Canadian Railroads > CN RDC/Railiner on a Sunday at Brockville, 1976

This is a delayed response to a great post by Ray Murphy from February 3, at https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,4725135. The subject was a pair of RDC trains, one on CN, the other on CP, captured in beautiful B&W shots you should check out if you never saw them at the time. I found the CN train fascinating, because it told me what I had seen that same summer of 1976, without knowing what it was. That post also has passenger timetables posted up by ghCBNS, and they are an invaluable contribution to sorting things out. I was new to railfanning, having gotten my Pentax Spotmatic in May 1976. I'd been working as a counsellor at a summer camp north of Toronto, and was returning to Ottawa on train #46, The Exec (I was no executive, believe me).
1. As we pulled in to Brockville (time not noted by me in my records, but timetabled at 1946), I saw CN RDC-1 6106 out the window, on the pocket track on the north side of the station. I took a shot through the window (no polarizing filter, less than pristine windows); the recently-ended summer cloudburst has left its evidence.
2. We drew past and came to a stop, and a number of people de-trained and headed over to CN #654 (CN's RDC or Railiner trains were 600-series), a connection headed for Montreal, due out at 2030. The storm clouds are beginning to break up; I could have held this post for a Miserable Monday (especially as arwye keeps posting up the CP Dayliner between Calgary and Edmonton), but this was in fact a Sunday, so it seems appropriate today. Given Ray's photo was of an afternoon train, that was probably #657, not #55 as Ray had surmised, laying over at Brockville for 2 hours and 10 minutes before the return trip. Again, thanks to ghCBNS for holding on to those schedules (moonlighter is another TO member who does this well), so we could all be enlightened.
Fred



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/19 11:12 by feclark.

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The 2nd photo, I belive that is paved over now, with parking facing the houses. 

Definitely like your RDC photos.
Thanks for posting.
ALLEN

Great post, thanks to both Ray and Fred, I too learned something new. 
I (also a non-Exec) did see the RDCs once while riding the "Exec" from Toronto, back home to Ottawa.  At the time I did not know what train it was or where it came from.  Being a student and pressed for time I more often than not, rode the Cavalier to and from Toronto, thus missing the scene in Fred's photo.  This maximized my time in the big city, by arriving early Saturday morning and leaving late Sunday night.

I have included a photo of the north pocket track that Fred mentions in his post.  The RDCs would have been sitting east of the smaller grey building in the background.  At this point of time CN-CP Telecommunications occupied the space in the small building.

Photo 1:
The north side of Brockville, ON station.  This time it is VIA No.43 from Ottawa occupying the track.  August 19, 1978.

Photo 2:
This is the how the scene would have appeared should one would have walked by the day Fred's train arrived in Brockville.  The RDCs would have been parked where VIA No.44 sits in this photo. (train on the right) and Fred's train would have sitting where VIA No.54 is in this image.(train on the left)  April 1982 Brockville, ON

Photo 3:
The tracks where the RDCs sat (north of the station) are gone but a new track was added to the south side of the station.  VIA No.47 is just arriving in Brockville from Ottawa on this new track.  Fred's train would have been on the middle track in this image.  The grey building is gone replaced with the glass shelter. The station in Photo 1 has been encased in brick so the walls are about 4 inches thicker than they were in Photo 1.               Feb 7, 2019 Brockville, ON

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON
 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/19 07:31 by moonliter.

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Photo 4:
This is how the parking lot looks since the north tracks were removed.  The small grey building is where the glass shelter in Photo 3 sits now, the station before it was encased in brick and the microwave tower has since been removed. VIA No.60 is on the same track that Fred's train was the day he photgraphed the RDCs.      Brockville, ON  February 20, 2011

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/19 07:34 by moonliter.

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Fred & Gerry -  +1 for all of the interesting photos and information about the CN/VIA passenger operations at Brockville.

Ray

I last past through Brockville in 20111. The depot still had the mural on the outside. Now they seem to have rebuilt it with an exterior brick appearance. I prefer the exterior the way it was before. Now it looks dreary and old.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> I last past through Brockville in 20111. The depot
> still had the mural on the outside. Now they seem
> to have rebuilt it with an exterior brick
> appearance. I prefer the exterior the way it was
> before. Now it looks dreary and old.

The brickwork replaced old wood clapboard siding and the mural is still there:

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