Canadian Railroads > CN Supercontinental at Bells Junction, 1977

In digging out some negatives to scan, while I was at it I ran this one from April 23, 1977. It's #2, the Supercontinental, coming up to Bells Junction on the west side of Ottawa. FP9 6533, F9B 6619, and FP9 6506 are in charge of 7 cars at 0710, not far off the advertised; I almost got lucky, with a pure CN consist, but for the one VIA-painted car. The train is on the Beachburg Sub, and at the tail end you can see the plate girder bridge that carries those tracks over the old ROW of CP's Carleton Place Sub. The middle foreground rails are the modernized Carleton Place Sub, which were travelled daily by CP's Canadian, from the "new" Alta Vista station on CN rails. The two subs connect not far to the right of my vantage point, at Bells Junction. The immediate foreground tracks are the spur into Steenbakker's Lumber in Bells Corners. I'm not sure when this service ended; maybe moonlighter can fill us in. I moved from Ottawa in 1979. The negative is Tri-X (ASA 400), shot at 1/500 and f6, on my Pentax Spotmatic.
Fred



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/19 19:55 by feclark.

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I'm just grateful to have ridden the Canadian from Montreal!

feclark Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In digging out some negatives to scan, while I was
> at it I ran this one from April 23, 1977. It's #2,
> the Supercontinental, coming up to Bells Junction
> on the west side of Ottawa. FP9 6533, F9B 6619,
> and FP9 6506 are in charge of 7 cars at 0710, not
> far off the advertised; I almost got lucky, with a
> pure CN consist, but for the one VIA-painted car.

Great photo Fred, thanks for posting.

As of March 1977 this Super Continental would have been part of CN's newly renamed subsidiary called VIA Rail Canada, Inc. replacing VIACN which was launched in 1976.  VIACN was created by CN to re-banded its rail passenger services.  On April 1, 1978 VIA Rail Canada Inc. became its own Crown corporation and took over CN's intercity passenger train department and services.  This did not include commuter trains.   October 29, 1978 CP Rail's passenger department and equipment became part of VIA Rail Canada.

> The train is on the Beachburg Sub, and at the tail
> end you can see the plate girder bridge that
> carries those tracks over the old ROW of CP's
> Carleton Place Sub. The middle foreground rails
> are the modernized Carleton Place Sub, which were
> travelled daily by CP's Canadian, from the "new"
> Alta Vista station on CN rails.

The connection was opened to traffic on July 29, 1966.  The first time The Canadian used the connection, was on July 31, 1966, the day the new Ottawa Union Ststion opened..  Part of the opening of the new Ottawa Union Station included the relocating of CPR yard at Ottawa West to Walkley.  The Carleton Place sub from McRea Ave (Westboro) to Bell's Jct was abandoned on August 28, 1967.  Under the Ottawa Terminal agreement CPR would run their freight trains over the Chaudiere sub and connect to CN's Walkley Line to Wass Jct, joining CN's Beachburg sub to Bell's Jct where they connected back to the Carleton Place sub. 

On October 28-29, 1967 CPR's Ottawa West yard closed.  The CPR moved to CN's Walkley Yard (north side of the Walkley Line) while CN moved to the newly built yard south of the Walkley Line.  The CPR reached all their lines via the Ottawa Terminal.  

>The immediate foreground tracks
> are the spur into Steenbakker's Lumber in Bells
> Corners. I'm not sure when this service ended.

Steenbakker's Bells Corners site closed in 1990 but I don't know when they stopped using their spur.  Francon also had a siding the took cars the CP ran down from Bristol Mines, QC. but my guess that it was all gone by the mid-eighties.

The last scheduled "VIA era Super" over the Beachburg sub in Fred's photo would have been on October 28, 1978.  The last Super that operated over the line in Fred's photo was on October 31, 1978.  This was the train that had left Edmonton on the old schedule the evening of October 28, 1978.  By the time it reached Capreol it was not picking up passengers, only letting them off the train. 

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/19 16:07 by moonliter.

moonliter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> feclark Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > In digging out some negatives to scan, while I
> was
> > at it I ran this one from April 23, 1977. It's
> #2,
> > the Supercontinental, coming up to Bells
> Junction
> > on the west side of Ottawa. FP9 6533, F9B 6619,
> > and FP9 6506 are in charge of 7 cars at 0710,
> not
> > far off the advertised; I almost got lucky, with
> a
> > pure CN consist, but for the one VIA-painted
> car.
>
> Great photo Fred, thanks for posting.
>
> As of March 1977 this Super Continental would have
> been part of CN's newly renamed subsidiary called
> VIA Rail Canada, Inc. replacing VIACN which was
> launched in 1976.  VIACN was created by CN to
> re-banded its rail passenger services.  On April
> 1, 1978 VIA Rail Canada Inc. became its own Crown
> corporation and took over CN's intercity passenger
> train department and services.  This did not
> include commuter trains.   October 29, 1978 CP
> Rail's passenger department and equipment became
> part of VIA Rail Canada.
>
> > The train is on the Beachburg Sub, and at the
> tail
> > end you can see the plate girder bridge that
> > carries those tracks over the old ROW of CP's
> > Carleton Place Sub. The middle foreground rails
> > are the modernized Carleton Place Sub, which
> were
> > travelled daily by CP's Canadian, from the
> "new"
> > Alta Vista station on CN rails.
>
> The connection was opened to traffic on July 29,
> 1966.  The first time The Canadian used the
> connection, was on July 31, 1966, the day the new
> Ottawa Union Ststion opened..  Part of the
> opening of the new Ottawa Union Station included
> the relocating of CPR yard at Ottawa West to
> Walkley.  The Carleton Place sub from McRea Ave
> (Westboro) to Bell's Jct was abandoned on August
> 28, 1967.  Under the Ottawa Terminal agreement
> CPR would run their freight trains over the
> Chaudiere sub and connect to CN's Walkley Line to
> Wass Jct, joining CN's Beachburg sub to Bell's Jct
> where they connected back to the Carleton Place
> sub. 
>
> On October 28-29, 1967 CPR's Ottawa West yard
> closed.  The CPR moved to CN's Walkley Yard
> (north side of the Walkley Line) while CN moved to
> the newly built yard south of the Walkley Line. 
> The CPR reached all their lines via the Ottawa
> Terminal.  
>
> >The immediate foreground tracks
> > are the spur into Steenbakker's Lumber in Bells
> > Corners. I'm not sure when this service ended.
>
> Steenbakker's Bells Corners site closed in 1990
> but I don't know when they stopped using their
> spur.  Francon also had a siding the took cars
> the CP ran down from Bristol Mines, QC. but my
> guess that it was all gone by the mid-eighties.
>
> The last scheduled "VIA era Super" over the
> Beachburg sub in Fred's photo would have been on
> October 28, 1978.  The last Super that operated
> over the line in Fred's photo was on October 31,
> 1978.  This was the train that had left Edmonton
> on the old schedule the evening of October 28,
> 1978.  By the time it reached Capreol it was not
> picking up passengers, only letting them off the
> train. 
>
> Gerry Gaugl
> Ottawa ON

Great additions and clarifications, Gerry.
Fred