Canadian Railroads > MLW Monday - CN RSC-14 Switching Charlottetown

A couple of weeks ago I posted the arrival of CN train #554 from Borden to Charlottetown, at https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,6143258. After its arrival on the morning of June 27, 1983, RSC-14 1753 shuttled around with various switching tasks that I was able to follow on foot. So much has changed in the years since I was there that the Google Satellite image doesn't have markers I can connect. Of course, the rails are all lifted. This might be to the west and south of Prince Street and King Street, but I can't be sure. In the left background, you can make out two lines of bunting supported by a mast; this is the Royal Yacht Britannia, which had arrived earlier to deliver Prince Charles and Lady Diana for a state visit. Which to follow: Royals or MLWs? The choice was easy.
Fred

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Hi Fred,
Great shot as usual, of long ago and faraway scenes. I found this link to a PEI Historical GIS database which is very helpful in trying to determine where your shot was taken. Here's the link I followed, to access the 1968 airphoto: GeoPEI
I took a screen shot and marked in red where I believe your photo was taken, given the curvature of the spurs, the building in the near background and the Royal yacht moored in the far background it seems to make sense. Cheers, David
 

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Around 1977 I ran into a CN employee at Edmundston, NB who raved about his recent visit to "Pee yee eye," which I had never heard of. I was in NB looking for CN Big M's and had not yet learned to appreciate the charms of branch lines. Now I wish I had taken his advice. I sort of made up for it when I took a bike tour of the island around Y2k, much of which used the former rail beds. I did enjoy seeing the former shops at Charlottetown and the station and short train preserved at Kensington, but now I really appreciate seeing photos of the operation.

Langleyrailfan Wrote:
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> Hi Fred,
> Great shot as usual, of long ago and faraway
> scenes. I found this link to a PEI Historical GIS
> database which is very helpful in trying to
> determine where your shot was taken. Here's the
> link I followed, to access the 1968
> airphoto: GeoPEI
> I took a screen shot and marked in red where I
> believe your photo was taken, given the curvature
> of the spurs, the building in the near background
> and the Royal yacht moored in the far background
> it seems to make sense. Cheers, David
>

Thanks, David, and thanks also for your brilliant contribution. You have completely nailed the location; I have some other shots queued up from this time, one looking behind me and you see the very distinctive shop building. This is perfect and leaves no doubt. I'll dribble it out next Monday.
Fred  

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Around 1977 I ran into a CN employee at
> Edmundston, NB who raved about his recent visit to
> "Pee yee eye," which I had never heard of. I was
> in NB looking for CN Big M's and had not yet
> learned to appreciate the charms of branch lines.
> Now I wish I had taken his advice. I sort of made
> up for it when I took a bike tour of the island
> around Y2k, much of which used the former rail
> beds. I did enjoy seeing the former shops at
> Charlottetown and the station and short train
> preserved at Kensington, but now I really
> appreciate seeing photos of the operation.

In my off days on land, I did have a rental car on a Sunday, with no trains running to shoot. So I made an effort to get some of the stations, which I'll have to scan and post. Kensington was gorgeous, maybe the most striking one I saw.
Fred

Great photo Fred.  

I never had time to chase trains.  I did rid with trains on the CN ferry but it was the night crossing.  Visit a few places when I had time time and managed to find a few stations before all the tracks were gone.  On my last visit I did have lunch in the car shop (shown in your aerial photo, the long building on Prince Street, to right of your red arrowhead) but no train passed while was there.  LOL

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

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