s new CD and it was laundry day as well. Anyone knowing about these events in my life that were occurring could forgive me for forgetting one other item that was scheduled for the day, the relocation of the only preserved rolling stock in Cornwall, Ontario. It seemed quite fitting that Cornwall Street Railway 17 was being moved on the 17^th.

No. 17 was originally built by Baldwin-Westinghouse in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in August of 1930 and was sent to the Salt Lake & Utah Railroad in Utah being numbered 106. It was an electric freight motor with a steeple cab, Class S, and was built as a 63-Ton locomotive. In July of 1946, the engine was sold to the Grand River Railway in southern Ontario and was renumbered to 230. While in their possession, it was rebuilt in 1953 as an 82-Ton engine, becoming a more powerful loco. She stayed there until November of 1962 when it was purchased by the Cornwall Street Railway, Light & Power Company and was renumbered once more to 17.

Back in those days, the City of Cornwall was proud of having its own railway. The company would move freight cars to and from city businesses that were left in the yards of Canadian National Railways, Canadian Pacific Railway and, up until 1957, New York Central System. The company was known to have built spur lines right to the delivery door of any business in the city that wished to have rail service. Through the years, this meant that the small community had an elaborate internal rail system. Passenger service had begun immediately in 1896 but the street cars were retired in 1949 in favour of electric and diesel powered buses. Freight service was not started until 1898, but continued to be the street railway’s specialty right up until they closed operations. After being reorganized in 1902, the company got into the business of supplying electricity to the town as well.

After 85 years in the street rail business, Cornwall Street Ry wanted to focus solely on being a provider of electricity. At first, CP had purchased an interest in the company in 1969 but then sold that to CN a year later. On April 1, 1971, the electric lines and equipment were sold to CN, whom hastily plastered their logo over the CSR logos and once they were able to modify some S-4 switchers, the electric railway was closed up on August 7^th. Cornwall Street Railway went into history that day as the last electrically operated freight railway in Canada. CN held a retirement parade for the equipment on October 9^th, running from the car barns on Water Street (where the Cornwall Square is today) to Cumberland, and then eastward to the former CN freight and station yard, present site of Canadian Tire. That weekend, former CSR 7, the second to bare that number and the only one that was not painted in the CSR scheme (remaining in Springfield Terminal Railway colours), gave a free ride to people from the yard westwards to the Brookdale Mall and eastwards down the Courtaulds Ltd. line to the Eastcourt Mall.

After that weekend, the equipment was boarded up and prepared to be transported to their future fate. Cornwall Street Railway, Light & Power Company continued to exist to provide electric power to the city, but in 1972 was renamed to Cornwall Electric and is still Cornwall’s supplier. CN removed all the overhead wires and the only rails that remained on the streets was from the corner of Ninth and Cumberland Streets southwards to Seventh Street where it went westwards, ending at the west end of an industry at that corner. All other lines that were in the west end of the city and the Courtaulds Line were now CN spurs. As for the former CSR equipment, CN inherited eleven freight motors (#s 6 - 12 and 14 - 17) as well as maintenance cars #4 and #5, plow #3152, and snow sweepers B-1 and B-2, a total of sixteen electrically powered street railway equipment. Most of the CSR equipment was scrapped in 1973 in Longueuil, Quebec, but luckily some were saved from the junk pile and were donated to museums.

#11 (the second to have that number) was donated to the Ohio Railway Museum in Worthington, Ohio where it was restored as Youngstown & Ohio River Railroad #7, a former identity it had before going to Cornwall. The second #12 as well as plow 3152 went to the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, Connecticut. #14 also went south of the border to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. #16 remained in Canada, going to the Halton County Radial Railway Museum in Milton, Ontario, restored as Lake Erie & Northern Railway #335. B-1 stayed in Canada as well, currently over at Canada’s Science & Technology Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, but B-2 went to the United States at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine. CN donated to the City of Cornwall #17 as well as maintenance car #4 in memory of their street railway.

To add further to the disposition list, there are other former CSR equipment that survives today from before CN’s acquisition of the Cornwall operation. The first #7 was given to Courtaulds Ltd. in 1946 to replace a previous engine CSR had given them. Courtaulds’ rails were so complex that it use to take CSR all day to switch cars there, hence the reason for giving them their own locomotive. Courtaulds 7 remained with the company until they donated it in 1959 to the Canadian Railway Museum in Delson, Quebec, where it is on display. The first #9 was sold to A.A. Merrilees in 1952, whom converted it to diesel-electric power. It was then sold to Bienfait as #3070 in 1952 then to Manalta Coal 3070 in January of 1978. Sometime between then and 2001, it was renumbered to 1 and it was donated to the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta for a display. #26, the second motor Cornwall Street Ry had purchased, was the first loco that was given to Courtaulds back in 1932. After they received the first CSR #7, they donated #26 to the Rockhill Trolley Museum in 1946, then it ended up in Topton, Pennsylvania in 1986. Sometime in the 1990s, the Electric City Trolley Museum in Topton gained possession of this loco where it remains today.

While rest of Cornwall Street Railway equipment were shipped out to be scrapped or donated, motor car 17 and maintenance car 4 (formally street car #31) were left in the yard for a time before they were moved to some storage track in Cornwall’s industrial west end, specifically a siding that was situated between Second and Seventh Streets that was once used for Domtar Fine Papers and close to the city bus garage. They sat there for a number of years before a decision was made about what the City of Cornwall could do with them. 17 was selected to be placed in front of the Water Purification Plant, along side former street railway trackage that CN was using, while 4 was to go in front of the entrance to the R.H. Saunders Generation Station. Both pieces of equipment were not in the best of conditions due to being left out in the elements. 4 was in such bad shape that it was deemed to be too expensive for restoration. Recently rediscovered plans had suggested that there were two proposals for car 4. One was to restore it as a maintenance car, while the other suggested restoring it back to street car 31. Despite the imagination, the city budget could not afford to restore both pieces so maintenance car 4 was quietly scrapped while restoration focussed on 17.

When it was in service in Cornwall, freight motor 17 had worn two different paint schemes and bore two company names. Those involved in the restoration needed to decide what colours it should be painted in and what logo was to be placed on it. The logo was simple enough, to maintain the Cornwall identity, but the colours were another story. Although the loco was in the CSR scheme with caution strips in the front and back, those involved with the restoration felt it best to eliminate those and proceed to paint the entire engine body in maroon with cream, the roof and underbody would be black and the railings and trim would be in yellow while the builder plate was painted in bronze, the caution strips were only painted on halfway up the body. In August of 1981, two cranes from MacGregor Construction gently placed 17 on a small section of trackage in front of the Water Purification Plant. The City of Cornwall, Cornwall Electric, the Chamber of Commerce and the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Historical Society all had a hand in the project and placed a plaque beside the display to provide a brief history of the Cornwall Street Railway and the background of 17.

Since being on display, CSR 17 received little to no attention at all. It seemed through the years that the City and public officials had forgotten all about their railway heritage. Only those workers at the Water Purification Plant and Cornwall Transit, whom share the same driveway, seen the engine on a regular basis. The former CN caboose 79095 had more attention being at the Wood House Museum just down the street. To make matters worse, the 1990s were not at all kind to 17. The paint of her had faded terribly and the CSR logos were cracked and broken. A former street railway employee took it upon himself to give the locomotive a new paint job and was able to get Cornwall Electric, in its final years as a publically owned utility, to make four new plastic logos. It was a big effort for a retired man to do. Then came the vandals that stolen pieces off the locomotive as well as busted out every window. Vandalism was actually a rare occurrence until the day the media began to speak up about the loco’s fate in 2004.

Months after 17 was put on display in 1981, my family moved back to Cornwall and I was four blocks away from it. Throughout the 80s, my friends and I played in the former New York Central switch yard, along the active CN spur as well as on CSR 17. We never once vandalized the motor car because to us it was our biggest toy train. We use to wave to the CN shunting crews that would pass, ring the bell with an old tie spike and even tried to peek into the second floor of the business across the street. When the 1990s started, we changed. Some of us moved away, but the rest of us had gained a new interest that rivalled our rail fanning, girlfriends. Basically, we grew up, married and moved out of the area to start our own families. When my son was old enough, I brought him to CSR 17 and was surprised to see how much had changed, the most notable was the plywood over the windows. Seeing it in such a state as well as taking note of what railway heritage the City still had, I began to get involved with groups that would be able to help fix this situation.

Fast forward now to 2004. I have been a member of Heritage Cornwall for four years and we brain stormed about what properties we wanted to see designate under the Ontario Heritage Act. I had failed to get the former NYC station site on the list as well as the their former hotel for moral reasons (it’s a strip club today). I brought forth a couple of ideas, but everyone had a pet project that was more important. Then I realized the potential to get CSR 17 designated and my proposal was backed wholly by the committee so I set to work on a Heritage Statement. There was just one obstacle and that was the Act itself, stating that we could not designate a movable object. After a meeting with Heather Thompson from the Ministry of Culture, a solution was presented by means of designating the land that 17 was sitting on and in the reasons for designation, state the locomotive itself. On the day we were to present to Cornwall City Council our proposal, we were told that the motor car needed to be relocated due to an expansion of the Water Purification Plant.

A focus group was hastily put together, made up of members from City Council, SD&G Historical Society, the Waterfront Committee and Heritage Cornwall. Our committee had previously agreed with the manager of the Water Purification Plant, about where 17 should be relocated, the corner of Brookdale Avenue and Ninth Street West, but the other members of the focus group all had their own ideas. By the end of the session, we agreed to present City Council a list of six locations from most favourable to least favourable, our suggested site was in fifth place. Personally, I had felt defeated because it seemed like everyone wanted to make Lamoureux Park a dumping ground for "eventful" items, which to me is not right as the park is full and needs to keep the remaining green spaces. A surprise turn of events perked me up when City Council voted to move the motor car to Brookdale & Ninth due to financial reasoning. I do not even think they realized that Ninth Street between Brookdale and Cumberland Street was built on the former CN and CSR right of ways.

The end of April 2005 came and plans for the move were in their final stages. Then came a bombshell. A member of council was fighting back to have 17 moved to Lamoureux Park, planning to use whatever means within their power to move it there. This was nothing new for us Cornwallites. We vote our councillors and mayors into power and there is always someone that tries to use their power to push their own agendas through, but thankfully these moves rarely get. Thankfully, this was the case here. The move for the motor car was rescheduled and everyone involved was ready, especially the building contractors that were waiting to have the land to make the expansion of the plant. The date of May 12^th was set, but cancelled due to lack of equipment. The 17^th was then chosen, which was an appropriate date for motor car 17.

Rain was called for through the day, but they never appeared thankfully. By the time the plant manager had called me at 8:30 a.m. to say the move was happening, the sun had come out and the clouds were floating away. When I arrived at the 1981 site, it must have been nostalgia for Cornwallites whom where present for the first display. Once again, two MacGregor Construction cranes were utilized to lift the body onto a float followed by the placement of the two trucks on the second float. The operators were very skilled as the motor car was lifted and swung onto the transport in single fluid motion. They made it look so easy.

I rushed to the Brookdale/Ninth location and awaited the arrival of the street motor. Ten minutes after I arrived, the trucks pulled in and far behind was the body travelling up Brookdale with motorists looking on, wondering what was going on. The new site was all prepared with rails provided by CN, whom were to take possession of the rail from the original site.

By the time it was high noon, the move was completed by the MacGregor cranes. Cornwall Street Railway 17 was now at its new home, a site where she will be seen far better than its previous place. It is an open area, very close to the intersection so motorists will see it and, with the Ontario Travel Bureau building just to the south, tourists getting information, pamphlets and maps will see the locomotive first hand. I am sure that anyone who gets a chance to see where the locomotive sits now will agree that this new site was perfect and better than its previous setting.

There is no question that once everything has settled down from the move that Cornwall Street Railway 17 will go through a revitalization project later this year. Plans are already in the works to repaint the locomotive properly, to replace the long removed windows and the stolen CSR logos, but that is not all. The original plaque that was at the Second Street location is to be incorporated into a new, larger plaque that will feature photographs as well as a bench or picnic table. I was recently in Farnham, Quebec and that town’s efforts to preserve Canadian Pacific’s #4723 and a caboose has given me a few ideas that could possibly be used at 17's site. Along with those ideas, Heritage Cornwall has submitted proposals to acquire overhead wires and poles to show realism to the generations that had never seen how the street railway locomotives would look when they were in service.

It will be an uphill battle and likely slow going, but support to save and continue preservation of Cornwall’s last electric motor that was left to the city has grow slowly since the media first mentioned that it needed to be relocated.

Sources:

Canadian Trackside Guide 2004 Edition, published by the Bytown Railway Society (2004)

Cornwall Electric: 100 Years of Service by Karen Carter-Edwards (1987)

Cornwall Street Railway, Light & Power Company web site

Heritage Cornwall files