Canadian Railroads > MLW Monday - Cornwall Switcher Through Dorval

From May 8, 1985, this is #55, the Cornwall Switcher, unhappily for me with C-424 4214 running long hood forward. At least it's shiny and clean, with five cars plus the van at 1142. This is a tad east of Dorval at a little "station" where you could drop down to track level from a pedestrian overpass. Someone will know what it's called; it was sure handy. This was my first and only day spent at Dorval; I was there 0800-1900 and in 11 hours shot 55 movements, which was a few more than I'd have gotten if I'd stayed home in Ottawa.
Fred

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Awesome! This is actually Lachine, just east of Dorval.

Michael

LACHINE, as it says on the LACHINE station signboard in my possession!

The train was always known as the "Cornwall Swing", not the Cornwall Switcher. The unit always ran backwards on the westward trip to Cornwall because there were no turning facilities there.

The station is indeed old Lachine. The name Lachine has since been moved to old Grovehill station a short distance west. But at the time of your your photo both Lachine and Grovehill were there.

Ken Goslett



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/18 11:35 by kgmontreal.

kgmontreal Wrote:
\
>
> The station is indeed old Lachine. The name
> Lachine has since been moved to old Grovehill
> station a short distance west. But at the time of
> your your photo both Lachine and Grovehill were
> there.
>
> Ken Goslett

A little clarification if I may. This Lachine "station" was closed on October 1, 1982. I was the last person to board and the last person to leave a train at this station on September 30th. The next morning the revamped commuter line operated under the STCUM and this stop was eliminated. As KG states the Grovehill station became Lachine!

4489 Wrote:
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> LACHINE, as it says on the LACHINE station
> signboard in my possession!

I spent many hours at this Lachine station in the 1960's. City bus service came within walking distance.

The Lachine station name sign had been somewhere else, there was an S gradually showing through beneath the L. Sortin perhaps?

Sortin was the steam era classification yard which Cote St.Luc replaced in the 1950's. There is also the Wentworth Golf Course in the area, which I believe was once a CP club. By the 1960's, Sortin was used to store old equipment and not much else.

I do recall there was a small shelter beside the main line that had once been a passenger shelter. It was a structure I now wish I had taken a picture of. It was a variant of the CPR "Portable" wooden station which was designed to fit on a 40 foot flat car. There were many variants of this building, usually as a section house, sometimes as a small station but this variant included an open shelter at one end, and an enclosed waiting room with a stove at the other. Sortin was the only one I recall between Montreal and Vaudreuil, however there were a couple more on the line to Rigaud. I even recall having a university chum who lived along the line at "Dragon", and she described how the waiting passengers would ensure a warm fire in the waiting room.

I have seen a CP standard building plan book which describes how to build a portable station, and one of the plans was for the "passenger shelter" variant.

I've heard of them used where there were RPO's in service, as a shelter for the post office staff picking up or dispatching mail from a nearby mail crane.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/18 09:22 by eminence_grise.